Mark your calendar for the Government Social Media Conference

  On June 7-8 for the first time in the MENA a Government Social Media Conference will take place in Dubai, UAE at the Al Murooj Rotana Hotel. The conference is organized by The Business Council and after speaking with the conference manager Mr. Hijazi Natsheh he confirmed to us that this event will be the first of many with the possibility of it being occurring in different... Read More

Middle East Social Media Marketing Conference

A very interesting event that will hopefully provide better insights for all the marketers in the region on social media will be taking place later this month. This is something we’ve been talking about a lot lately since all the reports and surveys from the MENA region always produce the same answer “The need to understand social media better” and so on. you can... Read More

Dubizzle bigger than Twitter in the UAE!

I read a tweet today that was quite interesting, according to alexa Dubizzle ranks higher than Twitter in the UAE. Dubizzle which is a classifieds website that was launched from Dubai quickly gained popularity in the past years and has now expanded all over the MENA region. So if this could be done within 5-6 years, I think with the right marketing strategies they can obtain the... Read More

Blackberry Playbook Review

A couple of days ago we got our hands on the new Blackberry Playbook here in the UAE. The device looks sleek without any buttons on surface everything is controlled via hand gestures. It does however have a small on/off button above the screen on the edge along with a increase/decrease volume and pause play button. When I started to fiddle with it I was lost and very unimpressed... Read More

Demo Camp Dubai Review

Yesterday we attended DemoCampDubai for those of you who followed the tweets the event had its ups and downs, but that’s not what I’m going to write about in this article I will focus on giving a summary on all the demo’s and scoring them on the basis of their presentation, demo, idea originality and usefulness from 1 – 5 (1 being the lowest and 5 being... Read More

Are you attending Democamp Dubai? We are!

On April 27th a Democamp session will be held at the Dubai Internet City, to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in the MENA region. The event will take place between 5 – 8 pm at the American University in Dubai, School of Engineering Bld. 3rd floor. The event doesn’t focus on any specific subject, demo’s can be in English or Arabic, can be made for a specific... Read More

Criticism on Blackberry Playbook from Day 1 [Video]

Since RIM unveiled their new tablet product “Playbook” back in September last year which we covered here and we’ve been excited to see the launch and cover it on our website, yet there is something killing this hype today through continuous criticism everywhere that started couple of days back but it didn’t turn head, until today, the day of launch (April... Read More

Yalla! Join Google’s Student Ambassador Program in the Middle East

Enthusiasts about new technology and Google products can now have a thrilling new opportunity to be one of Google’s Student Ambassadors on their campus. Through the Students Ambassador Program, you become a liaison between Google and your university. Ambassadors plan and host several events during the school year, introduce students to new Google products and features and... Read More

New Report: The state of digital media in the MENA region

A report released on April 12th at the Digital Cream Dubai event compiled by econsultancy and Arabian Business shed’s light on the relative levels of spending for 2011 across a range of marketing channels, comparing online and offline budgets. The report was conducted by surveying over 500 companies from the region between February and March 2011. The survey included a total... Read More

Animated Video: Entrepreneur Chasing Payments

Our friends at Wamda released today a new episode of the “Mini-Entrepreneur” featuring 3antar-preneur chasing payment after gettting his first job for his venture. While the client has agreed to pay, check out now how long will it take him to receive the payment? Wamda is a newly established Entrepreneurial Support platform by Abraaj Capital and its subsidiary Riyada... Read More

BRKG: A New Guide to Venture Capital in the MENA Region

Just few minutes ago, our colleague Habib Haddad, founder of Yamli, shared a link on twitter about new fresh informative document that is much needed in the MENA region. This document was named: “A Guide to Venture Capital in the MENA Region” which could answer a lot of questions and turn down a lot of controversial wisdom. This report is a collaborative effort between... Read More

Demo Camp Amman wants your submissions

Demo Camp Amman is just around the corner the event will take place in Amman, Jordan on May 1oth at the Zara Expo from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm and is free to all. This is a very exciting opportunity for anybody that has an idea and would like to demo it to the tech community, companies and investors in the MENA region. The deadline for submissions is closing near and the last day... Read More

Google and Twitter (with the help of Saynow): let there be tweets from #Egypt

CNET has reported that Google and Twitter teamed up to provide people in Egypt a way to send out their tweets without an internet connection. As reported the country’s internet has been offline for a while now. Users with a voice connection need to dial one of three numbers which are: +16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855 and their voice messages will be converted... Read More

Event: Blackberry Developer Day Review

The Blackberry Developer Day was held yesterday at the Art Sawa gallery in Dubai, UAE and for those of you that couldn’t make it or follow our live coverage on Twitter the event went well, attendance was good, the RIM team on site was friendly and the information presented was useful for developers. The main presentation was given by Sanyu Kiruluta the Team Lead Developer... Read More

Attack of the clones: Group buying websites in the MENA region

Group buying websites have been gaining a lot of grounds in the past year worldwide and in the MENA region. You may have heard recently that Groupon raised, like, A Billion dollars and they have already started expanding their worldwide reach purchasing clone sites in South Africa, Israel and India which was only 3 months old at the time of purchase. That made me wonder if Groupon... Read More

6 Essential Free Mac Applications for better productivity

If you have a MAC you must be excited about the MAC application store which had recently launched, I have been downloading random applications since, most of them I never use but I found a couple which have been very useful especially if your busy with a million and one things to do throughout your day. Below is a list of 6 Apps which can help you get through all your daily errands... Read More

Social gaming in the MENA

2010 was a very successful year for Zynga the developers of the hit social games such as Farmville and Mafia wars they utilized Facebook to get users playing and competing with each other, Zynga is now well worth in the billions of dollars. But the question is can any social game from the MENA region achieve the success of Zynga? Can there be a Zynga of the MENA region in 2011? If... Read More

Digitizing The Koran of Kansuh al-Ghuri

Ok so this is not your typical post about Social Media however I feel it is relevant for the region. The Koran of Kansuh al-Ghuri a huge 500 year old hand written copy of the Koran is being digitized by the The John Rylands Library at the University of Manchester in England and funded by the Islamic Manuscript Association. The reason for digitizing it is simply because the Koran... Read More

Online and Social Marketing tips for the MENA region in 2011

2011 should be a better year in the market (we hope it turns out to be!) however things are still slow economically and businesses whether old or new have to be thinking carefully about how to market themselves, which makes every decision critical since every coin matters. But there are a great number of exciting opportunities that should consider applying to your marketing strategies... Read More

Facebook accounts in Tunisia hacked?

A bizarre story reported on allfacebook recently that claims that the a number of Facebook accounts in Tunisia have been hacked. Whats more is that the hackers were hired by the government! In an effort to  squash the protests that have been occurring in the Tunisia the government has teamed up with hackers to break into specific “trouble maker” accounts to change and... Read More