This Thrilling Entrepreneurship Conference Is Taking Off in the Place You'd Least Expect

Not Dubai or Beirut: this week's most thrilling conference will take place in the least likely country to host a tech meeting: war-torn Syria, where local entrepreneurs and young brilliant minds have not stopped dreaming big despite the hardships created by conflict.

The Entrepreneur Knowledge Conference will kick off on September 24th in Damascus with the aim to fulfil the needs of skilled, competent and knowledgeable entrepreneurs in Syria and plan to rebuild a damaged ecosystem. The Conference was founded in 2014 by 27-year-old Syrian entrepreneur Sami Ismail, who began his career in 2010 and started an impressive number of companies, three of which succeeded.

The program is specifically tailored for the Syrian entrepreneur who wants to tackle recent global trends and combine them with regional and local practices, the founder explains. Back in 2014 and 2015, the EK Conference managed to host more than 30 high-impact speakers from all over the world, representing international and regional companies such as Microsoft, Linkedin, Slush, Quantum Leap, Edward Jones, Fi Tech, and Altcity. This year, too, panelists will include major regional shapers, such as The Greek Campus and Flat6Lab's founder Ahmed Alfi. 

"With 150+ entrepreneurs who attended from all over Syria in 2014, we aimed to create an opportunity for Syrian entrepreneurs to learn the practicalities of startups in MENA and the world, through five days, with four sessions a day," explains Ismail. The conference will be an opportunity for Syrian entrepreneurs to get a glimpse of normal life in a crumbling reality and show how a virtual community built around technology in the middle of war became a lifeline for Syrian youth.

For more info on the event, check out the EK Conference website.