Riseup, the MENA’s Biggest Entrepreneurial Event, Has Just Announced its 2017 Dates

For the past five years, the virally sweeping entrepreneurial summit has been raising the bar of Egypt and the Middle East's entrepreneurial scene, gathering over 4,700 people and 200 international speakers in the heart of Cairo only in 2016. Now, as its founders announce the launch of its 2017 edition, the summit promises a sizzling 3-day marathon as thrilling as ever. 

Kicking off on December 1st, 2nd, and 3rd at Cairo's The Greek Campus, the event this year is centred around HX: how innovation can improve the human experience. "Everything boils down to human experience - it’s at the heart of everything we do," says the Summit's Manager Dalia Kamar. "‘How can we improve human experience?’ is the question of the century, and one that needs a lot of creative and disruptive solutions. We’re highlighting innovation as a way to create and drive these solutions; innovation happens in the spaces where creative, capital, and technology meet," she explains as she pinpoints the three main tracks the summit will this year revolve around: tech - capital - creativity.

Aside from its usual dose of sizzling talks, fireside chats, panels and workshops, the event will spotlight regional trailblazers through the "MENA Hipo Programme," highlighting the stories of Middle Eastern pioneering startups with growth and tons of potential. The event will also highlight different ecosystems not only in the MENA region but beyond, from Saudi Arabia to Austria and Sweden, and a cornerstone pitching event, The Riseup Showdown, where both pre-seed and seed stage startups will pitch their ideas for a chance to win at the Grand Finale.

Hitting centre stage, gamechanging entrepreneurs like Brian Wong, founder and CEO of Kiip, a rewards network and application with $31 million raised in 19 investment rounds will be inspiring the audience, as well as creative industry pioneers like Brian Collins, Chief Creative Officer and Co-founder of Collins, and a very intriguing Daniel Pinchbeck, author and founder of the think-tank Center for Planetary Culture, which produced the Regenerative Society Wiki a Wikipedia-like platform for technologists, visionaries and researches to crowdsource solutions for the planetary crisis.

But the summit's most thrilling promise lies not in its wicked networking session or visionary speakers, but rather at the core of its proposition: triggering debate around a fundamental question: who is taking care of where we are going as a human species?

Tickets for the Riseup Summit will be available next week here.