Business of the Arts Forum at Tamakkan

http://www.1888pressrelease.com/business-of-the-arts-forum-at-tamakkan-pr-549089.html

Abu Dhabi, UAE – A vibrant discussion on the opportunities available in the UAE to professionals in the creative and performing arts explored also how the industry can leverage the growing talent that exists in the country at a seminar organized by Tamakkan.

Tamakkan, a leading entrepreneurship and innovation platform, presented a seminar focused on the art and media business and invited speakers from twofour54, Cleveland Clinic, Fatima BintHazza Foundation, and practicing artists from the frontline of art, music and theatre, to a candid discussion about opportunities and challenges in the industry.

Dr Iva Fattorini, Chair of Global Arts & Medicine Institute, Executive Board Office at Cleveland Clinic, provided the corporate patronage perspective on the arts, and the important and pioneering role Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi, and in the US play in healthcare.

“Cleveland Clinic is an example of a hospital with audacious and visionary leaders who embrace the concept of arts and medicine and carry a strong belief that art can re-humanize medicine by bringing new energy to patients and their caregivers,” she said.

“The concepts of love and care don’t come from business plans; they come from the heart, and they can awaken a hospital’s soul. In medicine, decisions are based on evidence. Many studies conducted around integration of arts and medicine have demonstrated improvements in health outcomes, quality of life and improved hospital experience,” DrFattorini added.

Emmy Nominated photographer and cinematographer, BenoSaradzic showed his latest film called “Beyond,” a mesmerizing visual spectacle of UAE landmarks and talked about the challenges he faces as an artist.

Saradzic said he was always motivated by a need to do something out of the ordinary. “Making it in this business is tough, and you have to believe in yourself. Getting business is not easy. For me I switched from being a client to becoming a producer and I have never since compromised on my artistic vision.” Saradic started working with the BBC and other organizations after his groundbreaking time-lapse film called Abu Dhabi 2011. His latest film, Borders, garnered him an Emmy nomination and recognition as a master of the artform.

MirjanaDelaey provided another perspective of the industry in her ambitious photography capture “360 Project”. DeLaey explained how her team used photography drones above Abu Dhabi to capture sweeping views of the city that can be explored interactively via the web. She spoke about the technical and regulatory hurdles that her team overcame. She revealed that financial gains may come at some point from the project, but that the main motivator behind the initiative has been the artistic achievement and its potential for future applications.

Maysoon Barber, Business Director of Fatima BintHazza Foundation, stressed the need for a greater focus on teaching the young the love of reading, and the creative arts. She also spoke about the foundation’s vision and its library of books and applications that are designed to nurture intellectual growth, literacy and artistic expression.

Khalid Khouri, Head of Ibtikar Commercial at twofour54, provided insight on the creative platforms provided by twofour54 to help in the development of film and other content. “twofour54 has helped film makers work on projects, and to collaborate with others. We have developed facilities that can help creatives with their projects, and they are free to use.”

As part of the seminar’s creative theme Tamakkan also featured a performance art segment entitled ‘Shoes’ by thespian and school teacher Charlis “Charlie” Cunningham and Michelle “True” Francois, who engaged the audience in light hearted but socially incisive monologues about personal drive, inequality and race relations.

Sana Bagersh, Founder of Tamakkan and CEO of BrandMoxie reiterated the importance of art and creative endeavors in society. “Initiatives such as twofour54, programmes such as Fatima bintHazza foundation, and corporate art patrons such as Cleveland Clinic, help create the ecosystems that are needed to develop artistic endeavors. These are exciting times for artists.” She also thanked Tamakkan’s patron Fatima BintHazza Foundation, and its supporters Aldar and twofour54.

WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR DISCOVER UAE DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST 2013 PHOTOGRAPH “ENDURANCE” CAPTURING DUBAI MARATHON WINS TOP SPOT

Posted on July 25, 2013

Grand prize winning photograph ‘ENDURANCE’ by Christopher Medenilla

Abu Dhabi, UAE – July 25, 2013 – The winners of the first “Discover UAE digital photography contest 2013” were announced today, with Dubai based Filipino photographer Christopher Medenilla winning the grand prize for his photograph titled Endurance, that creatively captures a moment in a marathon race.

The competition, organized by BrandMoxie and Abu Dhabi Photographers, was launched in May in three categories: Nature, People and UAE Architecture. Over 600 hundred entries were received, from five emirates, and representing 30 nationalities.

The first prize winners were awarded at the ceremony were: Spencer Guiao, from India, who won in the Live/People category for his photograph titled ‘The Gaze;’ Sri Lankan photographer Varuna Liyanage who won the first prize award in the Nature category for his photograph “Arabian Icon;” and Filipino Scott Lorenzo whose photo “The Journey” won him in the UAE architecture category.

