What Is Startup Weekend?

What is Startup Weekend?

Startup Weekend is a global network of passionate leaders and entrepreneurs on a mission to inspire, educate, and empower individuals, teams and communities. Come share ideas, form teams, and launch startups.

Startup Weekend Global Site

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AUT- Halat Campus


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Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur?

The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success?

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding startups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world in 2011.

The non-profit organization is headquartered in Seattle, Washington but Startup Weekend organizers and facilitators can be found in over 200 cities around the world. From Mongolia to South Africa to London to Brazil, people around the globe are coming together for weekend long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams, and start companies.

All Startup Weekend events follow the same basic model: anyone is welcome to pitch their startup idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams organically form around the top ideas (as determined by popular vote) and then it’s a 54 hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. The weekends culminate with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders with another opportunity for critical feedback.

Whether entrepreneurs found companies, find a cofounder, meet someone new, or learn a skill far outside their usual 9-to-5, everyone is guaranteed to leave the event better prepared to navigate the chaotic but fun world of startups. If you want to put yourself in the shoes of an entrepreneur, register now for the best weekend of your life!

For more info:

Facebook: http://www.facebook/wsbyblos

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SWByblos

Phone: +96170224984

Email: byblos@startup.com

Schedule

Friday

Mar 1
  • Security Workshop *
  • Registration Starts
  • Welcome & Speakers
  • Pitches Start
  • Voting for Ideas
  • Vote Results & Motivational Talks
  • Dinner & Networking
  • Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow
  • * Off Event (Open Registration)

Saturday

Mar 2
  • Arrival & Breakfast
  • Skills Seeking, Forming Teams & Fixng Workspace - Coaches Ready. They are here to help!
  • Talks & Presentation
  • Lunch Break & Networking
  • Mid Weekend Check-in, Status Reports, Call for Help
  • Dinner
  • Finished for the day. You may stay and work as late as the venue will allow

Sunday

Mar 3
  • Arrival & Breakfast
  • Teams Reassemble - Coaches Ready (this is self motivated, so don’t be shy)
  • Lunch Break & Networking
  • Gut check. Start prepping for presentations
  • Final Presentations
  • Judging and Awards
  • Wrap Up
  • Go home!
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Speakers

Elie-Grégoire Khoury

Founder of Dermandar

Elie-Grégoire Khoury started his career in the field of videogames, and was head of R&D at Ubisoft Entertainment.
He founded Dermandar with Elias Khoury in 2010, a company specialized in mobile image processing. Dermandar has just been awarded "Global mobile champion" in the Entertainment category by the World Summit Award, for its product "Dermandar Panorama" that was downloaded by 6 million users.

Hind Hobeika

Creator of Instabeat

Hind Hobeika is a self-tracking engineer who believes biological parameters are the most fascinating input for technological systems. She is the founder of Instabeat, an award winning startup that creates high-tech tools that track and improve athletes' performance and well-being. Hind is a WEF Global Shaper and founder of the Quantified Self, Beirut chapter.

www.hindhobeika.com
www.instabeat.me

Fadi Bizri

Founding Member & Program Director at Seeqnce   |  

Fadi Bizri is a Founding Member and Program Director at Seeqnce.
Fadi is a serial entrepreneur and consultant with product management expertise.

He has acted as a Project Manager for Cinemoz and is also a Co-Founder of iSpicePhotos, an award-winning iPad application that allows consumers to interactively browse and analyse their Facebook photo collections.

Previously, Fadi was the Founder of Iltaqi, a collaborative activities planning web service, created to facilitate organizing friends around activities. Iltaqi means 'to meet' in Arabic.

Fadi also held the position of VP Product Management for Earthtone.net, a London-based online aggregator of print-on-demand services. He led the development team, steering the overall product strategy from inception to market.

Fadi holds a Master of Engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the American University of Beirut.

Tara Nehme

Founder of ticklemybrain   |  

Tara Nehme founded ticklemybrain in 2012 aiming to turn it into a youth driven, Arab based career portal for young professionals in the Middle East. For almost a year now, ticklemybrain has been offering a tailored, professional resume and cover letter writing service in addition to quality content on how people can find, love and leave their jobs. Prior to founding ticklemybrain, she worked within the Forensic Services Department at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dubai for two years. She holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the American University of Beirut (AUB) where she graduated among the top of her class and was the recipient of the Penrose Award.

Michael J. Tolan

Chief Inspirational Officer & CEO

FirePowerLeadership.com
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zY53pAQU98E&feature=channel&list=UL

Edgard Chammas

Programmer & Security Researcher

Information Security researcher, programmer and IT consultant, working with different private corporations and government agencies. Got a bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, followed by a masters degree in Information and Networking. Working also as a part time instructor at the University of Balamand (mainly teaching Programming, Micro-Controllers and Computer Security) where he's also involved in researches in Biometrics (Speaker Recognition) and Machine Translation.
Edgard was ranked in the top 5 at many online security/penetration testing contests and has participated in many bug bounty programs of big companies (eg: Facebook) and considered as a White Hat Hacker in the security industry.

Dani A. Arnaout

Systems Engineer at Lextech Global Services (USA)   |  

Dani is a senior Computer Engineering student at BAU, Lebanon.
He's been very active in the mobile development field for the past 2 years by giving courses and seminars about that matter.
In addition to that, he has a significant online presence through his educational Youtube Channel, and his tutorial team membership at RayWenderlich.com

He will mentor the participants through sharing his experience after winning two first place prizes at entrepreneurship competitions, one of which was Beirut Startup Weekend 2010.

