Another exciting day at Bahrain’s Technology Week Pavilion (Datacenter)! If you’ve missed the first day, here’s all that you missed. The pavilion’s atmosphere was filled with the positive spirit of the StartUp Bahrain community – entrepreneurs mingled, successes were shared, failures recounted, lessons learned, friends made, and ideas inspired. An incredible opportunity for everyone in the community.
The second day involved workshops and panel discussions about the startup ecosystem in Bahrain featuring Tamkeen Bahrain, Rowad, Brinc, C5 Accelerate and CH9. Lots of delicious food was on offer from Villa Mamas, Cantine, and Gastro to name a few, and the day was hosted by the pavilion’s hilarious MC, Imran Al-Aradi (thanks for finding the owner of the car whose car keys were lost!), and much more.
The Technology Week Pavilion (Datacenter) is a collaboration between the Bahrain Economic Development Board, Amazon Web Services, and the StartUp Bahrain community. The Pavilion is held in parallel with the AWS Summit which took place on the 25th of September, and the MIT Innovation forum, which is set to take place on the 27th and 28th. Forming Bahrain’s first Technology Week,the events are mainly held at the Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay, while the Pavilion is taking place just two minutes away from the hotel.
Here’s a bunch of exciting things that went down last night:
- The “Women In Tech” event organized by C5 Accelerate and Amazon Web Services (AWS) was splendid. It included a number of prominent female leaders in the technology field including Ms. Teresa Carlson, Vice President, Worldwide Public Sector at Amazon Web Services, Hadya Fathalla, Executive Director of C5 Accelerate, and Dr. Aisha Bushager, an Information Assurance and Cyber Security Expert, amongst others from the community.
- H.E. Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board extended his appreciation towards the Bahraini women in technology: “We can’t ignore fifty percent of the population (women) that could drive growth in our economy, so we actually need as a country and all over the region to tap into that potential”.
- C5 Accelerate has announced its new program cloud Nebula, in collaboration with AWS, that focuses on supporting and empowering women in tech.
- The panel discussion “The New Norm: Changing Skills Requirements in a Transformative Job Market” featured speakers from Bahrain Polytechnic, BIBF, ThinkSmart, University of Bahrain, OneGCC and was moderated by AWS’ Zupin Chagpar, Head of Middle East and Africa, Public Sector, where they discussed the importance of encouraging more students to study technology.
- AlHarith Alatawi from OneGCC expressed his excitement towards the opportunities AWS’s Data Center will offer: “Having AWS’ Data Center in Bahrain is going to encourage more Bahrainis to get into IT and get certified by AWS”.
- The panel discussion, “Why Bahrain for Startups”, moderated by Pakiza Abdulrahman from StartUp Bahrain, which featured Tamkeen Bahrain, Rowad, C5 Accelerate, Brinc and CH9. They discussed how Bahrain’s business friendly environment is attracting startups to launch their ideas here in the Bahrain.
- Organized by Tamkeen Bahrain, Khalifa Al-Mannai, Founder of Mannai Tech, delivered an incredibly informative session titled “Get on the Cloud”. He summed up how the cloud is revolutionizing the digital world, where it can be used in business, for education, and even at home.
Didn’t get a chance to experience all of this at the Technology Week Pavilion (Datacenter)? No worries, you can always check out @StartUpBahrain on Instagram for the full live coverage.
The Technology Week Pavilion (Datacenter) will be open until the 28th of September, so you’ve got plenty of time to come! Here’s a list of fun things happening this week. See you there! And don’t forget to follow @StartUpBahrain on Twitter and Instagram, and use #TechWeekBH on your posts! Three of our lucky followers will be winning some cool prizes from Batelco.