'Zayed University e-biz challenge IV' increases awareness and participation

Since its launch on September 24, 2005, the challenge has visited over forty campuses to increase awareness and participation by students throughout the GCC region. This constitutes an increase of 180% over last year's challenge. The roadshows have allowed the e-biz challenge team to meet, distribute and talk to students and faculty directly face-to-face throughout the GCC to promote creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. This year for the very first time, the 'Zayed University e-biz challenge' traveled outside the United Arab Emirates due to the substantial amount of interest and registrations from the GCC region. Roadshows were held in Kuwait and Oman and are currently in the planning stage in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The e-biz challenge team has come in direct contact with over two thousand two hundred students and faculty and has acquired nine hundred and fifty-five pre-registrations, which have resulted in sixty-six fully registered teams to-date.

Workshops are another important method used by the 'Zayed University e-biz challenge'. Our most recent workshop featured Dr. Piero Formica, Dean of the International Faculty of Entrepreneurship at the Emirates Centre for Entrepreneurship, United Arab Emirates and Ahmad Jadallah, a young entrepreneur, inventor and 'Zayed University e-biz challenge III' fourth place winner. Dr. Formica spoke about Knowledge Entrepreneurs and Leveraging Knowledge Clusters for Economic Development Based on Innovative Advantages. Mr. Ahmad Jadallah spoke about his new internet web browser—Yahadi, which he designed and implemented after participating in the 'Zayed University e-biz challenge III'. Ahmad said the Yahadi project was a dream of his. The challenge encouraged him and his team to take the idea and incorporate technological innovation into the model resulting in www.yahadi.info.

Statistics guide us and help show us where we are strong and possibly where we are weak and what people are looking at, whether it be the student info, the sponsor section the, the advisor section, the plan template, general e-biz info, News and Events, etc. Then we can see the exact page and the number of people who visit it. Hits to the www.ebizchallenge.com during launch month increased by 62 percent over last year.

All teams who register a Plan by Midnight December 31, 2005 and submit the Plan by the closing date, February 22, 2005 @ 5:00 PM will be put into a draw to win a mobile phone. Only one team (students & advisor) will be picked after the close of the competition to win.

The 'Zayed University e-biz challenge' is made possible through the generous support of the sponsors and partners, which include ADWEA, BMW, ACER COMPUTERS, ETIHAD, EMARAT, AME INFO, ADCO, IBM, NATIONAL BANK OF DUBAI, CITIBANK, MICROSOFT, EMIRATES POST, EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, DUBAI e-GOVERNMENT, CAMPUS JOURNAL, and MAKTOOB.COM just to name a few.