Interact Egypt unmatched participation in the Global Entrepreneurship Week!

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators, who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare… see Ad

During one week each November, GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. These activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities. Interact Egypt has participated in the GEW in Egypt in three main events as follows

Interact’s participation started on Monday, November 13th, with the @NextGen initiative in PortSaid managed by the USAID/ECP program. Mike Ducker, the entrepreneur-in-residence and his team, invited mentors as Fady Ramzy, Interact’s country manager, along with others to mentor young entrepreneurs and discuss their ideas and also share business experience with them. The winning group is provided a 3 weeks trip to be mentored in Aramex Jordan.  “I was really impressed by the groups I mentored, especially a group from faculty of engineering who invented an underwater video robot that is equipped with a camera and transfers a video stream from under the sea!”, said Fady.

Second, on Nov.14, Global Innovation Game, the official online game of Global Entrepreneurship Week, -known as GiG — featured provocative challenges inspired by these banner slogans: Brainstorm a New World. To learn more about the pre-event preparation, visit this link http://bit.ly/vIgsYU . Fady Ramzy, our country manager was the Cairo expert invited to the GiG’s Arab Frontier Twitter chat and talked about the challenges for entrepreneurs after the Arab Spring. http://bit.ly/v65VIn . “Social media tools that helped ignite revolutions across the Arab world this year are now being adopted by young entrepreneurs to expand their economies. All new Egyptian online entrepreneurs share the vision of utilizing technology to start and grow their businesses,” said Ramzy, @cyberzizo and @interactEgypt on Twitter, noting that Facebook users have tripled this year.

Finally, on Saturday Nov.19, Interact Egypt supported Endeavor Egypt in their 2nd “How I See It” Event, and was glad to be its Social Media Sponsor after the success of the 1st Event. This event was done in correlation with the Institute of International Education (IIE), and sponsored by The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), Endeavor’s Social Media Sponsor; Interact Egypt and SASCO Group. An E-moments YouTube campaign was built to promote the Liftoff event with videos about Endeavor Entrepreneurs success stories. The main goal of this event is to cultivate the concept of Entrepreneurship in the perception of young students through meeting with and sharing the experiences of most successful leading local and global entrepreneurs!

The participation of Interact Egypt in all the three above mentioned events and the reliance of the GEW team on Interact Egypt specifically to represent Egypt proves only one thing: Interact Egypt is now the coach invited by Global expertise to teach the world how to “play innovation”.

 

Interact Egypt participates in GEW with NextGen initiative in Port Said

Last Monday, November 13th was a really interesting experience for interact Egypt and for myself, the country manager. On that day I joined NextGen initiative in PortSaid as part of Interact’s participation in the Global Entrepreneurship Week. They had a road-map of mentoring young entrepreneurs, dry run to present their ideas and finally on the 20th, to present their ideas/companies to judges. The winning group is provided a 3 weeks trip to be mentored in Aramex Jordan.

I went there as a mentor with a great group of enthusiastic other mentors like Peter Sorial, Mohamed Al-Borno, Abdel Rahman wahba, Hady Fathy, Dr. Shereen along with others. Also were accompanied by the great group of the USAID/ECP, Mike Ducker, the entrepreneur-in-residence and his team, Dr. Arwa, Dorris & Mariam.

The mentoring sessions began at 11 am with each mentor having between 5 – 7 groups. The main goal of the mentor was to discuss with the group their idea of the project, analysis it and give them his experience and feedback here.

I was really impressed by the groups I mentored, especially a group from faculty of engineering who invented an underwater video robot that is equipped with a camera and transfers a video stream from under the sea!

