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!