UAE Innovation Week - TECOM Group

Disruptive innovation is all around us, and is creating new, more efficient, markets through the use of technology. The session will provide real life examples of innovation and industry disruption, with a specific focus on the emergence of Peer-to-Peer Finance in the UAE.

Running a business is ultimately about freedom. The Gazelles International Scaling Up methodology and associated growth tools show business leaders how to get their organizations moving in sync to create something significant and enjoy the ride. In order to grow your business, there are four decisions that you have to get right or risk leaving significant revenue, profits and time on the table. These four decisions are People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. This interactive session will help you start to think about which one to tackle first as well as experiencing a selection of the Gazelles Growth tools.

The people we are surrounded by either enhance our life or detract for it. They lift us up or pull us back. Applying these principle to our business network can mean better quality business in less time. So you can spend more time doing what you love instead of chained to a desk. Want to know how?

Open Data as a practice and culture is widely recognized as an effective innovation tool that can be leveraged by governments and societies to create new economic and social opportunities and find solutions for the challenges they face. In the UAE, open data is adopted to mainly help in perusing the country’s vision to be among the most innovative nations in the world and the home of smartest cities. Within this context, a new open data law is expected to be issued in Dubai soon.

A brief history of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and how the industry has evolved and innovated to what it is today. The session will include search engine ranking factors that mattered then and the ones that matter today including both on-page and off-page factors that determine rankings on search engines such as Google

Part of a speakers series to discuss how to develop insight and market intelligence

Space Syntax is a UK-based international, multi-disciplinary firm providing an evidence-based approach to the evaluation, strategic design and functional performance of buildings and urban planning. Space Syntax's creative approach combines global experience with original technology that forecasts the impacts of planning, transport, economic and design decisions on people and property for all scales of development. Science-based and human-focused, Space Syntax brings creative and innovative rigor to the process of making cities, urban places and buildings.

Angel investing has been around for long time. Recently we are seeing a number of different online platforms that try to aggregate and create a community matching venture ideas, funding needs, human capital needs and investors, entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial job seekers. These platforms are independent, belong to educational institutions or even governmental and non-governmental institutions. How is this sector being shaped and who will be the global leaders in this space.

VCs, PEs, investors in general now show high interest in design capability as a strategic competitive advantage for start-ups. They highlight the unique approach of designers to begin any service or product with the users in mind and to anticipate the user’s unmet needs. The objective of this session is to understand the process of Design Thinking as well as the reason why this is particularly appropriate for start-ups to improve their value proposition. By the end of the session attendees will understand why they need to design their products or services from a user experience perspective.

Lean Startup has been hailed as the savior of startups and destroyer of the traditional business plan. The methodology focuses on taking big, bold, risky, ideas and finding small steps forward. Some ideas have technology risks, some have eco-system risks, some risk being crushed by 500 lbs gorillas in the industry, but all ideas have Product / Market Risk. If you build it, will they come? (and give you money.)

When facing a challenge or problem you need to solve, rather than focusing on what to do to be “innovative”, learn key lessons and insights on how to think innovatively and help bring ideas to life.

The session provides practical suggestions on when and how to approach potential sources of funding as well as best practices on how to pitch to potential investors.

Instagram Now Tops 400 Million Users And 40 Billion Photos, don’t you want your business to be part of this? You may be wondering how an account of photos and short videos might help you improve your business prospects and attract more customers. If you want to know how Instagram, the rising star of Social Media, can help you achieve a lot of your business goals, and if you want to have clear and final answers to all your queries, join this exclusive session dedicated to help you understand Instagram better, and learn how this platform will give you much more than you’ve expected.

Millions of Apps are released in the App stores, hundreds are published daily and it became harder to reach out users. These are the tips and tricks to reach out your next active users.

This session takes the creative core of your activities and looks at how you can develop a marketing strategy which maintains a strong and genuine connection between your product development approach and your marketing messages whilst being customer focused.

Part of a speakers series to discuss Usere experience and its importance for Startups

Whether you're checking your personal LinkedIn profile/company page on a daily basis but not making any business or you're generating some leads; this LinkedIn session is for you.

This session will introduce Cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions available on the Maestrano SME platform of Business Applications. From CRM to Accounting to eCommerce - business applications will help you automate business processes to manage your business more effectively. More importantly, introducing automation and following solid operational practices will help your business grow and scale.

This session will cover some core business fundamentals a startup or small business should focus on. What makes a business successful and why some fail. We will discuss the steps a small business or startup can initiate to improve their odds of succeeding. A startup or SME is time poor and resource constrained, so what areas are important. This session will help you build your own clear plan to maximise your potential.

OpenData can enable Innovation in the collaborative city and how it translates into an innovation opportunity for the private sector including startups. (Example of opportunity: designed software products to help governments upload datasets)