Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Media gurus, government officials and promising entrepreneurs were gathering last Wednesday at the Milan Chamber of Commerce to discuss the future of media and mechanisms to better support technopreneurs (technology entrepreneurs). The event was organized by PROMOS in cooperation with Creative Commons, "Meet The Media Guru" and the local government of Lombardy.  Over the full-day event, I was glad to speak at the same panel with peers from the Arab World: Abdullatif Al Sayegh -the CEO of Arab Media Group one of the powerful player in the scene of Arab media, and Mohammad Abdullah -the Executive Director of Dubai Media City. I also was glad to speak to Antonio Ferrari -the World-class journalist who interviewed leaders across the world including H.M. King Abdullah few days right before the recent visit of the Pop to Jordan. I was also glad to meet Roberto Ronza -the Senior Advisor of the Lombardy Region in Italy. For Melan, media business occupies a huge space of the landscape of the local economy and plays a great role in promoting it as the city fashion, history, art and business opportunities. During the panel discussion, statistics about traditional media in the Arab world and future of the Media after the rise of Media 2.0 (social web) were presented. As part of discussion interesting ideas were raise, like the how policians and celebrities are adapting with the new media? and how new media will affect the positioning of traditional media instead of replacing it? (Taking for example, the status of radio and cinema after the widespread of TV) Also, how the growth and spread of new media is dependent on the development of infrastructure (internet speed and cost of bandwidth, availability of supporting devices and enabling technologies.. etc.) During my talk, I focused on Innovation as the primary competitive advantage in the 21st century -while price and quality were the most dominant competitive advantages of businesses in previous centuries- and I moved to speak about the progress of the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship in nurturing innovation by establishing a specialized training Institute in the domain of systematic Innovation. Speaking about Innovation, I presented two success stories from Jordan: Ketab Technologies and Kindisoft and how these entrepreneurs managed to gain remarkable market access and achieve rapid growth and recognition of world class companies such as Google and Disney. In the afternoon session, there were one-to-one pre-scheduled meetings where I get the chance to meet a representatives from FBF -an international network branding company and candidate for one of Oskar Awards. I was pleased to talk to two exceptional entrepreneurs Fuse Creative Lab and Lorri who have successfully developed amazing interactive surface solutions using gesture recognition technologies, which can really achieve better performance than Windows Surface and Xbox technologies and can be applied for so many other applications. I will be writing a special post about them soon. But for now, I can keep leave you with this interesting appetizer that demonstrates one of their solutions!
posted by Mohd Khawaja in business, Entrepreneurs, Google, innovation, Jordan, passion, Politics, queen rania, startups, success, technology, video @ 5:41 PM   (1) comments
Sunday, May 17, 2009
It gives me a great pleasure to invite you to join the world-class speakers at The Entrepreneurs Week! During this week, the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship and other distinguished partners are opening an interactive discussion with outstanding international speakers who are going to talk about several important topics in Entrepreneurship, Business and Management.  Among the speakers are Joi Ito; a Japanese entrepreneur, venture capitalist and board member of numerous for-profit and not-for-profit boards. He has a background in Hollywood motion pictures, Japanese television production and online media. His recent focus is investing in early stage internet companies such as Flickr, Twitter, Last.fm, Six Apart and Technorati. Ito is the CEO of Creative Commons.We also lucky to have Habib Haddad the entrepreneur behind Yamli.com, and drives its vision of empowering the Arabic language and users on the web. His responsibilities span from product strategy and design to business development. The World Economic Forum recently recognized Habib as a Young Global Leader for 2009. Yesterday's Seminar about Blue Ocean Strategy was very interesting since the speaker Mohammad Ajlouni -the Managing Director of Middle East Defense Systems - one of the rare 48 Blue Ocean Certified Practitioners world wide. The program of The Entrepreneurs Week:
Please feel free to attend all -or at least part of- these seminars. because such experts will not be available -and free of charge- again in Jordan until the upcoming Entreprenuers Week! :)
posted by Mohd Khawaja in amman, business, Entrepreneurs, innovation, Jordan, kaddb, passion, queen rania, startups, success, technology, Work @ 9:10 AM (2) comments
Sunday, February 22, 2009
This Monday, the 23rd of Feb, we have a BIG event! DART and ArabCrunch are  organizing the ArabCrunch Demo 09; the launchpad for emerging technologies in the Arab World. During this event, Five technology startups from Jordan and Egypt are going to officially launch their innovative products and speak out about their vision for the future! In addition to the Innovators demonstrating their products, we has 3 distinguished speakers: Sumaya Kazi (Sun Microsystems), Herve Cuviliez (Kuv Capital), and Khaled Jabasini (E-Marketing MENA). The role of these speakers is to evaluate and elaborate on what is presented by the 5 demoers. For further information and registration, kindly visit the event website. Looking forward to meeting you there!
