Mohamed Alabbar, Gary Vaynerchuk Among Speakers To Headline The 2018 Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival Organized by Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), the 2018 Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SharjahEF) aims to inspire ecosystem stakeholders to "dare to be different"

Entrepreneurial heavyweights, including Emaar Properties Chairman Mohamed Alabbar, VaynerX Chairman Gary Vaynerchuk, Careem co-founders Mudassir Sheikha and Magnus Olsson, and Mindvalley founder Vishen Lakhiani, will gather in Sharjah for a feast of startup talks at this year's instalment of the annual Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival (SharjahEF).

Organized by Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa), the second edition of SharjahEF, taking place on November 20-21, 2018, at the Sharjah Golf and Shooting Club, will build upon the festival's mission to promote and support the growing ecosystem of entrepreneurs in Sharjah and the UAE. With the main theme of "Dare To Be Different," this year's event will feature three tracks: Dare To Dream, Dare To Innovate, and Dare To Go Global.

Speaking at yesterday's press conference, H.E. Najla Al Midfa, CEO of Sheraa, said, "Our aim with SharjahEF this year is to get our attendees to think beyond the status quo when it comes to their careers, lives, and businesses. This can range from them following through on their entrepreneurial dreams, rethinking how they go about doing business today, or even reimagining their local enterprise as a global one- essentially, we want them to "dare to be different.'"

Among other 100 local, regional, and international speakers are Decoded co-founder and CEO Kathryn Parsons, author and research neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield, Leila Janah, founder and CEO, Samasource and LXMI, Donna Benton, founder, The Entertainer, Rami Salman, Vice President of Growth at Voicera and former co-founder of Wrappup, and many more.

Furthermore, SharjahEF will play host to Startup Town, showcasing the region's most impactful startups, SharjahEF's Pitch Competition, including prizes totaling AED100,000, and the 2018 edition of The Seffy Awards for the most promising locally-based entrepreneurs in three different categories.

Najla Al Ansari, Manager SEF, added that the SharjahEF organizing team hoped to provide value in a variety of formats to all who attend the festival. "Be it with our line-up of inspirational speakers, or with the interactive hands-on workshops that we've got scheduled, SharjahEF this year promises to be an exhilarating, informative experience for everyone, whether it be those who have just a kernel of an idea for a business, or even experienced hands looking to do things differently," Al Ansari added.

Najla Al Ansari, Program Manager, SharjahEF. Source: Sheraa Sharjah.

The festival is held under the patronage of Sheraa Chairperson H.E. Sheikha Bodour Bint Sultan Al Qasimi, and supported by Gold Partners Sharjah Islamic Bank, Sharjah Media City (Shams), Sharjah Asset Management.

For more details on SharjahEF, and to get tickets for the same, please follow this link.

Related: Follow The Leader: Najla Al-Midfa, CEO, Sharjah Entrepreneurship Center (Sheraa)