The Impact of the Saudi Fast Growth 100

The second annual list of Saudi Arabia's fastest growing emerging businesses was released last night at an Awards Gala at SAGIA's 4th Annual Global Competitiveness Forum in Riyadh.

The list reveals a diverse array of robust companies, the majority founded by young and ambitions entrepreneurs -- both male and female. Saudi Fast Growth 100 winners all have a track record of extraordinary revenue growth, while accounting for the creation of thousands of new jobs.



Read the FULL LIST of winners.

Social Innovation Conferences in 2010

Happy New Year readers!

Here's to a year full of energy, innovative ideas and successful ventures!

To help us all keep the innovation "juices" flowing, after our March event, I have listed a few conferences scheduled for this spring that may be of interest:


Tech4Society - February 11-13 in Hyderabad, India

Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference - March 16-18 in Miami

Social Media for Stakeholder Engagement - March 19 in London

Skoll World Forum - April 14-16 in Oxford, UK

Global Philanthropy Forum - April 18-21 in Redwood City, CA

SOCAP International 2010 Symposium - April 25-28 in Atlanta

Milken Global Forum - April 26-28 in Los Angeles

Social Enterprise Alliance World Summit - April 28-30 in San Francisco

The New Entrepreneur Conference 2010 - May 13-14 in Dusseldorf, Germany

Women Deliver Global Conference - June 7-9 in Washington, DC

Personal Democracy Forum - June 21-22 in New York City

iSociety International Conference - June 28-30 in London


Thank you to Justmeans.com for tracking and sharing these conferences.


Happy Innovating, friends.

Feast on THIS.

All Day Buffet's brilliant and increasingly popular conference: "Feast on Good "

"The Feast Conference gathers the world's greatest innovators from across industries and society to empower, inspire and engage each other in creating world-shaking change." (Feast website)

Watch the talks HERE.

And Forum students: Guess who they're sponsored by? GRASSHOPPER... (need a reminder? see the video below.)

Lingerie Lessons in Jeddah

A group of 26 mostly Saudi women completed a course on how to fit, stock and sell underwear, in hopes that this type of training would help boost a campaign to lift the ban on women selling lingerie in the kingdom.

After 40 hours of instruction, using bras donated by Victoria's Secret, the women held a ceremony at Dar Al Hekma College in Jeddah on Tuesday. How did Victoria's Secret find out about this push in Saudi Arabia? Facebook. Once again, smart use of open-source tools can build networks that were previously near impossible to build.

The 10-day training course occured just three months after the launch of a campaign to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women. The aim of the boycott? Simply the implementation of an existing law (passed in 2006) which says only female staff can be employed in women's colthing stores.

According to Reem Asaad (a finance lecturer at the college and the main force behind the boycott campaign) the course was the idea of Dr. Suhair al-Qurashi, Dean of Dar al-Hekma College.

"She wanted the training to be a part of the solution because the industry was complaining that there's a lack of qualified (women) in the market who can run and manage lingerie stores," said Asaad. "So we covered fitting and technical issues, we covered selling and handling customer complaints."

British consul-general of Jeddah, Kate Rudd, attended the ceremony to show her support.

King Abdullah II Awards Youth Innovators for Community Projects

During the closing ceremony of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East (held at the Dead Sea from 15-17 May 2009), King Abdullah II of Jordan honored four winners out of ten outstanding Arab youth finalists for leading pioneering efforts in their communities to improve people’s lives.

The winners of the King Abdullah II Award for Youth Innovation and Achievement were:

• Rabee Zureikat, 29, Jordan - Project aims to promote greater equality through volunteerism, cultural exchanges and micro-loans
• Lana Hijazi, 27, Palestine - Launched a mobile-based service matching job seekers and employers
• Abdelkareem Bedri, 22, Sudan - Works with the hearing impaired to increase learning and employment opportunities among this vulnerable group
• Raghda El Ebrashy, 26, Egypt - A YouthActionNet ® Global Fellow, who addresses the economic needs of youth and women in Old Cairo by offering them vocational training and job placement support.

The awards program was launched by the King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD) in partnership with the International Youth Foundation (IYF) to support young social entrepreneurs in the Arab World.

KAFD was supported throughout the award process by YouthActionNet®, which is the International Youth Foundation’s youth leadership initiative that has provided 140 young leaders from 55 countries with capacity building and leadership training through its global fellowship program.