posted by Mohd Khawaja in dart, demo, Entrepreneurs, innovation, Jordan, queen rania, startups, success, technology @ 8:59 AM (0) comments
Saturday, July 26, 2008
It is a pleasure to invite you to this special seminar co-organized by Google and the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship.  This information is free of charge. For further information and registration, please send an email to: google@qrce.org
posted by Mohd Khawaja in business, Entrepreneurs, Google, innovation, Jordan, passion, queen rania, success, technology, Work @ 1:39 PM (2) comments
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
الآن أصبح لديك فرصة أكبر لتحقيق حلمك بإنشاء شركتك الخاصة. في عامها الثالث، أتاحت جائزة الملكة رانيا الوطنية للريادة المجال لكل الرياديين – سواء كانوا طلبة جامعيين أو أشخاص طموحين من عامة المجتمع – للمشاركة في المسابقة والتنافس على جوائز يقدر مجموعها بـ 70.000 دولار أمريكي. فإذا كانت لديك فكرة مشروع في أي من مجالات العلوم والتكنولوجيا، لا تتردد بتقديم فكرتك لمركز الملكة رانيا للريادة من خلال الموقع الإلكتروني www.qrce.org لتبدأ خطواتك الأولى نحو النجاح! تتميز الجائزة هذا العام بمساهمة شركة Google العالمية في دعم جائزة إضافية تقدم لأفضل خطة عمل لمشروع على الانترنت، بالإضافة إلى الجائزة التي يقدمها مركز الملك عبد الله الثاني للتصميم والتطوير لأفضل خطة أعمال في مجال الأمن والحماية. إذا لم تتمكن من مشاهدة العرض التعريفي لجائزة الملكة رانيا للريادة خلال الحملة التعريفية للجائزة في الجامعات والأماكن العامة (النقابات، غرف الصناعة والتجارة...) فيسرني دعوتكم لمشاهدة الفيديو الخاص بالعرض بالصوت والصورة
posted by Mohd Khawaja in business, Entrepreneurs, Google, innovation, Jordan, Love and Passion, MIT, passion, queen rania, success, technology, video, vision @ 10:25 AM (3) comments
Monday, May 12, 2008
In cooperation with Google and King Abdullah II Design and Development Bearu (KADDB), the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) has officially launched the 3rd year of the Queen Rania National Entrepreneurship Competition (QRNEC) with $70,000 of cash prizes in addition to in-kind services provided by the Centre to the winners in order to support the their mission in creating successful startups.
 The QRNEC is now open for all entrepreneurs - whether you are a university student or an aspiring entrepreneur, so, everyone is invited to apply and compete for $ 70,000 of cash awards. The additional interesting advantage for this year is that Google is offering an additional cash award for the best the online business plan, in addition to the special award that KADDB is offering for the best business plan for defense and security. If you have a business idea in any discipline of technology (biotechnology, nanotechnology, information & communication technology (ICT), agricultural technology, environmental technology, water, energy or any other disciplines of technology) that is likely to win, present it to the Queen Rania Center for Entrepreneurship (QRCE) through the its website (www.qrce.org) before 19/6/2008 and start on the road to success! QRCE has established many invaluable partnerships, this year, with many institutions contribute to the support of the center and the competition. These institutions are: Google, King Abdulla II Development and Design Bureau, Orange, Jordan Commercial Bank, Jordan Dubai Capital, Optimiza, Jeeran and Jordan Business. Are you curious to know about the winners and success stories of the previous 2 years? Then, please play this embedded video:
If you receive this post by email, you need to visit the blog url (http://mkhawaja.jeeran.com) to be able to play the video. More posts will be posted here about the orientations presentations I did around Jordan.. stay tuned! :)
posted by Mohd Khawaja in amman, business, Entrepreneurs, Google, innovation, Jordan, kaddb, MIT, queen rania, success, technology, video, Work @ 2:08 PM (4) comments
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Do-it-yourselfers are simply people who dare to build and compose innovative products out of basic things available around. In fact, the term do-it-yourself didn’t enter the language until the early ’50s, and the abbreviation DIY soon followed. A year ago, I’ve read an article by Paul McFedries, that says we live in the age of tech DIY in which geeks of all persuasions and both sexes engage in various forms of digital tinkering and hardware hacking. It is interesting to know that the vast majority of the DIY widgets fall under the new category of open-source hardware. The recipes and constructopedias that explain how to create them are shared with anyone who wants them. That brings in more DIYers, and the hobbyist renaissance grows even bigger. Bashiti Hardware –a specialized hardware retailer in Jordan- organized a national DIY competition last year as part of its role in supporting this culture among Jordanians. Unfortunately I was not able to join or -at least- be there take photos and meet the DIYers but I’m sure it was an extraordinary experience for everyone.  