Beno Saradzic, an award-winning photographer and one of the jurors, said: “It was a difficult decision for all of us three judges to select one grand prize winner as all the top four photos were excellent and each deserved recognition in its own right. However we selected Endurance because the angle was atypical, and the photograph managed to capture movement, tradition and diversity.”

Juror Darren Rycroft added: “Each of the judges had their own favourites – my personal one from the top four was The Gaze, because of the intensity of the eyes, the composition of the image and the quality of finishing. We tallied all our votes to come up with the final winners.”

Medenilla, who took the winning photograph Endurance in Dubai, took the photograph during a marathon entitled “Endurance,” to capture people of different nationalities enjoying the competition as well as the camaraderie.

The grand prize winner received a Nikon D3100 camera while the top 20 entrants received certificates of appreciation and gifts.

Shahid Saeed, founder of Abu Dhabi Photographers said: “We were astounded by the level of interest, the number of entries and the quality of the submissions. Some of the photographers were from our group, but the majority came from other emirates. I believe the categories were appealing, and we believe very appropriate in celebrating the rich culture of the UAE.

Sana Bagersh, CEO of BrandMoxie and patron of the Abu Dhabi Photographers. “BrandMoxie is proud to organize this event and offer patronage to the Abu Dhabi Photographers. This group is extremely active, and clearly has outstanding talents who need to be recognized and celebrated. We hope to cement this in the UAE’s calendar of events, and look forward to organizing it on a yearly basis.”

 

About Abu Dhabi Photographers
This is a group established in 2009 in Abu Dhabi that has a membership of over 500 photographers who meet regularly to share experiences and participate in photography challenges.

About BrandMoxie
This is a leading advertising and marketing agency based in Abu Dhabi that offers design, branding, PR, event management and publishing services. BrandMoxie is an active supporter of community initiatives and runs its own CSR programmes including Tamakkan, The Planetarians and The Dream Players.

Link: http://www.abnewswire.com/pressreleases/winners-announced-for-discover-uae-digital-photography-contest-2013-photograph-endurance-capturing-dubai-marathon-wins-top-spot_3018.html

 

TAMAKKAN CELEBRATES THE RISE OF WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP – SEMINAR STRESSES NEED FOR WOMEN TO BE BOLDER AND MORE PREPARED

http://www.abnewswire.com/pressreleases/tamakkan-celebrates-the-rise-of-women-entrepreneurship-seminar-stresses-need-for-women-to-be-bolder-and-more-prepared_2219.html

Tamakkan’s entrepreneurship seminar stressed the important role of women businesses in helping to fuel the growth of Arab economies, and for women business owners to become better prepared risk takers, and bolder leaders.

The seminar explored the potential of women in the workforce and the multiplier effects to society, through four women entrepreneurs: the Managing Partner of True Evolution, Briton Jane Samson who spoke about “Innovation in business;” the founder of Nabbesh, Lebanese LoulouKhazan, who spoke about her online skills marketplace for the Middle East;  American Theresa Webber, co-founder of Alexandria Consulting Team (ACT) who presented the exciting debate on women’s professional empowerment through emerging trends in mompreneurship and the arguments presented by Sheryl Sandberg’s book “Lean In”.

The seminar also featured 17 year old Emirati Latifa Al Hamed who has a small side business wherein she paints on Toms shoes and sells them to a loyal following of young customers. As part of Tamakkan support for artistic expression, the seminar also featured two locally based poets Ethar Al Tinay, from Sudan and Charlis Cunningham, from the US, and Somali stand-up comedian, Abdulrazak.

Tamakkan founder Sana Bagersh alluded to phenomenon of the “Third Billion” or the one billion women potentially joining the global workforce in a decade, and the World Bank’s estimates that the potential of female employment rates, it they were to match male rates, increasing global GDP; including a hike of 5 percent in the US, 9 percent in Japan and 34 percent in Egypt.

Khazan  said that Nabbesh leverages technology to tear down geographical barriers. “Nabbesh aims to respond to the region’s chronic lack of by creating a marketplace that matches skill with opportunity, and especially makes it easier for women who want to work from home. The site is a great solution for skilled home based women in the region to find work opportunities… imagine, 17% of women in Saudi Arabia participate in the labor force while 83% of women are basically sitting at home because of culture and lifestyle or other values”.

Webber stated that women make great leaders because of their intuitive skills in multi-tasking, asking questions, putting people at ease, communicating, and building relationships. “But the problem is that women tend to avoid new challenges; they worry too much about whether they have the skills to take on a new role. Women should be more open to taking career risks,” she said.

Samson explained that the UAE and the Gulf region attracts professionals from all over the world who bring their own ideas about leadership. “Effective leaders are able to bring all these people together. In the Middle East, it’s all about relationships and it’s all about trust,” she said.

