Wamda

www.wamda.com

 

Wamda.com is the Middle East and North Africa's most comprehensive online content and community portal. Centred on the platform of 'Inspire. Empwer. Connect.', it was launched at our 'Celebration of Entrepreneurship' event in Dubai.

 

Wamda - which means 'spark' in Arabic - features a constantly evolving library of commissioned video, audio and written content covering the various stages of the entrepreneurial journey, from the initial spark of an idea to leadership and sustainability. It also contains select news and social media feeds connecting a growing community of participants from across the region. It has unique, proprietary content, like the Country Information Center, and other features focued on entrepreneurial growth and capacity.

 

It is clear from the evolution of entrepreneurship in the more mature economies that an enabling environment is most important factor in supporting and nurturing enterprise. We need an entire ecosystem at work, enterprise-centric government, effective regulation, sound governance principles, accessible finance, available mentors, an engaged academic sector, incubators, a vibrant venture-capital sector and so on.

 

Entrepreneurial heroes and heroines have had a tremendous impact on people and their communities through their determination to succeed and innovation focus. Through Wamda they are now able to share their stories with the rest of the region, creating much-needed role models for aspiring entrepreneurs who can put the spirit of enterprise into a familiar geographical and cultural context.

 

Celebration of Entrepreneurship

 

Our Celebration of Entrepreneurship (CoE) event, which we convened in November 2010, was a success beyond our greatest expectations. Billed as a 'non-conference' and organized in just eight weeks, it attracted 2,400 entrepreneurs, innovators, business leaders, investors, students and academics from 62 countries across the region and beyond. At a time when creating a more enabling environment for job creation is at the forefront of political and economic agendas, the CoE unleahed and entrepreneurial momentum that has since gone viral, by sparking over 3,000 tweets on the first day and numerous postings on wamda.com and social media sites such as facebook.

 

CoE was the largest gathering of the entrepreneurial community the region has ever seen, spanning two days of presentations, discussion, pitches, one-on-ones, deal-making, art and entertainment. In attendance were 220 speakers and 64 ' Knowledge Partners' from a wide range of industries and disciplines. These included Aramex, Endeavor and Injaz, educational institutions such as American University of Cairo and Beirut, and the London School of Economics, global multinationals such as Intel and Cisco, and UAE organizations such as the Khalifa Fund, Emirates Foundation and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development.

 

THe event was an overwhelming success, with over 86% of the attending entrepreneurs stating that they achived tangible outcomes for themselves at the CoE, whether it be through networking, idea generation, or knowledge acquisition about the thriving entrepreneurial sector in the region. Stimulating entrepreneurship is a themethat sits comfortably within our group atrtegy. We expect to do an increasing amount of work in this space as it provides real answers to some of the acute challenges facing our region and builds on the core competencies of our organization.