I was really impressed when I read a news release that says MIT has recently released fun-filled comic-book called: “Howtoons” that is designed to inspire youngsters all over the world with a sense of can-do adventure, and to teach them a few principles of science and engineering--and a sense of the creative possibilities all around them--along the way of just having fun.In this comic book, cartoon kids Celine and Tucker set up a home workshop and then proceed to build a whole series of toys and gadgets out of leftover items. The idea for Howtoons came about when Bonsen and Griffith were MIT graduate students. They organized few workshops that include few of the construction projects - for local schoolchildren and invited MIT professors to come and bring their families. The book evolved spontaneously as people attended these workshops tinkered and experimented with a variety of simple materials. The impetus for developing the concept into a business plan came when they took a class in developmental entrepreneurship taught by Legatum Center founder and faculty director Alex "Sandy" Pentland. The projects range from rockets and goggles to simple electric motors, a marshmallow-shooting blowgun, and a simple way of making homemade ice cream. The materials are mostly everyday items like plastic bags and bottles, rubber bands and paper clips. The idea of publishing this comic-book is to make the instructions as visually self-explanatory as possible, so that kids anywhere can use them without having to read the words (although the book will also be translated into several languages – hopefully Arabic language would be one of them!). I would like to conclude by a quote for Bonsen – one the co-authors of Howtoons: "We want to inspire them to think about the world around them not as it is, but as it could be."
posted by Mohd Khawaja in business, DIY, innovation, Jordan, Love and Passion, MIT, My daily life, passion, success, technology @ 2:53 PM (4) comments
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
If you spend most of your day working on your laptop and don't have time to walk, play aerobics or join the gym next door, I'm glad to tell you a group of MIT students have solved this problem for you! :)
MIT students have come up with a way to recharge your laptop without plugging it in. Rather than consuming electricity, you'll be burning calories--your own.
 The students designed and built an exercise bicycle that uses "pedaling power" to charge a laptop computer. As the bike's instructions note, if you have trouble "squeezing in that daily exercise," you can now "multitask with no problem--[you can] bike while you work!"
The pedal-powered laptop began as a class assignment for Course 1.102, Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Design (spring 2007), when students were instructed to design and build a device that converts mechanical power into electrical power.
Enjoy reading more about this interesting invention here.
posted by Mohd Khawaja in adaptive, business, energy, innovation, MIT, passion, success, technology @ 4:44 PM (5) comments
Thursday, October 18, 2007
It is my pleasure to introduce to you Mohammad Shar'; a specialized computer programmer in adaptive technologies.
Mohammed Al-Shar', who was born blind, has exceeded the expectations of his community and today he does what most of his peers with sight might find difficult!
While many blind people have gone beyond the odds to succeed, Al-Shar' has even taken his confidence to a new level of challenging his disability by learning and mastering computer programming. Currently, he is working as a technical support and training executive for Nattiq technologies, an international firm that specializes in assistive (also called adaptive) technologies.
To know more about Mohammad and his success story I invite you to read my articles @ October's issue of JO magazine. The article title is: "Life is Virtual".
 You may also view the amazing video broadcasted at Al Jazeera channel few months ago.
If you receive this post by email, you need to accesss: http://mkhawaja.jeeran.comto be able to watch the video.
posted by Mohd Khawaja in adaptive, amman, blind, JO magazine, Jordan, Love and Passion, My daily life, passion, success, technology @ 5:02 PM (2) comments <<Home About:  Name: Mohd Khawaja Country: Jordan A Young Entrepreneur, a brother of 4 successful sisters, a son of 2 great parents a husband of ONE wonderful wife, and a father of two cute little kids :) Loading Recent Posts
   
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