QINOCON's timings have changed from 8:00 am to 5.00 pm to the new timings 8:00 am to 3:15 pm. The reason for the change is because the event coincides with an intense academic season. Also for this event, we no longer require that schools send staff members to accompany students. Schools can just organize payments and send us the registration list. Students can then arrive on their own.
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GEMS American Academy will be hosting the second Qatar Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference (QINOCON) on April 27th, 2019. The Qatar Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference (QINOCON) is a student-run, entrepreneurship conference where the youth will be able to learn about turning ideas into organizations and get a chance listen to the inspiring stories of real-life entrepreneurs. The conference is led by the Conference CEO Lina Al Kaisay, Conference COO Cesar Al Kaisy and founder and Chair Andrew Jose - all students of GEMS American Academy - Qatar. The conference targets students interested in Entrepreneurship from Grade 8/Year 9 to those in Grade 12/Year 13. This QINOCON will feature local serial entrepreneur Omar Shamiyeh, founder of the startup food chain Fries in Qatar and the man behind Doha Burger Festival; Rabia Ahmad Mughal, a student entrepreneur who is the CEO of Kinecto - a tech startup, which seeks to be a global leader in renewable, portable energy devices; and, Brad Howard the founder of Blue Haus Mallet Shop, which has disrupted an established market by redefining the relationship between maker and customer. Moreover, Evan Wesley from the Thirst Project will deliver the closing speech through a pre-recorded video which he would exclusively send to us (because he won't be able to be present physically at the event). This year's QINOCON brings more entrepreneurs to students, so that they can gain valuable lessons which they can use when they leave school and start their enterprises and ventures. Invites have been sent out already to schools around Doha. Any school, not invited yet, and interested in the event are welcome to email [email protected]. For more information, QINOCON has set up a website: www.qinocon.weebly.com/2019 Al Wakrah Qatar: GEMS American Academy - Qatar organized the inaugral Qatar Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference (2018) on its campus on April 21, 2018. Founded by Andrew Jose, the project was spearheaded by student leadership which were supervised and advised by project advisor Tiffany Alrefae (Upper School Principal of GEMS American Academy). The staff of GEMS American Academy, the facilities managers and especially CEO Mark Lentz, provided encouragement to the conference organizers during their endevour. This project was part of GEMS American Academy's independent study program ) - created by the Vice Principal of Academics and History Department Head, Alzahir Tharani - where students are empowered to form projects that will benefit the community and leave a legacy behind for future GEMS students. The conference provided students with a fresh look at entrepreneurship, where practical ideas were shared with students from entrepreneurs within Qatar, a Senior Corporate Relationship Manager at Commercial Bank, and two individuals who work at Al Jazeera. In this way, the conference catered to both students who were part of their school business studies and commerce programs, as well as students who were passionate about entrepreneurship. The 2018 QINOCON (short for Qatar Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Conference) had the theme "From Why to How". The organizers invited speakers who helped the attendees learn how to take their ideas from dreams into reality. The speakers were Renee Odeh and Juan Carols Van Meek (who work at Al Jazeera), Lina Tarawneh (a young social entrepreneur who founded Green Mangroves - an NGO in Qatar), Christian Ofori - Atta (A parent at GEMS American Academy - Qatar, working as a Senior Corporate Relationship Manager at Commercial Bank, who volunteered to speak in his capacity as a parent), and Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon (co-founder of ILoveQatar). Renee Odeh and Juan Carlos Van Meek provided insights to conference attendees on how a media organization works; Lina Tarawneh presented on social entrepreneurship; Christian Ofori-Atta discussed the funding and financing aspects of entrepreneurship; and Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon discussed on how he started Qatar's largest digital media network. In addition to these speakers, Mr. Mark Lentz (CEO of GEMS American Academy - Qatar) and Lisa Martin (Head of THIMUN Qatar) delivered the opening and closing keynote speeches respectively. Mr. Lentz spoke on the core values of GEMS American Academy and Entrepreneurial-ism, and Ms. Lisa Martin spoke on "The Sustainable Development Goals and Entrepreneurship". Students from GEMS American Academy - Qatar, Amna Bint Wahab Secondary School for Girls, Newton International Academy, Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha and Vision International School attended this event. The QINOCON 2018 Conference was led by Andrew Jose, Khalid Abdel Rahman, Mozelle Ofori - Atta, Ariele Edward and Ms. Tiffany Alrefae. organizing team executives (QINOCON 2018)