To learn more about the finalists, click here
For more information on IYF’s YouthActionNet program, click here

Middle East Regional Social Entrepreneurs 2009- Schwab Foundation

Two social entrepreneurs from the Middle East have been recognized by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship as winners of the Middle East Regional Social Entrepreneurs 2009.  The winners (listed below) were honored at an awards ceremony in Jordan at the end of May.  (information below from the Schwab Foundation website)

Naif Al Mutawa – Teshkeel Media Group (”THE 99”) –  Kuwait 

 

Teshkeel Media Group is focused on creating wholesome new children’s adventures 

through its proprietary superheroes, “THE 99”. Drawing upon global history, culture and traditions, its aim is to provide positive and inspirational role models for children that are inspired by Islam albeit on a global level. THE 99 are superheroes from 99 countries that work together to improve the world with story lines that promote diversity, multiculturalism, personal responsibility and personal accountability. THE 99 comics have been licensed in 8 languages with editions in Indonesia, Turkey, France, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal already, with other countries soon to be included. THE 99 Village theme park – the first of six – recently opened in Jahra, Kuwait and a global animation project co-Produced with media giant Endemol is poised to hit the airwaves by the end of 2009.  

 

Ziad Al Refai – Tamweelcom  – Jordan 

 

Tamweelcom is the Middle East's leading Microfinance organization, ranked 8th best microfinance bank worldwide. It provides credit opportunities for micro-entrepreneurs, who cannot access the banking system due to a lack of collateral. It also provides business training and vocational services to the poorest communities in Jordan, women-led families and widows, through its loan offices. Through successful innovations such as the Souk Ayyadi markets that create sales channels for the products and services of its members, educational scholarship funding for performing member’s family, and “pay and renew” loan systems, Tamweelcom has continued to grow and serve client’s needs. Since inception, it has served more than 100,000 micro-entrepreneurs with more than $75 million (USD) in loans. 

Not your average summer camp

At the Introductory Seminar we had a number of students who were interested in youth issues- please see below for an interesting initiative taking place this summer:

Since 2003, An-Najah National University has organized an annual summer work camp which has invited International Volunteers and Students to work with Palestinian students at the university, refugee camps, children and civil society organizations where they can truly experience the Palestinian community and the traditions.

At the same time, they encourage and support the local students and make them feel that they are a part of the larger global youth.

photo from Micky's photostream

Happy International Women's Day!

Happy International Women's Day!

Since 1911, International Women's Day has celebrated the economic, political, and social achievements of women: past, present and future.

The progress women have made world-wide, and the critical contribution of women to the betterment of their societies in every corner of the world are indisputable.

IWD events are being held all over the world- check them out.

Women of the Gulf showcase their achievements

As we prepare for the first event of the US-Saudi Women's Forum on Social Entrepreneurship, which will occur in Jeddah this spring, we are excited to hear about an exhibition being organized by the Jeddah-based Al-Eman Association. 

The First Gulf Women Exhibition will showcase the experiences and achievements of women around the Gulf in various fields.  There will be specialized sections on:  businesswomen, higher education, and health care.  

As we are all keenly aware, the image of women in the Gulf often includes words like: "oppressed" "uneducated" "sheltered".  This exhibition will show other women of the Gulf, and the rest of the world, that there are women doing incredible work all over the Gulf.  Women in business, health care, education, and finance are having positive impacts on their communities, while respecting and enhancing their traditional cultures.  

Additionally, the event will have a section for "housewives" where home-based businesses will be highlighted as a way to fight the issue of unemployment among women.  Jawhara Al-Anqri, head of the Al-Eman Association stated that this section was created "... because there are women in the Kingdom who have started their own business in order to fight the issue of unemployment."   

Events such as this one have the unique opportunity to shed light on the often overlooked achievements and advances being made by bright and motivated women throughout the Gulf region.

Clearly, the types of ideas that are necessary for successful Social Enterprise, already exist among women in the Gulf.  We hope that the US-Saudi Women's Forum on Social Entrepreneurship will be able to leverage this existing interest and activity, and highlight the various ways Social Enterprise could work in the Gulf- creating employment opportunities and improving local communities within the traditions and customs of the local culture. 

(photo courtesy of Lateefa's photostream) 

Social Responsibility in the Kingdom

As the U.S.-Saudi Women’s Forum on Social Entrepreneurship takes shape, we are very excited to hear that the Saudi Ministry of Social Affairs has made "Social Responsibility" a national priority.

In case you have not yet heard, the first three days of February 2009, the first ever Forum on "Social Responsibility and the Participation of Public and Private Sectors" was held in Riyadh's Al-Faisaliah Hotel.

The Forum highlighted the importance of partnership between the public and private sectors, and their roles in promoting community responsibility. The Ministry of Social Affairs is aiming to create and promote a culture of social responsibility in Saudi Arabia.

Among the over 400 participants, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah was in attendance, and called for launching collaborative social projects with a focus on the reintegration of the "underprivileged section of society".  Additionally, Minister of Social Affairs Yusuf Al-Othaimin stated that one of the aims of the Forum is the "building of dialogues between the public and private sectors and encouragement of media to support social responsibility programs”.

We are pleased to be promoting social responsibility in the Kingdom at a time that the country is seeking to increase awareness about social responsibility and identify community needs.

Stay with us and we'll keep you informed!


(photo from Mohammad Al-Rehaili's photostream)