As past president of The Sulphur Institute, a multinational industry market development organization, Mr. Morris led the successful promotion and growth of sulphur as a viable investment and commercial product in agricultural and industrial markets worldwide. The partnerships he established with the Chinese industry and government helped to stimulate growth of Chinese sulphur imports from zero to ten million tons, a more than US$1 billion market. In India, the initiatives Mr. Morris established positioned sulphur as an essential crop nutrient with the Indian government and key industry stakeholders, providing the platform for commercial development of a two million ton market for sulphur fertilizers.

With a B.S. from Rutgers University and an M.S. from Pennsylvania State University, Mr. Morris currently serves on the Industry Advisory Board for the Master of Business and Science degree program, Rutgers University and the Advisory Council of the Center of Agri Management at the Jaipuria Institute of Management in India. Additionally, he serves on the Ag Innovation Showcase Advisory Committee, is on the Expert Panel of TechCast LLC, and sits on the Wilson Council at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, D.C.

Before joining TDC, Enrico was an Associate Principal at McKinsey & Co., where he spent 10 years serving clients in Europe, Asia and U.S. in multiple sectors, in particular in the Energy, Basic Materials and Cleantech areas. Enrico holds a master degree in chemical engineering from the Politecnico of Milan and an MBA from INSEAD.

Mr. Al Darmaki is the Chief Executive Officer of the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, a government entity that spearheads the support and development of Small & Medium enterprises in the UAE. His role is integral to the strategic planning and management of the organization in alignment with the Executive Council’s objectives.

With Over 17 years of experience in Oil & Gas, Petrochemicals and Manufacturing industries, and a background in Sales & Marketing, Mr. Al Darmaki has held a number of leadership positions with governmental and private organizations in the United Arab Emirates. In 2006, Mr. Al Darmaki developed and led the Abu Dhabi Polymers Park project, the first integrated downstream petrochemical cluster in the MENA region where later on he moved to the Human Capital Development area and was appointed as the General Manager of Abu Dhabi Tawteen Council, (The National Employment Agency of the Abu Dhabi Government).He was responsible for transforming the Council into a comprehensive government employment agency and played a key role in establishing the Council’s strategic relationships with both public and private sectors.

VENUE: Manarat Al Saadiyat – Located on Saadiyat Island (View Directions)

Greetings,

Your registration to attend Startup Weekend Dubai on May 24-26 has been confirmed. Please refer to the agenda on http://swabudhabi.org

GET READY! for what I call incubation on steroids

TIPS AND TRICKS FOR STARTUP WEEKEND ABU DHABI

1- How To Pitch A Startup Idea In 60 Seconds

On the first day at Startup Weekend, you only have 60 seconds to pitch your startup idea to the audience, which votes for the best ideas. How do you get your idea across and make an impression in only one minute?
- Focus on your core idea – don’t talk about features.
- Speak clearly and not too quickly.
- Pick a name for your startup idea.
- Don’t use slides or props. You’ll only have a microphone.
- Introduce yourself and share your background. (5-10 seconds)
- Describe the problem the idea solves. (10-20 seconds)
- Explain the idea and how it solves the problem. (10-20 seconds)
- Say who you need on your team (e.g., developer, marketing, designer, etc.) (5-10 seconds)
- Remember to smile and make your enthusiasm contagious!

2. How To Develop tech idea In 54 Hours

- If the app idea is yours, before the event spend some time thinking about its “Unique Selling Proposition.”
- Make a list of all the technical components you will need to demo your app (e.g., platform, web host, external APIs, etc.).
- At the event, connect with others to form a well-balanced team with core skills in development/design, project management and business/marketing.
- Define your “Minimum Viable Product” and decide how you will demonstrate the primary value of your app.
- Use a domain name generator to brainstorm a name for your startup and make sure it is available online.
- Pick a web or mobile platform to build your demo on (e.g., WordPress, jQuery Mobile, Appcelerator Titanium).
- Break up tasks so that everyone on the team is busy and no one is waiting around.
- Check in with each team member periodically to make sure they are on track.
- Seek out feedback from event mentors, or even solicit customer feedback from people outside the event.
- Deploy your app to a host that provides easy set up, such as Heroku (Ruby), AppHarbor (.NET) or Amazon EC2.
- Understand that the app you build during the weekend is not the finished product – it’s only the beginning!

3. The Ideal Startup Weekend Team

- Back-end software developer (web or mobile platforms)
- UX designer for front-end design and mockups
- Marketing or industry-specific business expert
- Project manager to keep everyone on track

Event Agenda

Thursday- May 24, 2012
15:00 Registration and Reception
18:00 Start of Program
18:15 Keynote Speaker – H.E Abdullah Saeed Al Darmaki, Chief Executive Officer of the Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development
18:45 Pitching Ideas
20:30 Team start forming and discussions start
21:00 Dinner
22:30 Working on Ideas

Friday- May 25, 2012
09:00 Breakfast
10:00 Working on Ideas
11:30 Startup Majlis – Anas Bukhash – Founder Ahdaaf Sports Club
12:00 Working on Idea
14:00 Lunch
14:00 Working on Idea
17:00 Startup Majlis – Kamal Hassan, CEO Innovation 360 “How to build your business model”
17:30 Working on Idea
20:00 Startup Majlis – Yousef Hamza, Envestors “How to pitch to an investor”
20:30 Working on Idea.
21:30 Dinner
22:30 Working on Idea

Saturday – May 26, 2012
09:00 Breakfast
10:00 Working on Idea
11:30 Startup Majlis – Meerah Ketait, Founder of Mind Talk,
12:00 Working on ideas
14:00 Lunch
15:00 Start preparing for presentations
17:30 Final pitches (judging and awards)
19:00 Awards ceremony
20:30 Dinner

Ali was a participant at Startup Weekend Dubai where he came up with the idea for Stringcast, a feature-rich mobile blogging platform. The Stringcast concept along with supporting slides, documentation, business model and prototype source code are being made available online for free under a Creative Commons License.

Twitter: @ahamidi