 

Interact Egypt, the Social Media Sponsor of Endeavor Egypt, announces Endeavor’s 2nd “How I See It” Event

 

As a part of the Global Entrepreneurship Week, Interact Egypt, the Social Media Sponsor of Endeavor Egypt, is happy to announce Endeavor’s 2nd “How I See It” Event, after the success of the 1st Event. It will be on Saturday Nov.19, 6:00pm-9:00pm at Darb 1718 Culture Center, Old Cairo.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the world’s largest celebration of the innovators and job creators, who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and expand human welfare… see Ad

During one week each November, GEW inspires people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. These activities, from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings, connect participants to potential collaborators, mentors and even investors—introducing them to new possibilities and exciting opportunities.

The main goal of this event is to cultivate the concept of Entrepreneurship in the perception of young students through meeting with and sharing the experiences of most successful leading local and global entrepreneurs!

Some of these entrepreneurs will share their experinces at the event such as; Amr Shady, Heba El-Gammal, Osama El-Batran, Mohamed Hamouda (Entrepreneur of Ahlawy), Moatassem. Moreover, International pioneers as Khaled Bichara (CEO of Linkdotnet and Executive Chairman of Orascom Telecom) and Wences (technology entrepreneur, co-CEO of Lemon, Incand a founding partner of MECK Ltd.)

This event is done in correlation with the Institute of International Education (IIE), and sponsored by The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), Endeavor’s Social Media Sponsor; Interact Egypt and SASCO Group.

The liftoff initiative has already started the cultivation of the Entrepreneurship concept in the minds of three main activities Inspire, Enable and Foster that embrace workshops, competitions and seminars to enhance youth aging, 14-18 years, 18-26 years, 26-35 years respectively. To know more about Liftoff Initiative, visit their website at http://www.liftoffinitiative.net/

An E-moments YouTube campaign was built to promote the Liftoff event with videos about Endeavor Entrepreneurs success stories.

 

The 2011 revolutionists are glocalizing online creativity to become 2012 entrepreneurs

Starting Nov.14, Global Innovation Game, the official online game of Global Entrepreneurship Week, -known as GiG — featured provocative challenges inspired by these banner slogans: Brainstorm a New World. What’s the Amazon worth to Brazil’s entrepreneurs? What can an Arab revolutionary teach us about business? How can startups make Africa roar by tackling security threats and the gap in education? To learn more about the pre-event preparation, visit this link http://bit.ly/vIgsYU .

“East Asia, key parts of Africa, Brazil, post-revolution Arab nations and emerging Europe, such as Turkey – all are being lifted up by entrepreneurship.” says Global Mind Games co-founder Edward DeMarco, a former international policy editor.

The Twitter Chat was part of this GIG’s Brainstorm a New World lineups all days last week: GiG’s Arab Frontier Twitter chat on Tuesday Nov. 15, Brazil scores on Wednesday Nov. 16, Rising Africa on Thursday Nov.17 and Emerging Europe on Friday, Nov. 18.

Fady Ramzy of Interact Egypt co-founder and country manager was Cairo expert who told GiG’s Arab Frontier Twitter chat last Tuesday, Nov. 15 and talked about the challenges for entrepreneurs after the Arab Spring.

The one-hour Twitter chats began at 10 a.m. New York time at #GiGchat on Twitter. Participants who wanted to join the conversation, simply added #GiGchat at the end of their tweet.

Social media tools that helped ignite revolutions across the Arab world this year are now being adopted by young entrepreneurs to expand their economies. All new Egyptian online entrepreneurs share the vision of utilizing technology to start and grow their businesses,” said Ramzy, @cyberzizo and @interactEgypt on Twitter, noting that Facebook users have tripled this year.

“The bottom line is you’re competing to win a global brainstorm,” DeMarco says. “And you can rally your Facebook friends to back your ideas with our easy sharing features and virtual currency. GiG is feature rich and building a loyal player base across the world.”

Ramzy said bureaucracy remains a heavy obstacle for startups although the ease of working online is spurring progress for business. And he noted there is still a need for “education, awareness and training” to support aspiring entrepreneurs.

