Bahrain Startup Weekend, organised by leading telecom group Batelco has attracted much interest from the Kingdom's residents of all ages, with over 80 participants already signing up for the event which opens on Thursday (November 8).

The weekend event, which runs till November 10 at Batelco Staff Centre, Hamala, is part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week with several StartUp Weekends taking place globally to mark the occasion and is open to people of all nationalities in the Kingdom.

The objective is to discover entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs and assist them on the road to establishing successful ICT and e-business enterprises, said a statement from Batelco.
 
Participants with marketing, public relations, business development, web design, application design and various other skills are participating, as a wide range of skills are needed to form teams to develop the variety of business ideas, it added.

The teams will have the opportunity to win cash prizes and support to put their business plans into action. The winning team will receive a cash prize of BD4000 ($10,545) , second prize is BD2000 and third prize is BD1000.

Additionally the first three teams will be given free incubation services by Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) and free Cloud Services from The Cloud W.L.L.  Furthermore, all teams will have the opportunity to benefit from funding from Tenmou of up BD20,000.

Batelco Group GM (Media Relations) Ahmed Al Janahi said since there are limited seats available, those interested must register at the door from 6pm to 7pm on November 8.

Explaining the rules, Janahi said, "It was not necessary for participants to have a business idea or plan of their own in order to enter the event as everyone will be placed into teams on the first day of the event."

“Many skills such as marketing, public relations, business development, web design, and application design etc are required to get an idea into plan; therefore a wide range of skills are needed as part of each team, which can have up to ten members,” he explained.

Batelco, he said, has received an outstanding response from local companies who have pledged their sponsorship and support to ensure the success of the event.

"Bahrain Startup Weekend has attracted excellent support with speakers and coaches from leading companies including Mumtalakat, Microsoft, Tamkeen, Ericsson, BDB, Tenmou, and Batelco, all volunteering their time to support the teams in developing their business ideas," he added.

Microsoft Bahrain has announced its support as technology sponsor for the second consecutive year as part of its commitment to help developing the local developers and startup entrepreneurs.

"Microsoft Bahrain and Oman has a firm belief in the true potential of Bahrain's youth and last year's event was a success and we are delighted to help bring Startup Weekend back to the kingdom," remarked Bahrain and Oman country manager Tareq Hijazi.-TradeArabia News Service