By: David Munir Nabti @dmnabti
I was only in Istanbul a few days, and admittedly I only saw a small part of a small part of the city. The language confused me, the keyboard layout baffled me, the size of the city was astonishing, the politics intricate, and the economy complex. The traffic got as bad as anywhere I’ve seen, the taxis drove me on long detours to make a few extra lira, the clubs were crowded, some streets were so packed at night it was hard to walk around, and there was a subtle (sometimes not so subtle) sense of disorder. After hearing so much about the growing startup and tech scene in Istanbul, I frequently had trouble getting online, and on several occasions random SMS messages I sent never got delivered to the intended recipient. Many things seemed quickly hacked together. Other things seemed long-neglected. Many buildings were empty, and whole blocks looked long-abandoned. Many people complained of corruption and bureaucratic inefficiencies. Frequently when things worked out properly, I found myself breathing a sigh of relief.
And I can’t wait to go back.
Despite all those challenges, I met some amazing people, saw an amazing city, and got a glimpse into one of the pivot points that will shape the coming years, decade, and beyond, in our region, and around the world. The city is spectacular, almost out of a fairytale from an earlier era, and reminded me a lot of Damascus, supposedly one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. But while Damascus is big and truly an ancient and modern Arab city, Istanbul is huge, a massive metropolis that has distinct flavors of both “oriental” and “European”. From discussions with several bright young people in Istanbul, both locals and expats, it is clear that some of the same issues that are playing out between the “east” and the “west” globally are playing out inside Turkey. And at the geographic (and frequently cliché) meeting point between Asia and Europe, between the tumultuous MidEast and troubled EU, Turkey is in a valuable place to assert its role on the global stage. And it’s doing just that.
The main purpose for my visit to Istanbul was to attend the second Entrepreneurship Summit, organized jointly by the US and Turkish governments. The first one, called The Presidential Summit for Entrepreneurship and held in Washington, DC in April 2010, was a building block in the approach President Obama outlined in his famous “New Beginnings” speech, delivered in Cairo on June 4, 2009. The DC Summit brought together hundreds of people from countries “with significant Muslim populations” along with business and entrepreneurship leaders from across the US.
This second Summit (dubbed #ESummit2) was much larger, less focused, and more Turkey-centric than the original #ESummit. The number of speakers from Turkey, plus sessions such as “Creating an Ideal Environment for Business: the Case of Turkey”, made clear that the hosts were trying to get the most out of this gathering happening on their soil. Not to be outdone, US Vice-President Joe Biden in his opening remarks not-so-subtly slipped in some words about America’s role in the world while speaking of the benefits of international cooperation. Even though the US “economy is 3.5 times larger than the next largest economy,” he said, “and bigger than the following 4 combined does not make us immune from what’s happening around the world.” In a field devoted to leveling the playing field, empowering the little guy, supporting the upstart new venture, Biden made sure everyone at the summit knew who the big cat in the room was.
The fact that summit attendance dropped precipitously after the opening session of the conference, plus some rumors that supporters of the ruling party in Turkey were brought in to boost attendance when Biden and Turkish politicians were speaking, didn’t do much to impress the crowd that flew long-distances to actually participate in the summit. The critique that I hear after so many conferences, globally but especially in the MENA region, about conference sessions having little substance and serving largely to gather people for the networking that happens outside of those sessions, rang true at this event. There were, of course, some exceptions to that. But not enough.
And the networking was, indeed, helpful. The fact that there is a growing community of people, entrepreneurs, companies, organizations, non-profits, government agencies, investors, and universities working in this space in the MENA region and globally is exciting, and I think it will lead to positive growth in the field. The community is still not huge, and it’s easy to spot familiar faces and run into acquaintances and friends at these gatherings, but the camaraderie that is growing globally, in the MENA region, and even within groups working within Lebanon, is helpful. To be frank, it’s also just more fun, which is why many of us got into this field to begin with.
What made the #ESummit2 event so exciting for me, though, was meeting so many young people and aspiring entrepreneurs, both participating in the conference, and taking part in a startup competition organized alongside the main event, the GIST Tech-I Competition. After being invited on the first day of the conference to join the competition as a mentor, I spent most of the following two days talking to young entrepreneurs who were passionately pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. And I was, in a word, impressed.
Some of the startups were outright phenomenal, well thought-out, and thus far well-executed. Others needed a lot more help than was possible in the short time we had. Regardless, they all came with an amazing amount of energy, passion, and commitment to see their projects through. Though a competition, there was very positive energy and support throughout the room. (I’m not sure how public the information is on these startups, so I won’t go into any detail here. If I find it is public info, I’ll share it here soon.)
Equally as impressive was that almost ¾ of the projects were addressing some sort of critical social or environmental issue. No “throwing sheep” or vampires here. Some of them were intentionally designed as “social impact ventures”, while others just saw those issues as critical needs and market opportunities. Both gave me hope.
Several of the startups were looking at innovative approaches towards “green energy”, such as new battery technology, bio-diesel, new ways of capturing wind or the sun’s energy, and new devices for transforming movement into usable electricity.
Other startup ideas focused on health, developing new technologies to help blind people, or (the winning startup, from Lebanon) monitoring high-risk heart patients and, very likely, saving a lot of lives.
The list also included some non-profit ventures, such as a tool to improve the work of blood clinics, and a crowd-funding tool for social causes.
The time I spent with those startups was by far the most fun part of my time at the Summit, and I hope it was as helpful for the startups I worked with as it was a learning experience for me. For anyone with some decent experience, even if you are still working on your own startup venture (as I am), I encourage you to get involved as a mentor for some people just starting out in that field. There are more formal approaches (such as with Mowgli, Bader, etc) or more informal ways (like we’ll be doing at AltCity, or just go to any startup competition and offer your help, volunteer to speak in university entrepreneurship classes, etc). The words you say, questions you ask, or advice you give could be a huge help to a person or project … and maybe even contribute a bit to an idea that might have a positive impact on our world.
At a time when communications, meetings, video-conferencing, etc. are putting us in closer contact with people around the world, gathering people together is still important. It is great connecting face-to-face with people who are working through similar problems around the world, learning, sharing ideas, possibly developing partnerships. Sometimes these events even make it possible to meet people who you’ve been in virtual contact with for months or years. However, these events should most certainly be more helpful, more effective, and more fun. I guess we’ll see how it all shapes up at #ESummit3 next year … in the United Arab Emirates.
