Just in case you somehow missed the big news, Amazon inaugurated its first-ever AWS Region in the Middle East on July 30. Bahrain was the cloud giant’s choice for the new venture, which makes perfect sense considering the Kingdom’s growing stature as a vibrant economy with a well laid-out technological infrastructure and cloud-friendly policies.
In case you’re wondering why we’re drawing your attention to that fact now, it’s because we’re a few days away from the Bahrain chapter of the iconic AWS Startup Day, an event dedicated to early-stage startups and innovators.
Today, we’re going to highlight everything Startup Day Bahrain 2019 has to offer for the startup ecosystem in Bahrain and the broader GCC region. But before we dive into that, let’s first quickly brush up on #TechWeekBH 2019, which will kick off with the AWS Summit 2019 on September 15, to be followed by Startup Day Bahrain the next day.
Bahrain Tech Week 2019
For those out of the loop, Bahrain Tech Week is a mega-event organized by the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) in collaboration with various stakeholders in the region’s burgeoning knowledge-driven economy.
It brings together technologists from world governments, global corporate heavyweights, and rising startup talents. Here’s a quick round-up of the Bahrain Tech Week 2019 schedule:
- AWS Summit Bahrain: Gulf Hotel; September 15, 2019
- AWS Startup Day Bahrain: Gulf Hotel; September 16, 2019
- Flat6Labs Bahrain Demo Day: Al Ghazal Ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain; September 16, 2019
- My Startup Bootcamp by HexGn: Crowne Plaza; September 15-17. 2019
- GCC PropTech Time: Crowne Plaza; September 17, 2019
- Delivering a Digital Future: Arcapita Building Auditorium; September 18, 2019
- Majra’s Career Fest: Crowne Plaza, Manama; September 18, 2019
- CoderDojo Bahrain (Games using Scratch): Bahrain Polytechnic; September 21, 2019
- How AI, ML, & RPA are Transforming Business Dynamics: Bahrain FinTech Bay (3rd Floor Arcapita Building); September 22, 2019
- AWS Ignition Day: Gulf Convention Center (Gulf Hotel), September 22, 2019
Now with the schedule of the week-long mega-event out of the way, let’s focus on what you’re in for on September 16 as the AWS Startup Day Bahrain kicks off at the Gulf Hotel Manama.
Oh yes, did we mention that the speakers Startup Day will include eminent personalities such as Abdulaziz B. Al Loughani (co-founder of Floward, and Faith Capital), Ahmad Marafi (co-founder and CEO at CODED), Candice Charlton (Startup Business Development Manager at AWS), and Hasan Haider (Managing Partner, 500 Startups MENA), among many more!
Startup Day Bahrain 2019: Who is it for?
For starters, the event is dedicated to entrepreneurs on the look-out for an opportunity to turn their business ideas into successful business ventures.
The day-long event is open for any entrepreneur who is at the ideation stage of building a new startup. There will a wide range of activities throughout the day that will help these entrepreneurs acquire the know-how of how to test and validate their concepts and ideas.
As for early-stage startups, there will be plenty of takeaways that they could use to take their ventures to the next level.
The agenda
AWS Startup Day Bahrain will kick off at 8:00 AM sharp. The first 30-mins will be reserved for registration and breakfast. The real action starts at 8:30 AM with the opening keynote.
Opening Keynote (08:30 AM – 09:00 AM): The opening keynote will focus on how Amazon Web Services empowers startups by giving them access to all the resources they’ll need to succeed (including training, customized support, and credits).
Confessions of a Founder (09:05 AM – 09:55 AM): This part of the event goes beyond the template-advice all startup founders come across routinely. It doesn’t merely talk about the importance of failing fast, raising funds, or getting lean. Rather, it will have experienced startup founders share their personal experience with all the challenges they faced (and how they overcame those) on their way to success.
9:55 AM – 10:30 AM: Break
Tools for Building your MVP on AWS (10:30 AM – 11:25 AM): Following a quick 30 mins break, the event will resume with an informative session on the various AWS tools that innovators and entrepreneurs can use to build a minimum viable product (MVP). Some of the tools covered in this section will include AWS Amplify, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon EKS, and AWS Lambada, just to name a few.
Hiring the Amazon Way: 10 Best Practices for Hiring Winning Teams (11:30 AM – 11:50 AM): Just like the name suggests, this 20-min session will primarily focus on how startups can build a scalable process for roping in new employees who can add value to the team.
11:50 AM – 12:50 PM: Lunch
Fundraising Essentials for Every Entrepreneur (12:55 PM – 1:50 PM): The post-lunch segment will kick off with a session that will explore how startups can determine whether or not going down the VC route is a good option for them. This is where serial founders will elaborate key ideas surrounding how to discover the right investors and reach out to them with an appealing fundraising narrative.
A Culture of Rapid Innovation with DevOps, Microservices, and Serverless (1:55 PM – 2:55 PM): This session will delve into the benefits of DevOps, Microservices, and Serverless to innovate at a faster scale! Learn more about AWS, and how they achieved over sixty million deployments per year, and about lessons learned while building apps for Amazon.
The event will wrap up with a networking session that will give participants a chance to get to know (and possibly forge alliances with) investors, fellow entrepreneurs, and business leaders from across the world.
For more details, visit the official AWS Startup Day Bahrain 2019 portal, and don’t hesitate to reach out to us via our social media profiles on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Linkedin.
