Dubai, UAE – STEP2018, the MENA region’s favorite experiential tech festival, recorded a 20% increase in attendance and a higher level of investor interest than in previous years. Organizer STEP Group attributes the growth to the event’s new format and strategic location in Dubai Internet City.
Held on March 28th and 29th in Dubai’s most vibrant technology commnunity, STEP2018 attracted 6,000 attendees, more than 200 showcasing startups and exhibitors, and a 250 strong speaker lineup for its sixth edition. It was the first time the conference program was delivered across four industry-focused stages, allowing attendees to dive deeper into the trending topics of future tech, fintech, digital media and startup concerns.
Sitting at the nexus of the MENA region’s startup ecosystem, STEP2018 attendees comprised a diverse group of entrepreneurs, corporates, investors and student groups from across the region and beyond. Testament to the important role STEP plays in supporting the entrepreneurial community, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia sent a delegation of high potential startups to this year’s conference to meet with prospective investors and benefit from valuable knowledge exchange.
STEP Start conference drew large crowds, with budding entrepreneurs and investors keen to explore this year’s business ideas. Some 200 startups participated as part of the STEP Conference basecamp with businesses ranging from smart apps, to tech-enabled legal services for startups and new e-commerce ventures.
Activations like Pepsi Co’s futuristic ‘Smart Cart’ offered a glimpse into the future of shopping. The autonomous snack cart used real-time data to track the location of larger crowds before rolling up to provide on-demand drinks and snacks with a convenient cashless transaction.
“The innovative tech disruption we are able to facilitate through STEP Conference is progressing at a rate that we could never have anticipated when we first launched in 2013. Each year the public and private support we are able to garner through partnerships ensures the platform we have built continues to mature. Our new location in Dubai Internet City and American University in Dubai allowed us to make some drastic changes to our conference format this year. And it paid off – we were able to accommodate bigger crowds but also better content, focused audiences, and deliver on our promise to support entrepreneurial talent and innovation across the Arab world.”
STEP’s flagship activity, the Pitch Competition, saw 30 early stage startups from across the region compete in front of leading investors and industry experts. The collective capital available from regional venture capital firms to promising startups was set at $1bn, the largest investment pool offered at any STEP conference.
This year’s winner was Kuwait-based startup Nabta Health, the region’s first dedicated platform for women’s health. Launched in 2017 by Sophie Smith, Nabta assists women with health issues such as pregnancy, medical counselling and marriage. In fact women represented 44% of this year’s pitch competition participants, reinforcing the efforts being made to support more women from MENA in their entrepreneurial journeys.
For startups looking to refine their business idea, Volkswagen offered bespoke mentoring to eight entrepreneurs. Each one aimed to fill a gap in the market to make life even easier for the emerging tech generations. Travel app Travelini allows users to book all aspects of their holiday, from flights to spa treatments in one place, while trukker is leveraging the power of technology to modernize the logistics and transport industry.
Discussing the success and importance of supporting entrepreneurial talent in the MENA region, Ammar Al Malik, Executive Director of Dubai Internet City (DIC) said: “STEP Conference and Dubai Internet City share the same goal and mission to nurture, support and enable entrepreneurial talent. Innovation happens when creative minds come together and exchange ideas, and over the last two days, the partnership between the DIC ecosystem and STEP has successfully facilitated these exchanges and unleashed the creativity of our vibrant technology communities. Looking to the future, I am convinced that collaborative events and ecosystems such as ours will only become more important: bringing together talent and businesses of all sizes to discuss and develop ideas will remain key to successfully nurturing and growing the global workforce and technologies of tomorrow.”
“To witness many of our alumni as young entrepreneurs in the STEP conference is a testament to AUD’s belief in empowering younger generations to dare and to innovate. It is this empowerment, both inside and outside classrooms, that bridges education with work-ready skills. Collaborations such as those with STEP are an echoed reminder to both universities and nations that future forward ideas begin with educating and empowering the youth of today,” said Elias Bou Saab, Executive Vice President at the American University in Dubai while discussing the role the youth population plays in the region’s development.
The STEP 2018 programme concluded on both days with a diverse lineup of musical performances from some of the region’s best talent in the genres of hip-hop, pop, and alternative music. Attendees also enjoyed other festival activities such as food trucks, market vendors, street artists, gamers and skaters.
Plans for STEP 2019 are already underway with the speaker lineup and interactive workshops tipped to be even bigger and better. Pre-register for free for STEP 2019 by going to www.stepconference.com
STEP Group is a Middle East-based media and technology company. In just under 18 months, Step Group’s news and digital content platforms stepfeed.com and yallafeed.com have gained more than 3 million unique monthly users and 6 million monthly views. Most recently the group acquired the popular and fast growing video content platform Arab Vines.
STEP Group also owns STEP Conference, the largest technology and startup conference in the MENA region, that has tripled in size every year since it began in 2012.