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Check speakers tab in qinocon.weebly.com/2018CONFERENCE HANDBOOK
Christian is an experienced banking professional currently working with the Commercial Bank of Qatar as Senior
Corporate Relationship Manager. He has about 16 years experience within the banking industry across Ghana in Africa and Qatar in the Middle East. He has been a resident in Qatar over the last 10 years. His core duties include the management and development of portfolio of assets and client relationships as well as contributing meaningfully to effective risk management for sustainable growth. His key interests are Relationship Building, People Development, Risk Management, Effective Governance and overall making Businesses impact positively on Humanity and the Environment on a sustainable basis. He is considered as a Relationship Manager of choice for his special ability to inspire and develop young ones and team members with a focus on long term relationship development with fellow bankers, clients, friends in other industries and sectors and all stakeholders in the community, both local and international. Christian is known to be a great team player, very resourceful, committed to team goals and objectives and an advocate for peace and peaceful resolution of disputes through effective dialogue. His result-driven nature keeps him focused on objectives all the time until he achieves the set target and goals. His multi-cultural awareness and international exposure have contributed to his success in relationship and partnership development within the banking industry and with various kinds of clients. Educationally, Christian is from science background. He studied Agricultural Science (major in Crop Science) at the University of Ghana, Legon where he graduated with B.Sc Agric Degree. Post National Service and working a year on USAID sponsored project (Community School Alliances project) as a District Facilitator, he moved into banking and begun to study professional banking and finance. He studied professional banking to advance level and chartered to become an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, Ghana (ACIB) in 2005. Christian also holds Master of Business Administration, Finance Option from University of Leicester, UK. His MBA Dissertation was on the role of the Chinese Currency’s (RMB) valuation and tradability in China’s international competitiveness. He is currently a final year student, studying a Master of Law (LLM) Degree course in Corruption, Law and Governance), which is being delivered on part-time basis here in Doha at the Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center (ROLACC) by the University of Sussex, Law School, UK. Christian accepted the invitation to speak at the QINOCON 2018 in his capacity as an individual and also as a parent at GEMS American Academy Qatar (GAAQ). His attendance at the conference is to support youth education and development by sharing his knowledge with the conference participants on how to move ideas from Concept to Innovation with particular focus on Funding. Target audience: Grade 8/Year 9 to
Grade 12/Year 13 All those who desire to start their own media networks, and seek insight into how one is run, can now be glad about the fact that Odeh and van Meek from Al Jazeera will be present at QINOCON. Odeh and van Meek will provide insights into how Al Jazeera works, while helping those who want to start their own networks learn how to take their dreams to action. Their presentation will be in session 2, of QINOCON. Carlos van Meek started his career at WSVN (Fox affiliate) in Miami, Florida in 1994 where he left as an EP. He then moved to Fox News in NYC shortly after launch where he worked as a coordinating producer and bureau chief opening and managing bureaus in Afghanistan and Baghdad. He joined Al Jazeera English in 2006 as a Senior Field Producer, opening and operating the bureau in Athens, Greece, which covered the Middle East and North Africa, eastern Europe and the Balkans. Carlos Van Meek then moved to Doha in 2010 to take on the role of Executive Producer for AJE in time for the Arab Spring. In 2012 he was promoted to Head of Output where he was the Editorial Team lead for the launch of Al Jazeera America. He Left Al Jazeera in 2015 to launch TRT World in Istanbul where he was the Director of News and Current Affairs. Now back once more with Al Jazeera to work with the Executive Director of the recently formed Digital division to work on global content strategy.