Bagersh stressed the compelling argument in support of women’s entrepreneurship. “According the report by Quantum Leaps, The Roadmap to 2020, the potential of women-owned firms is comparable to the discovery of ‘an entirely new technology or the birth of an industry’. Women businesses can create trillions of dollars to the global economy.”

“And if that’s not enough think of the undeniable multiplier effect: the GEM Report states that returns to the investment are much higher in women than for men,  with women more likely to share their gains in education, health, and resources – not just with members of their families but also their communities at large,” she added.

Tamakkan Seminar On Innovative Thinking

http://www.1888pressrelease.com/tamakkan-seminar-on-innovative-thinking-pr-469621.html

 

The event, held at Mamoura, featured Julie Lewis, founder of Mountain High, thriller novelist SeumasGallacher, entrepreneur Younis al Sulaimi, and a posse of local and international poets, led by award winning slam poet Paul D’ Rogers.

Inspirational speaker Lewis spoke about her recent expedition to Antarctica with women breast cancer survivors and the impact a journey of such magnitude can shape one’s perspective on life, courage and achievement. “Climbing a mountain is much like business, you have to set your goals and open up your thinking to new experiences.” She advised entrepreneurs to be more courageous and to continually readjust their mental markers to explore new ways of thinking. She also showed a short film of the women’s expedition aimed at raising awareness about breast cancer.

Lewis, who is from England and lives in the UAE, travels across the world on vision-seeking expeditions.

Thriller novelist SeumasGallacher, from Scotland and residing in the UAE, spoke about his meteoric success in self publishing, explaining how he wrote his books, distributed them and continues to market them through local bookstores and Amazon’s online bookstore. His two books received over 60,000 downloads on Kindle and his social media following is paving the way for the imminent launch of his third novel. Gallacher runs a business consultancy but sees writing becoming a possible full-time career.

“I believe I two kinds of days, good days and better days. As an entrepreneur you should try, make mistakes, and keep on trying. Giving up is not an option. For self publishers, writing is only the first part, then there is editing, publishing, distribution and then marketing. Don’t ignore the next wave in publishing: Kindle and E-books are the secret to success, and social media plays an integral role.”

Sana Bagersh, the founder of Tamakkan stressed the need for entrepreneurs to continue learning and growing, by exploring all sources of information and inspiration. ‘At Tamakkan we see the growth of the entrepreneurial spirit as something that extends well beyond business, and extending into the realms of spiritual enrichment and creative exploration”.

Younis al Sulaimi, an Emirati entrepreneur whose 3-D printing business is supported by the UAE’s Khalifa Fund, offered an insightful view into the challenges and opportunities associated with setting up a pioneering technological venture. “It has been a rewarding experience and the entire team is very enthusiastic about the future of 3D printing.

Being a forerunner in a new business area comes with a lot of difficulties, and the main one is that you can’t start marketing the usual way, you first have to educate people, and that is something that takes a lot of time.”

Stepping on to creativity springboard

Sana Bagersh founded Tamakkan and also runs her own advertising agency called BrandMoxie. Ryan Carter

Neil Parmar

April 24, 2012

Entrepreneurs in the UAE, through a programme called Tamakkan, can attend free monthly seminars that share tips on developing new ventures and encourage networking. Sana Bagersh, who founded Tamakkan and also runs her own advertising agency called BrandMoxie, discusses how entrepreneurship competitions aim to help budding business owners.

Q&A

There are numerous contests here already, including one Tamakkan launched this month with Boston University in Brussels. Do you think there is a danger of having too many?

Entrepreneurship competitions are becoming more “fashionable” for companies and organisations to hold, often as part of their CSR [corporate social responsibility] commitments. But I think they serve a good purpose. There is greater recognition worldwide of the role of entrepreneurship in expanding economic and social growth, and the impact of SMEs [small to medium enterprises] in the empowerment of people. There are many contests already in place, but I see them as a way to promote entrepreneurship and expand opportunities of participation to larger numbers of people.

What purpose do these kinds of contests serve?

I believe that many contests serve, at minimum, as idea springboards. Some ideas germinate in competitions, and evolve over time as they are adapted to actual market realities. For many students their entry into the contest is like a validation that their ideas have merit. I think if a contest is able to awaken something in the individual – like a spark of motivation – then it has worked.

How, exactly, do these kinds of contests help build the necessary skills for students and other future entrepreneurs?

A good contest is one that will challenge the potential entrepreneur to think in new ways, and to structure their ideas into implementable plans and bankable ideas. The competition should challenge and provide inspiration. Usually they also prepare the student for the real deal later on after they leave university.

