Bayt.com welcomes over 14,000 visitors to first pan-regional Virtual Job Fair

The Virtual Job Fair, which aimed to address the region's growing levels of unemployment also recorded almost 81,000 total views, and received more than 20,000 registrations.

The pan-regional Bayt.com VJF, sponsored by the Qatar Foundation and in conjunction with media partners the Peninsula and Al Sharq, was the fifth online job fair organized and run by Bayt.com, which have now welcomed more than 110,000 job seeking participants in the innovative series of regional job fairs.

Interestingly, while the majority of internet traffic for the fair came from the Middle East, 13% was logged as coming from countries outside the region.

As part of the initiative, Bayt.com constructed animated 3D "virtual booths" on the website for the different participating companies. The virtual booths, like physical job fairs, were branded with the exhibitors' names and logos and provided access to a range of information about that particular company.

Job seekers had the opportunity to submit their CVs directly to their booths of choice and apply immediately for new and existing jobs; while potential employees and employers had the unique option of interacting in real time via online or video chat. A total of 600 jobs were available during the fair.

"The Bayt.com Virtual Job Fair was a landmark opportunity for us at the Peninsula and Al Sharq to source, screen, interact with and hire top talent while positioning our employer brand on the industry's most pioneering recruitment platform. The Bayt.com VJF exceeded all our expectations and we are happy to say we have come out of this experience having made tremendous inroads into the region's talent markets and shortlisted some of the region's talent,"

commented the Peninsula and Al Sharq spokesperson.

Khaled Helaly, Recruitment Manager at the Qatar Foundation commented; "The Bayt.com Middle East Virtual Job Fair provided us at the Qatar Foundation with a world-class and pioneering forum to communicate our leading employer brand to the region's top talent and to engage a relevant pool of high calibre jobseekers in meaningful career discussions while considering them for immediate job opportunities."

The Virtual Job Fair offers a variety of significant advantages to job seekers and employers alike. The VJF saves the time off work and travel and logistical costs associated with visiting physical job fairs, while providing professionals complete confidentiality and the convenience of participating in the fair from the comfort of their home or office.

"It was a pleasure having this fruitful cooperation with Bayt.com through the VJF. The event was an innovative method for both employers and job seekers to interact in a convenient and hassle-free opportunity. Chatting rooms were busy with employers, candidates and Bayt.com representatives who were helpful and available all the time and it facilitated the process for us to interact and recruit relevant job seekers. The event was a success and exceeded all expectations. We look forward to more cooperation with Bayt.com," stated Iman Salem, HR Manager at Egypt Yellow Pages.

"Bayt.com became the ideal website for the Middle East products and services industries to fulfil their HR requirements with the potential candidates that they are looking for. In addition to that, it has a great pro-active support team to ensure the quality of its services," said Haitham Sanad, Customers Relations Manager, Souks HR Solutions.

The VJF has been extremely popular with many employers at the forefront of the recruitment industry, who can see the benefits and importance of state-of-the-art employer branding activities and are prepared to tap into the most advanced technologies to harness the power of the web to interact with top talent on a real-time basis and hire the region's best.

"After participating in Bayt.com's virtual job fair for the first time this year, we have found it useful, stress-free and cost-effective. During this event, we have achieved our target by filling a lot of positions in our company. There was a satisfactory pool of candidates in several categories across all Middle Eastern countries. We hope to take part in this event again and get exposed to even more applicants worldwide. Many thanks to Bayt.com's great efforts and creative facilities," said Alaa Hukrooh, Recruitment Specialist, Pan Gulf Holding.

With the growing issues caused by the global financial crisis, people are raising many questions about the impact it is having - specifically on the hiring and employment market. Bayt.com continuously aims to stimulate and support the regional job market through events such as the Virtual Job Fair, by getting more of the right talent into jobs, which will in turn, it believes, prompt economic growth through growing and improving the labor market.

"Our recent VJF, just like those before it, demonstrated what an ideal and innovative forum it is for bringing together job seekers and employers in this increasingly sophisticated and technology-savvy regional business environment. We have increasingly noticed that online recruitment has a fundamental and indispensable role to play in the way that companies engage and recruit their staff today.

I am sure that with its growing success, the process of online recruitment - as with leading regional sites like Bayt.com - will gain even greater popularity, due to its numerous advantages compared to traditional practises, including the ease, speed and effectiveness of recruitment, as well as the maximized return on investment it allows today's employers. The past year only marked the beginning of Bayt.com's creative initiative on the VJF front, and due to unrelenting and popular demand in our communities and across the region, this event will hopefully be repeated in 2009", concluded Amer Zureikat, Regional Manager at Bayt.com.