Tag Archives: conference

University Roadshow

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university roadshow

In the spirit of finding the next generation of entrepreneurs, the BDL Accelerate 2015 team has partnered with some of the major universities in Lebanon to inspire youths to join the startup movement and attend the conference.

The roadshow has included the following universities École supérieure des affaires, Lebanese International University, American University of Beirut, and Lebanese American University in addition to Saint Joseph University. NRJ Radio and Nostalgie have been tagging along to spread the word further and farther.

The roadshow also aims to familiarize students with hackathons and encouraging them to participate in the BDL Accelerate hackathons. Hackathons are considered as a great way to start solving real life problems, as a training session, or as a way to prepare participants and educate them on the process of solving issues. Anyone from any background or age can participate in the hackathons hosted by BDL Accelerate 2015.

BDL Accelerate 2015 is hosting two hackathons, Web & Mobile Hackathon and Wearables Hackathon, that will be tackling challenges that the public is faced with on a daily basis in Lebanon. The participants of the Web & Mobile Hackathon will be provided with a brief that will consist of a specific theme and the contestants will have to collaboratively brainstorm and work extensively to find a web or mobile solution to a specific issue that is shared with them at the start of the hackathon. This hackathon is organized by MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab & WDS with cash prizes of $6,000.

As for the Wearables Hackathon, it’s powered Innovo, a DNY Group company that will be providing electronic components, a whole bunch of sensors, a wearable sleeve, 3D printing capabilities, and more to the participants grouped in teams, who will dream up and hack together wearables to enhance lifestyle or sports in 36 to 48 hours. In addition to the $6,000 cash prize, the participants will also have the opportunity to pursue their project at Innovo’s lab after the hackathon is over.

The Power of Social Entrepreneurship

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social impact

Social entrepreneurs are visionary individuals who create innovative solutions to some of the world’s most perplexing social issues to create a widespread change. They are often confused with NGOs whereas the main difference between the two is the revenue model; unlike NGOs, social entrepreneurships have a steady stream of income similarly to regular businesses creating a self-sustainable enterprise. They create socially responsible businesses that aim to generate profit whilst solving social and environmental problems and then implement these solutions on a large scale.

In the MENA region, there has been a rise in social entrepreneurship. The high youth population has been expressing dissatisfaction with the status quo and the socially committed young generation has turned to social entrepreneurship to create a social impact at an accelerated pace.

However, being a social entrepreneur is not an easy feat; it’s tough and challenging and there are several things to consider before being a social entrepreneur. To enable a new generation of social entrepreneurs to create positive change, Chivas launched The Venture, an initiative that calls for innovative businesses that create a positive impact and gives them the opportunity to apply and pitch for a share of The Venture’s $1 million fund, and to gain access to their tools and mentorship to accelerate their growth.

As part of the BDL Accelerate 2015 Idea Stage Startup workshop series and competition themed Reimagining Lebanon , SETT a think tank focused on enabling emerging startup companies, has been offering a series of design-think workshops to empower applicants with the entrepreneurial skills to develop solutions for a better Lebanon. The contestants, who passionately want to create an impact in their community, have been assembled into 8 teams of 3 and each group has been assigned with an issue that they need to address.

If you have a great idea for solving a pressing social issue, do not be discouraged! Society needs you so go ahead and join the world of social entrepreneurship.

Mansour Salame – Band of Angels – Silicon Valley

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Mansour Salame

Mansour Salame
Band of Angels
Member

Mansour Salame is an accomplished Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has founded and led successful startups from inception to exit. He is also a member of the Band of Angels. His first startup, NextAge Technologies, a forecasting and scheduling software company, was acquired by Alcatel in 1999. In 2004, he founded his second startup Contactual, Saas/Cloud Contact Center Technology that was acquired by 8×8 in 2011. Later in 2014, he launched his 3rd startup, FrontSpin, aimed to double the performance of Inside Sales Teams.

Mansour is a member of Silicon Valley’s oldest seed funding organization, Band of Angels, a formal group of 150 former and current high tech executives who invest in new, cutting edge startup companies. Band of Angels has seeded over 277 companies, over 55 profitable M&A exits and 10 Nasdaq IPOs.

Prior to being a serial entrepreneur, Mansour held executive and consulting positions with Genesys Telcommunications and Accenture. He enjoys building companies that convert ideas using technology to turn into products of tremendous value to customers. He also enjoys ‘debugging’ startups and turning them into successful, profitable, growing companies.

Accomplished serial entrepreneur, Mansour Salame will be speaking at BDL Accelerate 2015. If you have not registered yet, don’t miss the chance to do so and register now!

5000 Registrations!!

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registrations

 

 

Yes! 5,000 unique registrations! Five thousand! The original target was just 3,000 and with 10 days to go, and the Pikasso billboard campaign has yet to launch.

Spanning over 6,000m2, the region’s most anticipated startup conference, BDL Accelerate 2015, will be bringing together 100 influential speakers from over 30 countries and 100 exhibitors from 9 emerging startup ecosystems. The conference will also be hosting 2 startup conferences and 2 hackathons.

If you haven’t registered yet, go ahead and do so now before you miss the chance!

Leila Janah – Sama Group & Laxmi – San Francisco

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Leila Janah

Leila Janah
Sama Group & Laxmi
Founder & CEO

Leila Janah is an award-winning social entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of Sama Group, a family of impact enterprises dedicated to ending poverty and promoting social and economic justice. Laxmi is her latest venture under the Sama umbrella with the same mission: to Give Work.

Leila is passionate about creating a social impact and strongly believes that there is so much potential to fix a lot of the problems and issues the world faces through using techniques adapted from the private sectors. She founded Sama Group in 2008 which has grown three successful social ventures and helped cultivate a new industry, Impact Sourcing. Their focus is on poverty alleviation and access to health care, and they have successfully moved twenty-seven thousand people above the poverty line since they started by pioneering a new model called Impact Sourcing, which is using technology-based jobs to provide opportunity to people in very poor locations.

In 2014, Leila launched Laxmi, a luxury beauty brand that aims to enable their producers to earn at least three times the local average wages. Through this venture, as with all Sama Group enterprises, Leila aims to end global poverty by connecting the world’s poorest people to dignified work – impact sourcing.

Prior to Sama Group, Leila was a visiting scholar with the Stanford Program on Global Justice and Australian National University’s Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. She was a founding director of Incentives for Global Health, an initiative to increase R&D spending on diseases of the poor, and a management consultant at Katzenbach Partners (now Booz & Co.). She has also worked at the World Bank and as a travel writer for Let’s Go in Mozambique, Brazil, and Borneo. Leila is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, a Director of CARE USA, a 2012 TechFellow, recipient of the inaugural Club de Madrid Young Leadership Award, and in 2014, was the youngest person to win a Heinz Award.