Industry leaders from across the Middle East discussed secrets of innovation and challenges to entrepreneurship on the final day of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit 2012.
The Jordanian founder and CEO of Aramex, Fadi Ghandour, talked about the need to support entrepreneurs in the UAE and the key factors it takes to stimulate young people to be motivated enough to start up their own businesses.“If we are talking about national wellbeing, we are talking about jobs and the power of entrepreneurship to create new wealth,” he said.He pointed out that there is real motivation in the Arab world, with 26 per cent of Arab youth wanting to start their own businesses, compared to just 4 per cent in the US. However, he said, the education system is failing would-be entrepreneurs and must be improved.
Giving highlights from a special report on the Millennial Generation and Youth in the Middle East, Antonio Campo Dall’Orto, of Viacom International Media Networks, summarised the key characteristics and insights from 10 major US and global research studies conducted between 2009 and 2011.A session entitled ‘New Waves’, a series of presentations, took a look at online businesses thriving in the Middle East.
“Innovation is a trial and error process,” said Ihsan Jawad, founder of Zawya. “Failure is inevitable. Failure is necessary sometimes and be celebrated. If you want to be an innovator you have to fail fast and learn from some of your failures.”Speakers then went on to discuss the three characteristics of innovative start-ups that succeed. Training, inspiration and experience were cited as important components to success.
Community building
Taghreedat, a major Arabic e-content community building initiative supported by twofour54, announced the signing of an agreement with California-based Meedan, a social translation and software NGO, to provide media education resources in Arabic.Thaghreedat, the fourth most influential Arabic brand on Twitter, said this collaboration focuses on translating Open Education Resources (OER), and hence increasing the availability of educational resources in Arabic language for users worldwide, particularly students.
Ed Bice, CEO at Meedan, said the collaboration was a great opportunity for Meedan to increase digital Arabic educational content, and ensure language barriers do not stop people accessing these fantastic resources. – Khaleejnews