Aspiring entrepreneurs use GiG as a fun platform to crowdsource ideas for all kinds of challenges, from the environment to technology to development in Africa. And because this is a social game, you play for status across four traits: Ambassador, Influencer, Investor and Socialite.  GiG is a creation of Boston-based Global Mind Games Co. To read more about this event, check this link http://bit.ly/v65VIn .[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WB44z92jfNU&feature=player_embedded]

 

Latest Helix innovations by Interact Egypt’s regional partner, Realnetworks!

Interact Egypt, as the regional partner of RealNetworks, would like to invite you to try the latest the release of the new Helix Producer as well as the latest version of Helix Universal Media Server. Helix is the leading end-to-end media delivery platform, which is multi-format, multi-platform and multi-screen simplifying the process of delivering digital media files and lowering the total cost of ownership by reducing the number of hardware platforms and power that is needed. Now you can easily build a branded video streaming application that works seamlessly on multiple mobile devices.

The Helix Producer new features include:

  1. IP Ingest – Receive media streams from the network. RTSP and MPEG2-TS are supported transports
  2. Create full HD 1920x1080p resolution H.264 content
  3. Simultaneously broadcast live-to-rolling archive for on-demand viewing
  4. Text and image overlay for watermarking content
  5. Multi-format source encoding (H.264, FLV, MOV, MP3, WMV, MP4, 3GP, AAC)
  6. Text and channel logo image overlay for watermarking content

Helix Helix Universal Media Server new features include:

  1. Supported on all major mobile platforms (iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Java) as the device features IP ingest & multi-track, making it simple to stream content in multiple languages.
  2. Simple to configure and deploy as the server delivers instantly available solutions.
  3. Getting higher levels of streaming throughput from your 64-bit hardware, whether it’s running Windows 2008, Redhat Linux 5.x, or Oracle’s Sun Solaris Sparc 10, getting the max throughput possible by utilizing the full available memory and multi-core architectures -& support larger, high definition media files.
  4. Capturing both RTSP (IP surveillance or streaming service) and MPEG2-TS (digital cable TV or satellite) streams, and transcode the content to deliver to multi-screens, including PCs, mobile devices and tablets.
  5. Loaded with pre-configured features including Fast-Channel Switching, Server-Side Playlists, Session Manager Event.

Contact us for a sneak peak at this new and exciting product .

 

The online identity boosts business for Egyptian entrepreneurs!

In his interview with ITShow on Nile Culture last Sunday October 30th,, Mr.Fady Ramzy the Country Manager of Interact Egypt stressed on the fact that we are witnessing more business coming online from Egypt this year.

“After the revolution, social networks got higher traffic and Egyptians became more engaged on Facebook,
followed by Twitter, then LinkedIn. Facebook users in Egypt now almost tripled since beginning of this year.”, said
Ramzy.

He also mentioned some interesting trends like the integration of the whole online eco system that includes the
company website, blog, social network accounts, etc. Geo-marketing is also a rising trend in Egypt utilizing social
networks like foursquare. In the web video space, he mentioned that though there many successful examples in
Egypt after the revolution, but yet the whole set of youtube features and not utilized so we cannot say yet that we
have a strong “web video” productions.

Talking also about Africa in the digital world, he shared his experience being a speaker about online identity for
business in the first African summit for E-marketing, that we held in Nairobi, Kenya last June. “In Africa, you can
find countries like South Africa, Kenya, Ghana & Nigeria very advanced in mobile technologies. I was amazed
how everyone in Kenya was using the M-Pesa mobile payment service”, added Ramzy. “Africa is fastest growing
continent in terms of new facebook users in the last 6 months.” He added.

On another track, about best tips and tricks to take a new business online, Ramzy recommended starting with
identifying the target audience and analyzing this target online first as the planning phase. Next comes the
implementation which can start with basic presence online by having a professional website, a facebook fanpage,
twitter and linkedin accounts. Then the performance of this online presence/identity should be measured and plan
re-evaluated again, it is an ongoing activity.

Fady Ramzy is an E-marketing speaker and consultant; he is the country manager of Interact Egypt which is the
regional office of the Italian R&D hub InsideOut.