 

Link:http://www.thenational.ae/business/industry-insights/economics/stepping-on-to-creativity-springboard

A GUIDE FOR ENTREPRENEURS FROM BRANDMOXIE CHIEF

Neil Parmar

Topics: Entrepreneurs

Sana Bagersh is trying to take advantage of her position as the chief executive of the marketing firm BrandMoxie to help fellow entrepreneurs in the Emirates. But as she explains, her efforts to expand Tamakkan, a series of monthly seminars she launched on entrepreneurship in 2009, have led to some unique challenges.

  1. Q) What does “Tamakkan” mean?
  2. A) In Arabic, it means empower yourself. Arabic tends to be more polite. I just really wanted a jarring effect that you don’t have to wait for someone to spoon-feed you. You can do it.
  3. Q) Why did you launch this series?
  4. A) When I started BrandMoxie in 2004 a lot of people would call me and say, “How do you put together a marketing plan? How do you write a press release?” I thought it would be nice if BrandMoxie somehow acted as an enabler for more people like me to share knowledge … [with] people starting their own ventures. We focus on certain topics – branding, social media – but they’re quite broad in nature. If anybody has specific questions, they can ask during the seminar and get input from peers and experts.
  5. Q) How have you tried to expand what Tamakkan offers?
  6. A) A month ago we introduced short, one-day courses on subjects like the fundamentals of accounting for small businesses, how to get funding, how to hire the right people. We’re trying to keep them cheap. I’m talking to organisations to see if they want to pitch in.
  7. Q) How is that going?
  8. A) A lot of these big entities are so bureaucratic and take so long to decide. With entrepreneurship, things need to be faster. Entrepreneurs need help now.
  9. Q) How do you plan to help them in the future?
  10. A) [Providing referrals] is the only thing we’re able to do because we’re not a funded organisation and we don’t have a proper office. I’m hoping Tamakkan can evolve to offer an online knowledge base, in Arabic and English, on how to start this, how to do that, and a proper affair aimed at fueling more SME [small and medium-sized enterprises] creation. Hopefully if we get revenue coming in for courses we can support it a little more permanently.
  11. Q) On May 29, you’ll be taking the seminar to Dubai for the first time at the University of Wollongong. Why have you stayed in Abu Dhabi until now?
  12. A) I felt Dubai had so many things happening and with the Khalifa Fund we were getting a lot of people in Abu Dhabi who were funded but just didn’t know how to really make a go of it. There is a certain category of entrepreneurs in Abu Dhabi where money is really not the big problem – it’s knowledge. You get very young serial entrepreneurs who are well into their third or fourth venture, and it’s my belief that if they got some really good grounding when they started their first or second the survival rate would have been higher.

* Neil Parmar

Link: http://www.thenational.ae/business/media/a-guide-for-entrepreneurs-from-brandmoxie-chief

 

 

Tamakkan to nurture entrepreneurship

Tamakkan, an initiative aimed at supporting young Emirati entrepreneurs who need industry insight to achieve their business dreams, has been launched by BrandMoxie, a marketing company in the UAE.

Abu Dhabi: Tamakkan, an initiative aimed at supporting young Emirati entrepreneurs who need industry insight to achieve their business dreams, has been launched by BrandMoxie, a marketing company in the UAE.

BrandMoxie has set up Tamakkan to nurture the spirit of entrepreneurship and provide an informal environment for the development of knowledge sharing and the spirit of mentorship.

Sana Bagersh, CEO of BrandMoxie said: “The idea is that through Tamakkan industry professionals would be able to give back to the country, and the community, by helping to nurture the next generation of entrepreneurs.

“We hope to create a vibrant monthly platform of discussion, in the form of a free two-hour seminar, open to those young entrepreneurs who want to attend an informative session presented by a professional, or expert, on a key topic in business.”

In June BrandMoxie received the Tamayyuz Partnership Award in recognition of its support to activities at Higher Colleges of Technology’s Abu Dhabi Women’s College.

Bagersh explained that Tamakkan will aim to provide high-calibre seminars given by practicing professionals. The focus would be on the transfer of practical skills and information.

“These would include short seminars on marketing such as branding, positioning, merchandising, franchising etc, and business topics such as the fundamentals of how to set up a business.”

Tamakkan is intended to facilitate contributions by the business sector, and welcomes the participation of companies and individuals who can lend their support by giving their time or assistance in kind.

Bagersh said: “We are already a team of industry professionals. We call upon other professionals to come forward and join the volunteer team of presenters and welcome the support of companies who may want to participate.”

On what encouraged BrandMoxie to launch the initiative, Bagersh said: “What has encouraged us to do more is our surprise at the high calibre of work performed by university interns. These students have built up the skills and are passionate, but they lack the ‘street smartness’ and the understanding of the broad work context.

Link: http://gulfnews.com/business/sectors/general/tamakkan-to-nurture-entrepreneurship-1.502668