Dani currently works remotely as a Systems Engineer at Lextech Global Services -USA.

daniarnaout.com

Jean Abboud

Startup Lawyer

After pursuing studies in Computer Science, Jean Abboud specialized in Telecom and Technology related laws, including protecting intellectual property in Europe and the US. He deals mainly in corporate law with special emphasis on startup, structuring of companies and investment related matters. He is a member of Citizen L, a law firm specialized in corporate and international finance and taxation. Based in Beirut, he covers the Gulf area and North Africa.

Jiany Massad

Entrepreneur   |  

I found my true calling in life. Although, I love Real Estate, I have always wanted to get back to the IT field (Apps). Arriving to Lebanon gave me an idea!

My whole life I felt a strong connection with different attributes of the IT world. I always believed that we were bound together by the creation of websites and now apps in one way or another. I realized with IT (apps) and a smart working force we could connect ideas with the right people and create jobs in Lebanon!

I was recognized many times. One of my great accomplishments was being able to start many businesses over from the ground up in a short amount of time.

Further accomplishments was keeping afloat some of the IT companies I managed during the roughest times of the internet bubble in the 2000.

Donald Derek Haddad

Hacktivist & Geek   |  Google+

In 2012 Donald won the 1st prize in the Arabnet Developer Tournament, 2nd prize in Startup Weekend Beirut and semi-finalist at the MIT Business Plan Competition.

He's also the creator of preso.ly and co-founder of cloudnetworks. He's currently working at T3 Middle east as an app developer and a web administrator

www.donaldderek.com

Andre Abi Awad

Entrepreneurship Coordinator at AOU   |  LinkedIn

From Engineering to Entrepreneurship, Andre found his passion to interact with the youth, motivate them and inspire them to unearth their strengths and find their Aim to enjoy what they do and do what they love.

Samer Semaan

Co-Founder of Sync

Samer Semaan is the Co-Founder and Managing Director at Sync, an e-commerce, e-marketing and online security startup company. Holding a bachelor degree in Computer and Communication Engineering, coupled with an MBA in Marketing, Samer has over 6 years of experience in the fields of Internet and Web. With a vast and immerse knowledge within the online marketing and social media industries, Samer is a serial technology entrepreneur who recently qualified for the Maurice Fadel Prize as a top 10 finalist in 2012 regarding the "Tahwilat.com" project.

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Judges

H.E. Nicolas Sehnaoui

Minister of Telecommunication

Minister of Telecommunication
www.nicolas-sehnaoui.org

Emile khattar

Co-Founder of Completure   |  LinkedIn

completure.com

Felix T. Wass

COO at Meatel S.A.L

Experienced senior executive and consultant who has operated at CEO/ COO level with global remit, having led major strategy, turnaround and restructuring, brand and product management, technology, growth and transformation programs for leading Telecoms, Professional Services, Consultancy and Technology companies internationally, most recently in the Middle East and CIS.
Entrepreneurial outlook with a talent for identifying business opportunities and extensive experience with investors and senior executives in various international markets allow him to develop and exploit strong client, governmental, board and investor relationships supporting highest level of achievements in the most challenging circumstances and environments.

Georges Abboudeh

Project Manager & Computer Engineer

Georges Abboudeh has a master of science in computer engineering from Balamand University, an executive MBA from E.S.A (Ecole Superieure des affaire pole de l’ESCP Paris). He has more than 12 years of multinational, multicultural, and wide business areas expertise in developing software (web, mobiles, desktop, re-engineering), system architecture design and Project management. Today’s he is working as an IT expert consultant. He is a university lecturer for more than 3 years teaching Technical and managerial courses. Currently, he is doing his PhD thesis in Data mining in France.

Joseph Massih

Co-Founder of Adtech & Cloudnetworks   |  

Winner of the 2012 “Grow My Business” competition, a joint initiative between Beirut Traders Association, MIT Enterprise Forum for the Pan Arab Region and Bank Audi.

Joseph is also the Co-Founder of Cloudnetworks - a digital signage startup made on top of the raspberryPi

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Mentors

Piotr Yordanov

CTO & Co-Founder of BaytBaytak   |  LinkedInGoogle+

Piotr Yordanov is the CTO and co-founder of BaytBaytak, a sexy and user friendly website that offers a simple yet robust experience for people looking to buy or rent apartments.
He strongly believes in the strength of the open source community and is an active contributor.
He has a background in software engineering and he spends his spare time playing jazz on a piano.

Fork me on github: https://github.com/tUrG0n

http://piotry.me/

Jad Joubran

CTO at eTobb   |  Google+

Jad is the CTO and Co-founder of eTobb, the first medical Questions & Answers website in the region connecting doctors and patients for free.
Jad is responsible for leading the product development livecycle and growth.
Before Jad co-founded eTobb, he worked as a developer at Qommune, a digital firm in Lebanon. In fact, Jad has been coding since the age of fifteen. It is not only his job but also his passion.

Donald Derek Haddad

Hacktivist & Geek   |  Google+

In 2012 Donald won the 1st prize in the Arabnet Developer Tournament, 2nd prize in Startup Weekend Beirut and semi-finalist at the MIT Business Plan Competition.

He's also the creator of preso.ly and co-founder of cloudnetworks. He's currently working at T3 Middle east as an app developer and a web administrator

www.donaldderek.com

Elie Hanna

Web Developer & Android Fanatic   |  

As former student in AUT, Elie Hanna has set the bar with his final senior project "Mobile Enterprise" among his fellow programmers in the campus.

He recently got his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and now plans to get the best out of computers and technology

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Simon Tadros
Nicolas Saliby
Joe FRANCIS
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