Step Conference, the region’s foremost tech festival, is celebrating a decade of inspiring entrepreneurship, supporting innovation, and creating economic benefit. The milestone celebration will include more than 400 global tech start-ups from February 23-24, while tackling hot ticket issues including Web3, NFTs, blockchain, fintech, and more. It will be organised in strategic conjunction with Dubai Internet City, the region’s largest innovation hub.
Ammar Al Malik, Managing Director of Dubai Internet City, said, “Our leadership’s vision to transform the UAE into a global technology hub and establish a world-class digital infrastructure relies on ambitious start-ups pushing the envelope to deliver unique solutions and nurture competition. Our business district has been a cornerstone of the country’s economic diversification strategy for over 20 years and empowering start-ups and SMEs is essential in cementing our global competitiveness and commitment to innovation.
We are delighted to continue our partnership with Step Conference, as it embodies our district’s reputation of ‘Where Minds Click’. We will see the complete start-up community convene in the heart of Dubai Internet City, showcasing the brightest minds and ideas defining the digital future. Step’s arrival alongside the Expo 2020 unveils an immense opportunity for us to showcase our inspiring community to the global technology and innovation ecosystem. We hope to welcome international delegations to the conference, expanding the potential for partnerships and investment on a larger scale than ever before.”
Ray Dargham, CEO of Step said, “ We are very excited for our next edition, happening at the same time as Expo 2020 this year and celebrating the past decade as we witness the ecosystem evolve. Our partnership with Dubai Internet City has been impactful in engaging and supporting entrepreneurs in the region. We look forward to host top experts and discuss a future with a new digital landscape .”
The approach of the milestone anniversary alongside Expo 2020 Dubai highlights a big opportunity for the conference and its exhibiting start-ups, as it raises awareness of the region’s entrepreneurship and innovation potential to a global audience. Step will build on the ground-breaking technology breakthroughs and discussions that will take place at the global exhibition, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital healthcare, while also laying the groundwork for international collaboration and opportunity.
The 10th edition will feature two days of high-profile speakers, thrilling pitching opportunities, and a dynamic agenda addressing the most current tech topics. Visitors will have the opportunity to hear from tech heavyweights such as Paul Misener, Amazon’s Vice President of Global Innovation Policy and Communication, Elie Habib, the founder of Anghami, the Middle East’s leading music streaming service, and Michelle Arrazcaeta, Polaroid’s head of Brand Strategy & Collaborations. Sidra Qasim, co-founder of Brooklyn-based shoe business Atoms, is also joining the cast of Humans of New York.
Fintech, with a focus on payments, crypto, and e-commerce; future innovations, with a focus on AI, mobility, energy, and cloud; digital, with media, marketing, and content; and wellness, with a deep dive into health-tech and lifestyle. Visitors can take a look into the future of technology as start-ups display innovative goods and services, as well as reflect on the region’s start-up ecosystem during the last decade.
Dubai Internet City and Step have partnered to deliver cutting-edge discussions and industry insights to a diverse community of startups, investors, accelerators, businesses, and government officials. The resulting platform fosters unrivalled opportunities for knowledge sharing and cooperation in critical and developing tech industries, allowing businesses in the region to tap into the power and expertise from around the world.
Step began in 2011 as a series of workshops and informal gatherings and has since grown into a whole conference ecosystem focused on the future of technology. It brings the whole startup community together under one roof, providing opportunities to participate and exchange knowledge.
Its continuous partnership with Dubai Internet City, a major business centre with over 1,600 tech start-ups, SMEs, and international businesses, exemplifies the emirate’s supportive environment for start-ups, future unicorns, and entrepreneurs. In the World Bank’s 2019 ease of doing business report, the UAE was ranked among the top 20 of 190 economies, with plans to improve business-friendly policies in the future years. Dubai’s state-of-the-art infrastructure, government-backed projects – such as the Ministry of Economy’s plan to breed 20 unicorns by 2031 – and other factors have all contributed to the city’s success.
In5, a premier company incubator founded in 2013 in Dubai Internet City, is a Main Partner for the conference’s Start Track. Over the course of incisive keynotes, panels, and debates, the Start Track examines the whole start-up scene. Success stories, starting up and growth, the entrepreneurship ecosystem, fundraising and investment, acquisitions and IPOs, as well as spotlighting the most intriguing start-ups gaining traction, will be covered by global leaders in the tech and digital area.
The enabling platform for entrepreneurs and startups recently set a new milestone when one of its start-ups received a total investment of AED 1.4 billion. Venture capitalists and angel investors made direct investments. Since 2013, the incubator has helped 500 start-ups, with a quarter of them run by women.
Step Conference 2021 will cover a range of key topics, including:
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, will receive a lot of attention. NFTs, which are stored and sold on blockchain networks such as Ethereum, are revolutionising the digital asset market by using technology to sell digital art. The exponentially rising market has topped US$40 billion in valuation, according to the latest estimates, with the NBA, Gucci, and other large businesses embracing the trend, including Christie’s, which catapulted NFT frenzy into the mainstream with the sale of US$69.3 million digital artwork by Beeple.
A strong digital infrastructure is essential for a flourishing startup ecosystem because it allows firms to engage in the digital transformation while being cost-effective. Businesses in the UAE have played a significant role in MENA’s adoption of fintech, with the UAE accounting for about half of the region’s fintech enterprises, according to an IBS Intelligence research. Visa runs an innovation centre in Dubai. Tabby, a domestic in5 start-up, is enhancing the buy-now-pay-later sector for e-commerce firms, while Internet City is creating and exporting contactless payment technology.
The metaverse, or Web3, is another trending topic. It is a virtual reality world where people may go to live concerts, shop for goods and services, socialise, play games, and much more. According to Bloomberg, it is on track to become the next big tech platform, with a market cap of $800 billion by 2024. The metaverse has everyone’s attention since it promises to revolutionise how we communicate, spend, live, and advertise items.
On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, Step will look back on the significant achievements in technology and entrepreneurship during the previous decade. Amazon purchased Souq.com, the largest e-commerce site in the Arab world, in 2017. Careem, a DIC-based start-up, was acquired by Uber for US$3.1 billion in 2019, giving the region its first tech unicorn. With a big funding round spearheaded by SoftBank in 2021, Kitopi, the world’s leading cloud kitchen platform, became a unicorn. Such experiences, together with the emergence of a new generation of MENA entrepreneurs, are demonstrating the UAE’s growing prominence as a technology and innovation powerhouse.
Step Conference tickets for 2022 in Dubai are already on sale and can be purchased on the Step website. Please send an email to register as a member of the media pr@stepgroup.co.
