Tag Archives | Beirut

ArabNet goes live, and global!

By Rami on March 26, 2010 in Events

The long awaited and highly anticipated ArabNet conference kick started today, with over 500 participants attending the opening ceremony, including internet and tech leaders from around the world, investors, media, entrepreneurs, bloggers and professionals from the tech industry.

The opening ceremony and the conference activities that followed were broadcast live online, giving an opportunity for everyone who couldn’t attend to be part of this unique and first-of-its kind event to ever happen in the Middle East.

Under the direction of Samer Karam and a dedicated team of geeks and coders who worked 24 hours a day for the past week, a custom-designed, cutting-edge system was developed that allows for live broadcast of video, illustrations and tweets directly from the conference. The platform also integrates a voting mechanism to allow attendees to vote for their favorite startup or idea via the live website – live.arabnet.me

Throughout the past couple of months, ArabNet has been able to nurture a grassroots movement, an online community of enthusiasts through an outreach program intended to engage young entrepreneurs and techies across the Arab World. In less than two months, we have gathered over 1,000 followers on twitter and more than 600 fans on facebook.

40 top-notch speakers, 11 supporting partners, 18 media partners, 35 startups, 50 ideas, 25 ambassadors, 12 official bloggers, and over 300 decision makers, investors, and entrepreneurs from across the MENA, Europe, and Silicon Valley have come together gather today at the Habtoor Grand Hotel to network and discuss emerging opportunities in Arab web business. Even before the conference started, the #ArabNetME twitter feed was overwhelmed with tweets from all over the world from people who believed in ArabNet’s mission. And just a few hours later, following the opening ceremony, ArabNet was trending globally on the site!

A huge thanks goes to Beshr Kayyali and Mohammad Saleh Kayali from hyperlinkpodcast.com, an ArabNet media partner, who have helped in setting up the live micro-site, as well as Maya Zankoul, the famous Lebanese illustrator who is live illustrating the conference, as well as to official ArabNet bloggers and ambassadors, and the millions of tweeters and enthusiasts from the world over who tweeted, messaged, and voiced their support in more ways than one.
Without them, ArabNet could not have gone global!

Meen (Lebanese rock band) Live at USJ Beirut

By Rami on March 24, 2010 in Music

Meen were rocking the USJ campus last Friday night as part of the first international inter-university tournament in Lebanon “Beirut Unisports 2010”. I attended the concert with fellow twitter friends and got you these photos and videos.

ArabNet – Nurturing the Internet Ecosystem in the MENA

By Rami on February 16, 2010 in Events

Highly anticipated and finally here is the first international conference for the Arab internet industry: IBAG, International Business Alliance Group, presents ArabNet 2010: Trends and Opportunities in Arab Web Business. The conference will be held in Beirut on March 25-26, 2010 with the support of Endeavor Jordan, the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship, the Syrian Young Entrepreneurs Association and YallaStartup!.

ArabNet is bringing together the internet community to network and help launch the hottest startups from across the region — that means you! Top investors, internet executives and leaders from Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, AdMob and Intel will adress subjects that are critical to the Arab Web Industry including: e-commerce, gaming, mobile, content, online advertising, social networking, new media, and start-up fundraising.

Key to the conference are pitch sessions: Ideathon & Startup Demo. This is the place to match talent with opportunity.

The Ideathon is looking for 10 select entrepreneurs to introduce their fresh startup ideas to eager investors in a rapid-fire pitch session. Similarly, the Demo will select startups with innovative products to pitch and exhibit their companies for the duration of the conference.

We are currently accepting applications from entrepreneurs and startups from all over the region with strong ideas and products.

Visit ArabNet.me to learn more and apply.

Victoria Beckham opening in Tarik Al-Jadida!

By Rami on January 31, 2010 in Funny

I came across this store while driving through Tarik Al-Jadida today. Apparently Victoria Beckham found it too expensive to rent a place in Downtown.

And check the small sign on top of the door

They have another branch for Kids wear! (Named after Victoria’s son maybe)

Freeze Christmas! I will shoot you! – 2

By Rami on December 23, 2009 in Freeze I will shoot you

And here’s the second round of the Christmas decoration shooting. The following photos were taken on Sunday night at Sassine Square Achrafiyeh.

Freeze Christmas! I will shoot you!