Renee Odeh began her TV news career in 2001 at the ABC news affiliate in Memphis, Tennessee. She was a graphics producer before being promoted to news producer. She then took a job with the Fox affiliate in Memphis in 2004, as a show producer. She launched a midday news bulletin that became one of the highest rated news shows in the Mid South. In 2006, Renee began working in international news, for Al Jazeera English in Washington DC. She helped launched the channel and produced shows from DC for two years, before moving to the network headquarters in Doha. She was promoted to Executive Producer in 2014 and simultaneously presented an online show for several years that took viewers behind the scenes on how news is made and how decisions are taken at the channel, while incorporating viewer interaction. After considering the presentations scheduled for the event, QINOCON believes that it is more fitting to have the theme - From why to how for our event. This theme is best illustrated in the video below. Many of us will realize from watching the video posted above, that the man in the video is none other than Mr. Q - our friendly neighborhood Qatari. Thanks to the ILoveQatar.net, and THIMUN Qatar's Qatar Leadership Conference (through where one of our team members met him), the QINOCON team was able to invite him to speak at our conference. Mr. Q, is none other than Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon. Khalifa Al Haroon is a Founder and CEO of ILoveQatar.net and the I Love Qatar (ILQ) Network, which is Qatar’s first Qatari social website. The network is home to some of the most iconic 6 online brands in Qatar including iLoveQatar, Qatar News, Qatar Events, Dine Out Doha, and more. Khalifa, also known as Mr. Q on his blog/vlog, is a well accomplished entrepreneur (President of the Entrepreneurs Organization) and has a background in law, investment banking and social media management. Shifting his focus to YouTube, he has launched or partnered with a number of new shows including QTips (Humor/Culture), Karak Time (Culture and Society), The Round Up (Events), Ignition ME (Automotive), RaqamiTV (Arabic Tech Show), Top 5 Everything (Ranking List), and Mr. Q Visits (a personal Vlog). Khalifa made number of appearances on international channels, such as BBC, Discovery Channel, TV5, Monte Carlo, Boston Globe, CNN, Al Jazeera, and others. He is a board member of Internet Society and Online Community (Qatar Branch), founding board member of Qatar Animal Welfare Society and President of Entrepreneurs Organization Qatar (EO Qatar). In QINOCON 2018, Mr. Khalifa will speak along the lines of how he started the largest social network in Qatar.
Lina Al Tarawneh wants to live in a world where horses are ridden to school, smiling is contagious, and where crocheting can be done while reading novels. After visiting a mangrove forest growing around Purple Island in Qatar, she discovered the beauty and fragility of mangrove forests. Today, she is the co-founder of Green Mangroves. Green Mangroves promotes kayaking, conservation of Qatar’s Mangroves and youth empowerment. The project runs bimonthly trips to Al Thakira mangrove forest, where you can kayak at a reduced cost, engage in hands-on activities and cleanups. These trips serve the whole community, from school students to general public. Green Mangroves is a volunteer-run group of 6 passionate leaders from all walks of life Lina is a senior student at Qatar International School and has presented workshops in Qatar Leadership Conference, Empower, and The Service Learning Conference in California. At QINOCON, she will be speaking about managing a community project at 17. According to the article 'What College Admissions Offices Look for in Extracurricular Activities' by Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz on Huffington Post, the second thing colleges seek in potential students, after academic performances and course rigour is participation in extra curricular activities.
Important: Value in resume determined by success of conference only With all these said, you must note that if you want this conference to be a great entry into yours and your co helpers' resumes, you must work towards making it a successful and famous conference. Your contributions and diligence towards making this conference successful, will set the value on yours and your fellow helper' resumes. |