Highlights of the first day of #RiseUp16

Yesterday - Friday 9th of December - marked the first day of the 3-days event, and the biggest in the region;RiseUp. This year's event focused on creative economy, fin tech, clean tech, and technology but with the same goal of RiseUp every year which is to connect startups to the most relevant resources worldwide.The first day went smooth and interesting, it was full of workshops, sessions, and talks given by experts and role models. Hundreds of people attended and all attendees have benefited from the day, whether through attending workshops and sessions or by visiting the different booths and getting to know more about all startups in Egypt. 

Highlights of the amazing day include the talk of Amir Barsoum, CEO of Vezeeta, who took the audience on a journey through Vezeeta's own journey while also giving great advice on when how to scale up as a startup. Also, the workshop of "How to build kickass products that last" by Mahmoud Magdoub, Co-founder of Forasna, was an informative and interesting one as it gave people a guide on what to do and what to do not while building a product. And there was also the talk of Pierre Dimitri from Uber, tackling the urban mobility and how to overcome it. 

On the other side, Siân Prime, Deputy Director for Goldsmiths' Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE), who gave a workshop on how to release the potential of creativity as well as relationship remodeling through giving some techniques and steps to use them. Last but not least, we can't forget Yasmine Helmy, Growth Marketing Head at Instabug, who talked about growth hacking and the successful and failure ways Instabug used to grow and go viral.

The biggest highlight of the event yesterday was that Con O'Donnell, Co-founder of RiseUp, announced the launching of RiseUp Connect which is a community-based platform that will provide startups with 6 much-needed resources: funding, talent, exposure, knowledge, toolbox and marketplace. 

Definitely, the event is one you don't want to miss, we can't wait for tomorrow as we're pretty sure RiseUp will keep on inspiring and surprising us!