A royal audience for environmental video gamers, camel trackers and other regional entrepreneurs
A device that helps camel owners track their wandering herds and a game that draws attention to the environmental damage cause by plastics were among the inventions by young Gulf nationals presented to the UK’s Prince Andrew yesterday.
Fifteen entrepreneurs from the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia pitched their projects in Abu Dhabi as part of Pitch@Palace GCC, a platform to promote the work of innovative young people. This year’s theme was “technology serving humans”.
The competition was launched by Prince Andrew, Duke of York, in 2014 to give entrepreneurs an opportunity to display their projects and gain connections to move them forward. This year it was expanded to include participants from across the Gulf.
Yesterday, contestants gathered at Khalifa University’s innovation centre for the Pitch@Palace event to present their ideas in front of a judging panel before the main competition on Wednesday at Emirates Palace hotel.
Abdulla Al Gahtani from Saudi Arabia presented Camel Mate, a solar-powered tracking device that, when placed on a camel’s back, can alert the owner and the authorities through an app if the camel approaches a rural road or a motorway.
“We are losing the animal that we love to collisions with vehicles,” Mr Al Gahtani said. Human lives have also been lost as a result of the collisions “three of whom were my relatives”, he said.
Sajad Hameed from Bahrain pitched The Stories Studio, which he co-founded with his wife to create video games with a social impact.
One game, Deep Blue Dump, has the user playing as a guardian spirit in an ocean journey to save the sea from plastic pollution.
“There is an ‘act now’ section, where users can make changes in the real world, such as donating to concerned organisations,” he said.
Speaking before the contestants’ pitches, Prince Andrew said: “We are trying to show what Abu Dhabi and other countries in the GCC are doing. My advice is to use the network that we have to your advantage.”
As the UAE government ramps up efforts to get young people to follow their passions when it comes to career choices, rather than relying on high-paid civil service jobs, initiatives like Pitch@Palace can help to diversify the employment market.
“Some of that diversification is going to come through people learning to start businesses and create opportunities for themselves,” Prince Andrew told The National.
“We are simply fitting into the [start-up] ecosystem that is already in existence here, and just showcasing some of the great ideas coming out of the entrepreneur system.
“We plan who is invited to be in the audience and the entrepreneurs. We put the two together and then suddenly you find someone who says: ‘I know exactly how to help’,” he said.
The top three at Pitch@Palace GCC will go on to pitch for funding at the global final to be held at St James’s Palace in London on December 12.
We plan who is invited to be in the audience and the entrepreneurs. We put the two together
PRINCE ANDREW
Founder of Pitch@Palace