Summit Weekly Brief
Written By: Farah Ahmed
I-Gamify’s summit is on fire! Each day it brings new ideas and incentives with incredible speakers and experts.
Last time we took a quick look at the first 4 days… Let us recap what has happened last week!
Day 5 was powered by StartEgypt and Flat6Labs Cairo. It was carried by Akram Eladwy, interviewing Reem Abdulatif, founder of Opio and Sarah Abo-Elhassan, founder of Doc Home.
Reem discussed the notion of having a ‘support system’; stressing that it means both moral and financial support. She advises the new entrepreneurs that they should never be afraid to ask for help for the sake of getting the right co-founders and team and seeking a mentor as well. For Sarah, the most important thing in a startup is ‘customer validation’, and she encourages anyone who is starting his/her business to join any program that provides a coaching system to hear from someone who has marketing experience and more knowledge in the field. Sarah recommends making the ‘go-to-market strategy’ faster as much as you can, as the market makes you see the whole picture regarding the needs, market gaps, and so on. For her, the secret of success is the ‘Product/Market Fit’.
They also tackled the MVP (Minimum viable product) and how they passed this phase. For Sarah, it was a very frustrating period, but still, it is about targeting the right customer to get the validation needed. While for Reem, in the fashion industry it is a little bit different, because its main focus is on the customer experience, and their feedback is the basis for their new products launching and the amendments in their business model.
Moamen Said return on the 6th day with Khaled Roshdy, Shahenda Abdelrazek, and Ahmed Moniem displaying “Designs transformation and New Techniques Within and After COVID 19”.
Shahenda, as a certified graphic designer instructor, passion, and satisfying output are what keep her going. Khaled, as a 3D animator, he found his passion for storytelling more than his original study while the quick development in the field makes him more eager to continue. Ahmed, as a caricature and a digital illustrator, believed that his talent is a gift from God so, making use of it is the smart thing to do and accepting the risk’s consequences. Moamen then concluded that it is related to having a passion and a vision.
They tackled the question of ‘trial and error’ and they agreed its way effective than giving the newcomer in the field the piece of information without him/her exerting an effort to gather it.
Furthermore, they discussed that everyone has his/her way of learning, so deciding whether to take an online or offline course, it depends on your type of learning and your nature in receiving the information.
Day 7 carried a different segment, which is ‘personal development’ under the title “The importance of the Coach / Counselor Within and After COVID19”. Khaled El-Degwy, Aya ElDighady, and Mohamed Sharaf Eldin were invited to speak about the topic and give us some insights.
First, let’s introduce our speakers; Aya a career counselor, and a certified NCDA instructor. Khaled a regional corporate trainer on soft skills and business skills, and owner of Khaled El-Degwy “Energize”. Mohamed Sharaf a corporate trainer, NLP certified coach, ICF accredited coach, and owner of “Authentic Relationship Coaching Academy”.
When Aya was asked on “How to use the available technology to work from home during COVID 19”, she states that part of her job is adapt to transitions in life, such as this epidemic. Thus, it is an intuition to find alternatives easily, for instance, Zoom for a one-to-one session. She also acknowledged the work of many institutions that trained the coaches/trainers on using these online applications. Khaled added that one challenge of the E-learning that they face, as mentors and trainers, is the lack of physical engagement. He also praised the positive understanding of ‘mental health’ with the people nowadays. Mohamed Sharaf then clarified the in the meanings of training, coaching, mentoring, and counseling.
They believe that it depends on your mindset to survive this critical period; which means the way you interpret the events during this phase. They don’t recommend denial, and stress on resilience as well as retention of your skills and interests.
Day 8 theme was “The Role of HRians During COVID19 and After it” with Mariham Magdy, Marwan Ali, and Rawan N. Bazzari. Taking a closer look at our HRians: Mariham is an HR Manager in a Petroleum Services Company, CEO of HR Revolution Middle East, and HR Trainer and Consultant. Rawan is the HR Manager for the MBC group, Jordan Office. Marwan is the Head of Talent Management and HR Transformation Agenda in Wadi Group.
They tackled the challenge of managing employees while working from home, highlighting the impact of the psychological effect and anxiety. Mariham’s plan was to put a flexible policy for working from home and provide the necessary tips for managing the work at this new stage. While in Jordan, as Rawan had mentioned, things were easier, especially as she’s working in a digital company. They had the welfare of rehearsing over a period of 10 days to test the capacity and the technology, and they always stay in touch with their team and keep them updated. Marwan sees that during a crisis, your decisions must be quick and the reason that helped them moving fast during the quarantine is the company’s privilege of a digital platform. Also, one of the bonus points is the speed building of safety regulations, precautions, allowances, and communication tools.
They outlined powerful issues, such as the case of outsourcing during COVID 19, the wrong practices of HR committee in students’ activity, and professionalism of HR during an interview. In the latter, they dived into the dilemma of the relativity between interviewer and interviewee, the interviewer’s aim from the interview is to see the cultural fit of the interviewee, while the interviewee disregards this point whatsoever. They pointed out that being familiar and listening to the employee in fundamental as this helps the HRians to evaluate him and recognize her/ his competences.
So here you go the latest update for the panel! You can check the complete panels by clicking on the following links below and see their answers to the different questions that they received in the most fun and light way ever!
Day 5: https://www.facebook.com/IGamify/videos/849806792165894/?v=849806792165894
Day 6: https://www.facebook.com/IGamify/videos/1153420714991869/
Day 7: https://www.facebook.com/IGamify/videos/275080460192403/
Day 8: https://www.facebook.com/IGamify/videos/494040307956921/
If you want to book your seat for upcoming panel discussions visit now: https://i-gamify.net/our-global-virtual-summit
