MIT Enterprise Forum to announce the winners of 12th Arab Startup competition this week at its annual conference in Beirut

MIT Enterprise Forum Pan Arab, the regional chapter of MIT Enterprise Forum Global is set to host final award ceremony and conference for the 12th Arab Startup Competition on Friday this week in Beirut, Lebanon. The winners will be chosen across three different tracks including idea, startups, and social entrepreneurship.

Finalists are chosen from thousands of applications MIT Enterprise Forum receives every year. They are required to pitch in front of a Final Round Jury panel where they have three minutes to present followed by 7 minutes of Q&A.

The winners are awarded $160,000 (total prize money) as equity free funding and different other benefits including trainings, mentorship, coaching, media exposure, and networking opportunities. Many winners of the previous editions of the competition have made it big, raising millions in investment and creating thousands of jobs.

At this year’s gathering, the organization will publicly launch its inaugural annual impact report which will highlight the impact of Arab Startup Competition on job creation and Arab macroeconomy over the past 12 years.

The semifinalists for all the three tracks will have the opportunity to exhibit their products for the attendees, allowing entrepreneurs to pitch and present their businesses to a global audience.

The event will feature three discussion panels: Role of Governments in Fostering Growth of Digital Economies, Building on AI in Education to Prepare Tomorrow’s Workforce, and The Role of Fintech in Advancing Digital Economies. The panels will feature speakers and subject matter experts who will share the latest on data, research, and industry trends.

It will also feature a keynote address Huma Abidi who is the Director of Machine Learning/Deep Learning Software Engineering at Intel Corp.).

The conference will take place at the Hilton Habtoor Grand Hotel in Sin El Fil (Beirut) this Friday (March 29) starting at 2 PM.

The attendance is free of charge but requires registration. You can register here. The event will also be live streamed on MIT Enterprise Forum’s Facebook page.

Update: A previous version of the article noted that there will be two keynote addresses at the event. We’ve been informed that the second address has been canceled so it has been removed from the article.