Incubation conference in Oman to open next week

Business Saturday 25/November/2017 17:28 PM
By: Times News Service
Incubation conference in Oman to open next week

Muscat: The preparations are in full swing for the Incubation Conference 2017, which will be organised by the National Business Centre (NBC) on December 5 and 6, 2017 at Hormuz Grand Hotel, Muscat – Oman.
The event will be inaugurated by Yahya bin Said Al Jabri, Chairman of the Special Economic Zone Authority in Duqm (Sezad).
The conference aims at highlighting the best practices regionally and internationally; get a better understanding of the role of incubation in a growing ecosystem and the future of the incubation industry; explore the role of academic institutions (colleges and universities) in supplying and supporting incubators with a steady pipeline of entrepreneurs; explore the role of chambers of commerce and other entities in supplying and supporting incubators and the growth of SMEs, amongst other objectives.
The Incubation Conference 2017 is sponsored by BP Oman, Occidental Oman, Fund for Development of Youth Projects (Sharakah), Al Raffd Fund, Shumookh Investment and Services, Oman LNG, Public Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises Development (Riyada) and SME Development Fund.
Experts
The conference will feature a line-up of local and international speakers and will shed light on several themes through the various sessions and specialised workshops. On the subject of SME in the Mena Region, the speakers will comprise Tom Strodtbeck, CEO of Strodtbeck and Company Limited, and Omar Christidis, CEO and founder of Arab Net. Furthermore, Mostafa Karimian Eghbal, Advisor to the President of Isfahan Science and Technology Town (ISTT), Aysha Al Mudahka, CEO of Qatar Business Incubation Centre (QBIC), and Giordano Dichter, Head of EU BIC services EBN innovation network, will highlight incubation models.
Moreover, Aman Merchant, serial entrepreneur and founder of Impact Hub – Dubai, Louis Lebbos, Founder and Partner at Astro Lab – Dubai, and Abdullah Al Jufaili, General Manager at Sharakah, will speak on the topic of entrepreneurship enablers. In addition, Akef Akrabawi, CEO of Injaz Arabia, Tarek Ahmed Fouad, Growth Program Manager at Sharajah Entrepreneurship Centre, and Dr. Rahma Al Mahrooqi, Vice Chancellor for Post Graduate Studies and Research at SQU, will underscore the topic of Entrepreneurship and Education.
Besides, the topic of innovation in entrepreneurship will be highlighted by Ana Greif, CEO and founder of Varela Consulting, Dr. Abdullah Al Mahrooqi, CEO of Industrial Innovation Centre, and Dr. Dhafir Al Shanfari, CEO of Oman Authority for Partnership Development (OAPD). Furthermore, Kirstie Chadwick, CEO of INBIA, Dr. Choi, Jong-in, Professor and Vice President of Strategy and Planning at Hanbat National University, Dr. Firas Al-Abduwani, Founder of Hussam Technology Company, and Khalid Al Huraibi, Acting CEO of the Public Authority for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Development 'Riyada' will discuss the future trends of entrepreneurship.
Workshops
On the first day of the conference, the attendees will have the opportunity to meet and interact with a number of Qatari institutions which are aiming at investing or initiating new partnerships in the Sultanate. Besides, two workshops will be held on the sidelines of the conference on the first day. The first workshop will highlight the topic of 'Running Sustainable Incubators' and the second workshop will underscore the topic of 'Accelerating Innovation in the Ecosystem'.
This conference is the first of its kind in the Sultanate, which aims at instilling a culture of entrepreneurship, and disseminating awareness and knowledge on the bodies that support SMEs and innovation related entities. The conference will also highlight successful Omani models in the field of entrepreneurship, in addition to the challenges faced in this field.