Incubation conference from Dec 5
A two-day Incubation Conference will be organised by the National Business Centre (NBC) starting from December 5.
Individuals with expertise in setting up incubators are expected to participate in the conference, which will be held at Hormuz Grand Hotel, Muscat.
“Some of the issues that would be highlighted are how to we link entrepreneurship to education? How do you make that connection when an incubator programme can be run from a university or a college. Finally, we will look at the future trends in the incubation industry and innovation,” Malak al Shaibani, Director-General, NBC.
According to her, just as a startup has to realise that evolving to serve the clientele you are looking for is important, we must look at how to work in a collaborative environment to produce entrepreneurs and businesses you are looking for.
SMEs can’t be separated from rest of the ecosystem. The ecosystem consists of SMEs, big businesses, universities, professional companies, incubators, co-working spaces and accelerators. The conference will also explore the role of chambers of commerce and other entities in supplying and supporting incubators and the growth of SMEs.
“It is an array of all of us providing enablers but making sure you have the collaboration to enable entrepreneurs. We will also be looking at the future challenges so we can be ready for it now,” said Al Shaibani.
A delegation from Qatar will be attending the conference. On the same day of the conference, the Start-Up Grind will conduct a networking event for the Omani SMEs to meet up with the Qatari counterparts.
The attendees will have an opportunity to interact with a number of Qatari institutions that are aiming at investing or initiating new partnerships in the Sultanate.
The first workshop will highlight the topic of ‘Running Sustainable Incubators’, while the second will underscore the topic of ‘Accelerating Innovation in the Ecosystem’.
The conference will feature a lineup of local and international speakers and will shed light on several themes. Members of the public can register via the conference website www.incubation-conference.com.