The World's First Conscious Tech Summit, Vested, Takes Off in Egypt Next May

Four and a half years ago, Salma El-Hariry was in Silicon Valley watching startups like Airbnb and Uber grow into what they are now. “I would have never thought that two years later I would find Uber in Cairo,” El-Hariry tells Startup Scene. Inspired by the techy solutions she saw in California and the emerging problems in emerging markets like Egypt, El-Hariry has co-founded a summit that is kicking off in the seaside village of Gouna, an hour away from the resort city of Hurghada.

The team behind Vested Summit, who has only met in person a few weeks ago after months of virtual meetings and communication, is tired of attending panel-driven events, with a bunch of important people talking, then leaving afterwards. So they decided to design an event that was activity-driven; where whenever something is said, a session will follow where participants make something using what they heard.

Happening between May 9th and 12th, the Vested Summit will start off with a 48-hour hackathon for entrepreneurs involved and enthusiastic about financial technology or FinTech. Following the hackathon, there will be a Shark Zone, where products and startups involved with conscious technology are matched with global investors, accelerators, and VCs. Applications are open until April 23^rd.  

Vested Summit wants to create a “conscious technology” community, a term El-Hariry herself has coined. “I coined the term conscious technology because social impact became an abused and overused term for anyone who’s trying to make an impact, scalable innovative solutions that are actually solving real world problems.”

The event will end with a panel, called “The Global Exposure,” where debates and discussions will be conducted over three technologies the Vested Summit is focusing on this year; Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and fintech. “The pshychologist who actually worked on the personality of Sophia the Robot will come talk about robotics and the future,” El-Hariry reveals. “She is also starting a new fund in conscious robotics.” On the other side of the debate, Mohamed Sameh, an economist and an activist against robots will also be present, arguing that the technology will replace many job opportunities; and the Vested Summit will provide a platform for this argument to unfold before over 300 expected attendees.

Find out more about Vested Summit here. 

Register here.