Shoot 4 The Moon,

Milan... The city of mediapreneurs!

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:41:00 GMT

Media gurus, government officials and promising entrepreneurs were gathering last Wednesday at the Milan Chamber of Commerce to discuss the future of media and mechanisms to better support technopreneurs (technology entrepreneurs). The event was organized by PROMOS in cooperation with Creative Commons, "Meet The Media Guru" and the local government of Lombardy.

Over the full-day event, I was glad to speak at the same panel with peers from the Arab World: Abdullatif Al Sayegh -the CEO of Arab Media Group one of the powerful player in the scene of Arab media, and Mohammad Abdullah -the Executive Director of Dubai Media City. I also was glad to speak to Antonio Ferrari -the World-class journalist who interviewed leaders across the world including H.M. King Abdullah few days right before the recent visit of the Pop to Jordan. I was also glad to meet Roberto Ronza -the Senior Advisor of the Lombardy Region in Italy.

For Melan, media business occupies a huge space of the landscape of the local economy and plays a great role in promoting it as the city fashion, history, art and business opportunities.

During the panel discussion, statistics about traditional media in the Arab world and future of the Media after the rise of Media 2.0 (social web) were presented. As part of discussion interesting ideas were raise, like the how policians and celebrities are adapting with the new media? and how new media will affect the positioning of traditional media instead of replacing it? (Taking for example, the status of radio and cinema after the widespread of TV) Also, how the growth and spread of new media is dependent on the development of infrastructure (internet speed and cost of bandwidth, availability of supporting devices and enabling technologies.. etc.)

During my talk, I focused on Innovation as the primary competitive advantage in the 21st century -while price and quality were the most dominant competitive advantages of businesses in previous centuries- and I moved to speak about the progress of the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship in nurturing innovation by establishing a specialized training Institute in the domain of systematic Innovation.

Speaking about Innovation, I presented two success stories from Jordan: Ketab Technologies and Kindisoft and how these entrepreneurs managed to gain remarkable market access and achieve rapid growth and recognition of world class companies such as Google and Disney.

In the afternoon session, there were one-to-one pre-scheduled meetings where I get the chance to meet a representatives from FBF -an international network branding company and candidate for one of Oskar Awards. I was pleased to talk to two exceptional entrepreneurs Fuse Creative Lab and Lorri who have successfully developed amazing interactive surface solutions using gesture recognition technologies, which can really achieve better performance than Windows Surface and Xbox technologies and can be applied for so many other applications.

I will be writing a special post about them soon. But for now, I can keep leave you with this interesting appetizer that demonstrates one of their solutions!

iSi / eMotion Control 2.1 from fuse creativelab on Vimeo.

Calling for Arab Innovative Entrepreneurs!

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:40:00 GMT

Do you have a plan to create an innovative business? Do you want to meet the different players in the field of entrepreneurship (investors, entrepreneurs, professionals)? Do you have a taste for challenge and want to compare your entrepreneurial talents to those of entrepreneurs from across the Arab world? If yes, this post is for you.

The Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship as a regional partner would like to announce the launch of the MENA 100 Business Plan Competition, which is organized by the MENA-OECD Enterprise Financing Network, in cooperation with the Islamic Development Bank and the MENA Center for Investment.

The MENA 100 Competition addresses innovative entrepreneurs, from the 18 Arab countries participating in the MENA OECD Investment Program (Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen).

The primary objective of the MENA 100 business plan competition is to encourage existing and inspire potential entrepreneurs and connect the 100 best of them in the Middle East and North Africa region with potential sources of finance to generate business transactions.

What you can expect as an entrepreneur:

Forming networks with your counterparts in the region but also worldwide to conceive new ideas, to enter new markets and find new resources.
High-level exposure to winners through the awards ceremony and the promotion of your business idea through the media.
Connection to a network of professionals providing technical support to help innovators develop their start-ups and ventures, and offer financial and in-kind support to candidates.

Applications will be accepted until 31st August. For more information and to access the on-line application form available in French and English you can visit our website: www.mena100.org. For any additional questions please contact the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship.

Please do not hesitate to forward this email to potential candidates you believe could be interested in this competition. The MENA region needs your creativity, your dynamism and your foresight more than ever before. This competition will give “entrepreneurship” a face, maybe YOUR face, and would be the occasion to recognize your significant contribution to your society and community.

Joi Ito (Creative Commons) & Habib Haddad (Yamli) speaking at the Entrepreneurs Week!

Sun, 17 May 2009 09:10:00 GMT

It gives me a great pleasure to invite you to join the world-class speakers at The Entrepreneurs Week!

During this week, the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and other distinguished partners are opening an interactive discussion with outstanding international speakers who are going to talk about several important topics in Entrepreneurship, Business and Management.

Among the speakers are Joi Ito; a Japanese entrepreneur, venture capitalist and board member of numerous for-profit and not-for-profit boards. He has a background in Hollywood motion pictures, Japanese television production and online media. His recent focus is investing in early stage internet companies such as Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, Six Apart and Technorati. Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons.