By Rami on December 20, 2009 in Freeze I will shoot you

I was on my way back home from Antelias last night when I decided to take photos of the Christmas decorations I encounter on the road, so I got you these photos while passing by Zalka, Bourj Hammoud, and Downtown Beirut.

On my to-shoot list, I still have Jdeideh street, the Ice creche at ABC, the other decorations at downtown and whatever I may encounter in the coming days!

Zalka:

Bourj Hammoud:

Downtown Beirut:

P.S: Sorry for the low quality, photos were taken with my phone.

On heavy rain

By Rami on December 12, 2009 in What the fuck!

What’s the real use of a drainage system if it is unable to remove water when it heavily rains? Or is it designed in Lebanon to just accommodate the water that comes out of Im Salim’s house lama toshtof bayta?

To my bad luck I was on the road in Tarik El-Jadida when it was heavily raining in Beirut today, I’ll just leave the photos to speak about how bad the situation was there.

Everything is different at Solidere

By Rami on December 8, 2009 in Lebanon

Parking meters around Beirut all allow free parking after 5 or 6 PM except in Solidere! As you can see in the below photo, free parking is only allowed after 11 PM (Monday to Saturday).

In addition, as shown in the below photo a flat rate of 3,000L.L applies between 8 & 11 PM (Monday to Saturday), and to my knowledge it doesn’t exist anywhere else, even in the busy Hamra street.

So what’s so special about Solidere to set the parking meters in it that way?!

Review: All Best Ideas

By Rami on December 3, 2009 in Reviews

This blog post is sponsored by AllBestIdeas.com

What the owners say:

All Best Ideas is the official name of the corporation. As you can signify from its name, All Best Ideas, we have some of the best ideas and products to send your dear people in Lebanon. Our products are categorized as follows:

Gifts: On All Best Ideas, you can find gifts that suit every person and occasion.
Flowers: You can also find some magnificent flowers that perfectly reflect your feeling towards the receiver. Since the beauty and classification of these flowers are irresistible.
Plants
Cakes
Balloons
Hampers
Home Décor
Games and Toys

At All Best Ideas, we believe that creativity and the expression of individuality represent two great human treasures. We recognize that people are looking for ways to express their individuality and creativity when shopping for themselves and others, a major challenge in today’s chain store-dominated retail environment. We have set out to create a business that makes best goods accessible to everyone. We are committed to provide first-rate customer service, and guarantee complete customer satisfaction with every purchase.

Our service is simple. First, you visit our website, check out our products, follow up the purchasing procedure, and order the products. Of course, this procedure is online.

When we receive your order, the products are well treated for sending to the required location, with a specific fee concerning the delivery.

What Rami says:

What I liked:

Their friendly online customer service agent. I had a chat with them today pretending to be a customer and they were very helpful.
The links on the left that make it easy on you to reach what you need to order based on your budget, occasion, theme, or recipient.
They have an actual showroom unlike other Lebanese flowers & gifts websites.

What I disliked:

Their blog, the posts are not related at all to each other. One post for example is about artificial rain! It should be used to communicate more with the readers. Maybe update them on the upcoming products.
The overall design of the website. I am no design expert, but I think there’s room for improvement in the website layout.

+961 claims victory in the 2009 USJ election

By Rami on November 4, 2009 in Election ’09

The student body election at the Saint Joseph University ended YESTERDAY, however until now I still have no idea about the real winner in this election!

Is it the Lebanese Forces? Is it March 14 coalition? Is it the Free Patriotic Movement? Is it March 8 coalition? Is it the “الزحف الشيعي على جامعة بشير الجميّل” (also known as Hizbullah)? Mickey Mouse maybe!

If you check both of the FPM & Lebanese Forces websites (Tayyar.org & Lebanese-Forces.com) you notice that both parties claim they won the election, and to my amazement none of them tell it was a close competition! They both claim they wiped their rivals!

And to amaze us ever more, the FPM people went to Michael Aoun’s place in Rabieh late last night to celebrate their victory, and the Lebanese Forces people did the same thing at Samir Geagea’s place in Maarab!!

I recall the same thing happened last year in USJ, so I think it’s becoming a ritual there. Few thousands students casting their votes, and it takes forever to come out with an accurate final result. Fuck whoever is responsible for that.

Here’s how the Tayyar.org website looked today morning:

… and here’s how the Lebanese Forces website looked like at the same time.

Amusing eh?

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