Qatar ICT Conference and Exhibition (Qitcom) – May 24-26, 2011

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ictQatar (Qatar’s Supreme Council of Information and Communication Technology) will be hosting the first Qatar ICT Conference and Exhibition (Qitcom), from May 24-26, 2011 at the Doha Exhibition Center, a move done by the government IT body to support the rapidly growing ICT market seen to expand to $3.7bn by 2013.

The conference is meant to be an opportunity for ICT leaders in Qatar to engage with global industry leaders and see first-hand the latest offerings and advances from major ICT enterprises.

A number of exhibitors have already confirmed their participation at QITCOM, including local companies such as Qatar Datamation Systems (QDS), World Connection, Total Soft, Atcom and Ictus Projects; as well as a number of multinationals such as IBM, Huawei, SAP, Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent and Oracle.

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Sikkaa: A Social Network For Amateur Football Players And Teams

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Sikkaa is a new social network type site launched from Kuwait and that targets amateur football (soccer) players and teams, helping them to promote themselves and organize matches and tournaments between them.

The word “Sikkaa” is an Arabic word that means “road”; which has been used in Kuwait for some time to describe the alleys and streets where children gather to play football, one of the most popular sports in Kuwait and around the region.

Sikkaa enables users to create their profiles as football players, upload photos and videos showing their skills at the game, create or join teams with their friends, challenge other teams, as well as participate in tournaments and events organized around them.

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mediaME.com Launches Classifieds For Advertising & Media Pros

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mediaME.com, the specialized online community for advertising and media professionals in the Middle East with over 11,000 members, has launched a free Classifieds service to address the need for sector-specific classifieds listings that provide exposure to a more targeted audience and market.

Accordingly, the mediaME Classifieds service focuses on advertising and media related categories. For example, listings categories cover all aspects of the jobs and freelance markets, featuring Job Postings, Job Seekers, Freelancers and Professional Service Providers with sub-categories for every advertising and media specialization.

The listings also aim to serve the needs of sellers with categories for Media Opportunities, Sponsorship Opportunities, Events & Activities and Business Equipment & Software. Read More

Planet of the Apps Arabia 2011 – April 18-20th 2011 – Dubai (UAE)

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There’s no arguing that we currently live in a mobile world, and since the launch of the iPhone a few years ago and all the developments that have followed in the smartphone space, contributing to the spread of such devices around the world, mobile apps have taken over as the hottest innovation area in tech.

Planet of the Apps Arabia 2011 is an event that will be taking place at Dubai’s The One & Only Royal Mirage Hotel from 18th to 20th of April 2011, aiming to cover this fast growing and exciting space. It is organized as a two day strategic conference, dedicated developer masterclass and a technology showcase exhibition.

The aim of the event is to bring together the mobile application ecosystem in one location, and get insights into what the spread of mobile applications means for business from some of the industry experts.

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Matajer: A Hosted Arab E-Commerce Solution For Online Stores

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E-commerce could very well be one of the hardest areas for an online startup from the Arab world to establish itself in, with many attempting to make breakthroughs in this space over the years and only a few barely making it, even though we have yet to witness THE big success.

Matajer is taking a stab at this space from a different angle, not by launching their own store or trying to become the one central shopping destination for regional users, not even by jumping on the daily deal bandwagon, but rather by providing a comprehensive solution to enable companies to easily create their own online stores to start selling their products online right away.

By doing this, Matajer is mainly focusing on providing the technical platform required to run an online store, but leaving the actual running and promotion of the store to the companies who choose to start them up.

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Yalla Apps: Microsoft’s MEA Windows Phone 7 Developer Portal

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Microsoft announced the launch of “Yalla Apps“, a regional Windows Phone 7 developer portal that Microsoft hopes will serve as an accelerator for the creation, availability and submission of local Windows Phone 7 applications from the developer community across the Middle East and Africa region (MEA), in addition to enabling them to be part of the growing global Windows Phone 7 developer community.

Through Yalla Apps, local developers can submit, participate and distribute their applications through the global marketplace for Windows Phone 7 and move towards monetizing their applications and creating new revenue opportunities.

Yalla Apps will also offer developers the opportunity to download Windows Phone 7 application templates, sample code and components to get a quick start in their application development. Moreover, developers can also upload their own code and share it with the community either on a free or paid basis.

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N2V Adds AqarMap, Qaym And True-Gaming To Their Portfolio

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National Net Ventures, better known as N2V, and one of the top internet groups in the Middle East, have been on an investment roll lately, announcing three new investments in regional startups within the past couple of weeks alone.

The three startups cover three different areas, following N2V’s strategy to diversify their portfolio of internet properties and expand regionally and globally to cover new areas of interest for users in the Arab world.

The announced investments were in the following startups: AqarMap, Qaym and True-Gaming.

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MasterCard Survey: Jump In UAE Online Shopping Growth Rate

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The percentage of respondents in the UAE accessing the Internet for shopping increased from 29% in 2009 to 42% in 2010 according to the results of a recent MasterCard survey on online shopping.

Results of the fourth survey on online shopping conducted by MasterCard also revealed that growth in the UAE is led by consumers within the age group of 25-44 years, while those in the 35-44 years age group also purchased more items and more frequently than others.

Involvement with online shopping also increased among women in the UAE, with 40% of respondents accessing the internet for online shopping in 2010, compared to 33% in 2011.

Categories leading the growth in the UAE in 2010 include airline tickets (74%) and hotel bookings (66%), followed by home appliances and electronic products (32%), clothing & accessories (34%), restaurants/home delivery of food (32%) and supermarkets/superstores (32%).

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First DemoCamp Amman To Be Held on May 10th 2011 At Zara Expo

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This coming May will witness another addition to the startup event scene in the region, specifically in Amman, Jordan, with the holding of the first DemoCamp Amman event.

DemoCamp Amman will be held on May 10th 2011 at Zara Expo from 7:00pm to 9:00pm.

As with other DemoCamp events around the region and the world, the goal of the event is to enable tech entrepreneurs, students, professionals and engineers to showcase and launch their new products in front of the tech community.

The event is open to startups and budding entrepreneurs both from Jordan and the region as a whole.

Demo submissions need to be submitted by April 14th 2011 to be considered for this first event; The demo submission form can be found here.
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Palestinian Hassan Hamdan Receives Award At 2010 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards

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gsea10_403.jpgPalestinian entrepreneur Hassan Hamdan, Co-Founder of Optimal Technology Solutions and recent graduate of Modern Science and Art University, has been awarded the “Lessons from the Edge Award” in the 2010 Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) Competition.

The award was given as a specialized category within the GSEA, a program of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and the premier competition for students taking a full course load of classes while running a revenue-generating business.

He also came up as the Overall Second Runner Up in the competition, chosen from among 2000 student entrepreneurs from 44 countries; and earlier this year, he was picked as the Middle East Regional Champion by GSEA.

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