With the Participation of a Number of Entrepreneurs: UOB’s “Business Incubator” Holds Workshops and Lectures for Students on Start-up Entrepreneurship

The Business Incubator Center at the University of Bahrain (UOB) recently held a series of remote lectures and workshops for students, in which a number of business leaders in Bahrain participated and presented their successful experiences in the field of establishing their own projects, speaking about the entrepreneurial environment in the Kingdom.

The Director of Business Development in the Startup Sector at the Economic Development Board, Pakiza Abdulrahman, indicated the components available in the entrepreneurship environment, and how students can benefit from the services in these components when they create their own projects, as well as the entities that entrepreneurs can turn to in order to obtain financial financing, including Tamkeen, business accelerators, and incubators in Bahrain, and how to convert ideas into commercial projects.

The Co-Founder and the CEO of Archytype Foundry and FabLab Bahrain, Dr. Salman Al-Oraibi and Ali Rajaei, confirmed the possibility of converting an idea to a commercial project, whether as a product or service that the customer needs. Pointing out the importance of asking questions that could be a roadmap for establishing the project, including: What does the customer need? How do I prepare the product’s prototype? What are the methods for testing product quality? What are the ways to introduce the product or service to the market?

Moreover, Dr. Al-Oraibi and Rajaei reviewed an X-ray sterilization device, represented in a robot that sterilizes rooms by sending rays that kill microbes, viruses and germs, as one of the models for projects that can be completed in a short period of time, to meet a need in society and to serve customers, stressing that it is a project that came within the national efforts to combat Corona virus (Covid-19).

The director of programs at the Business Accelerator (Brink), Marwa Al-Iskafi, mentioned ways to convert ideas into start-up projects, with the importance of making sure that this idea can be converted into a successful commercial project, depending on the extent of its contribution to solving customer problems or serving them.

While the Co-Founder and CEO of UniPal, Ali Al-Alawi, presented his own experience in benefiting from his university life in establishing an innovative project that achieves both professional and commercial success, and through which he can serve a segment of society, pointing out that the idea of the application is widespread in the United Kingdom to serve the segment of university students. Al-Alawi stated that “The idea of the application was based on providing various services such as: restaurants, shops, clinics, hospitals and others, for the category of university students at reduced prices,” pointing out that although the idea was not related to his university major, but in partnership with others, he was able to implement it and turn it into a commercial project. Also, he confirmed the existence of obstacles and problems that may encounter any startup business, which can be overcome by finding innovative solutions that ensure the development and continuation of the project.