Batelco is organising 'Startup Weekend Bahrain' for the second consecutive year to encourage aspiring entrepreneurs and assist them on the road to establishing successful ICT and e-business enterprises.

Startup Weekend Bahrain 2012 kicks off on November 8 and will run till November 10 at the Batelco Staff Centre in Hamala and form part of Global Entrepreneurship Week with a large number of StartUp Weekends taking place globally to mark the occasion, said a statement from Batelco.

Startup Weekend is a non-profit operation based in Seattle, Washington, that organizes 54-hour events in cities around the world, all of which help educate, support, and empower people to become entrepreneurs.

The focus of the event is to discover entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs and assist them on the road to establishing successful ICT and e-business enterprises, the company stated.

The Bahraini telecom giant called upon participants with IT, ICT, marketing, public relations, business development, web design and application design skills to register for getting a chance to lead or participate in a team to establish a new eBusiness.

It is not necessary for participants to have their own business idea or plan as everyone will be placed into teams on the first day of the event, said Batelco Group GM Media Relations Ahmed Al Janahi.

Startup Weekends bring together developers, designers, marketers, product managers and startup enthusiasts to share ideas, form teams, build products and launch startups!

Startup Weekends are weekend-long, hands-on experiences where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can find out if startup ideas are viable. On average, half of Startup Weekend’s attendees have technical backgrounds, the other half have business, marketing or non-technical backgrounds.

Beginning with brief pitches to outline their idea on Thursday, attendees aim to inspire other participants to join their team. Over Friday and Saturday the teams will focus on customer development, validating their ideas and building a minimal viable product.

“Batelco is delighted to once again bring Startup Weekend to Bahrain to provide a great opportunity for young people to receive valuable feedbackfrom those with experience in a range of industries and also have the opportunity to benefit from practical and financial support from potential investors,” Al Janahi remarked.

Throughout the weekend Mentors who are entrepreneurs themselves or come from leading local and global organisation will be on hand to give advice, support and answer questions to help the teams to develop their ideas into a viable business plan.

On Saturday evening the teams will present their prototypes and receive valuable feedback from a panel of experts who will select the winning ideas.

"Aspiring entrepreneurs of all nationalities are invited to visit the Startup Weekend Bahrain web page (bahrain.startupweekend.org) to learn more about how Startup works and register to attend and participate. Interested parties may also keep up to date with details by following the progress on the Facebook page (facebook.com/StartupWkndBH) and both Twitter and Instagram (@StartupWkndBH)."
 
The top three teams will walk away with cash prizes and follow-up support to help them launch their new ventures. Additionally, some sponsors will provide free services for up to a year for the winning teams, he added.-TradeArabia News Service