We also lucky to have Habib Haddad the entrepreneur behind Yamli.com, and drives its vision of empowering the Arabic language and users on the web. His responsibilities span from product strategy and design to business development. The World Economic Forum recently recognized Habib as a Young Global Leader for 2009.

Yesterday's Seminar about Blue Ocean Strategy was very interesting since the speaker Mohammad Ajlouni -the Managing Director of Middle East Defense Systems - one of the rare 48 Blue Ocean Certified Practitioners world wide.

The program of The Entrepreneurs Week:

Date	Time	Topic	Speaker
16/5	5pm	BlueOcean Strategy: How to transform a new business idea into a winning strategy	Mohammad Ajlouni Managing Director, MDS
17/5	5pm	Identifying your Strengths as an Entrepreneur	Ronald Evans CEO, SIMA International
18/5	5pm	Idea to Reality	Habib Haddad Co-Founder, Yamli.com
19/5	6pm	Innovation in Open Networks - Perspectives from an Internet entrepreneur and venture capitalist	Joi Ito CEO, Creative Commons
20/5	5pm	Cross-cultural business issues as companies expand internationally	Doug Christgau Director, Cross-Cultural Development
20/5	5pm	The current U.S. and world financial market situation.	Larry Hutchins Certified Financial Planner, Wachovia
21/5	5pm	Insights into family-owned companies in regards to economic and human resource issues.	John Carmon President, Carmon Community Funeral Homes

Please feel free to attend all -or at least part of- these seminars. because such experts will not be available -and free of charge- again in Jordan until the upcoming Entreprenuers Week! :)

I lost my finger :(

Sat, 28 Feb 2009 22:46:00 GMT

I'm sorry, but this is what a delicious dish of fish may cost you!

For more details you may visit my wife's blog!

Join the Arab Innovators!

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:59:34 GMT

This Monday, the 23rd of Feb, we have a BIG event! DART and ArabCrunch are organizing the ArabCrunch Demo 09; the launchpad for emerging technologies in the Arab World.

During this event, Five technology startups from Jordan and Egypt are going to officially launch their innovative products and speak out about their vision for the future!

In addition to the Innovators demonstrating their products, we has 3 distinguished speakers: Sumaya Kazi (Sun Microsystems), Herve Cuviliez (Kuv Capital), and Khaled Jabasini (E-Marketing MENA). The role of these speakers is to evaluate and elaborate on what is presented by the 5 demoers.

For further information and registration, kindly visit the event website.

Looking forward to meeting you there!

Blogging right from the TOP!

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:29:00 GMT

On my way to Beirut, to speak in a public event about Creative Commons and its impact on the Internet Community, I took this few nice photos:

I wish I can just stand on the top of this wing! It would much more interesting to fly this way, ain't it?

What a small meal !!! I know the trip to Beirut is short (1 hour) but this does not mean to cut down the breakfast !? (Royal Jordanian should reconsider this!)

Snowy mountains from the top... don't we miss snow in Jordan these days! :-(

Want to see more of Lebanon? stay tuned here during the upcoming few days!

How to listen and TALK to people in Gaza ?!

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:45:00 GMT

During the last 2 weeks since the beginning of the strike on Gaza. We've all seen millions of angry people across the world holding banners condemning the 'genocide' in Gaza and chanting anti-Israeli slogans on several TV channels and other media channels as well.

I'm sure that protesting is really a supportive action, in addition to in-kind and financial donations and other common means of support. But, I'm writing now to suggest another effective powerful way to support people in Gaza morally, and make feel them how much we do sympathize with them; it is basically to call them!?

Yes, you can really support people at Gaza by calling them and telling them how much we are proud of their persistence, braveness and resistance against this inhuman barbarian strike on Gaza. I've tried it and I can tell you how they would love to listen to us and find a listening ear from you as well.

To call a random number in Gaza, all you need to do is to dial:

+970828 XXXXX (add a random number composed of 5 digits)
+970820 XXXXX
+970821 XXXXX

Example: +97082812345

P.S. I will record one of my calls and post it her to share with you this experience. Please try it yourself, NOW!

يا رب العزة

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:39:00 GMT

يا رب العزة... انصر غزة
يا رب العزة... انصر غزة
يا رب العزة... انصر غزة

Mahmoud; the Gentle Baby :)

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 14:28:00 GMT

It is my pleasure to introduce our little son to you:

Name: Mahmoud M. Khawaja
Date of Birth: 21st of Nov. 2008
Martial status: Single!!
Hobbies: sleeping, imagination and discovering the new world around :)
Occupation: jobless ?!
Dreams: Endless....

To know more about his "predicted" character, personality and style, I invite you to read this interesting post. :)

The Art of Online Advertising!

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:39:00 GMT

It is a pleasure to invite you to this special seminar co-organized by Google and the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship.

This information is free of charge. For further information and registration, please send an email to: google@qrce.org