Missed RiseUp, the largest entrepreneurship summit of the year? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!
No doubt that RiseUp is one of the largest events that happens in Egypt each year. As big as it gets it may be harder to maintain the quality and value of what you do. Yet RiseUp keeps surprising us! Let’s see how RiseUp 2018 went!
How big in SIZE was it?
Score: 5/5
The size of RiseUp is getting larger year by year. From going regional to international giving startups here a very good exposure to how people elsewhere are doing and giving Egyptian entrepreneurs a very good networking chance they may not easily get.
And the size here is not determined only in numbers but also in opportunities, so startups can get exposure in pitch competitions, get mentorship from business gurus and provide their services to the community.
Was the ticket AFFORDABLE?
Score: 2/5
I am not talking about affordability, knowing that the largest segment of the summit audience are startups and youth interested in entrepreneurship and innovation makes the ticket a bit more than what the one can pay. We should not definitely be comparing the worthiness of the ticket to its price but its price compared to who is the summit targeting.
I think 750 is way much if a startup needs to send a couple team members, maybe they can have sponsored startups where these startups get really discounted or free tickets. And how about a group ticket that is a bit cheaper than this as it was almost the same price if you got one ticket -650 after 750 is not much a difference-.
Have you got what you needed of NETWORKING?
Score: 5/5
From exposure to networking, I believe this is what RiseUp does the best! For the 6th year, networking is the main reason many people attend the summit and having El Re7la as a partner this year working on this, helped way more to make networking easier for everyone! You only need to know who do you want to talk to and the rest is really easy!
Did you like the Content?
Score: 3/5
Another very important and controversial aspect that I don’t know where to start on is content. it’s really hard to evaluate the content of a summit with ongoing activities all the time, from workshops to the 3 stages and the exhibiting startups. I personally loved the workshops I attended like people management by P&G, and the panel discussion on education that had el Da7ee7, El Haw & Rizkallah and definitely Dr.Farouk El Baz fireside chat but still people are debating on whether the content of the event is worth it or not. I personally am convinced that most of the speakers are chosen to be more of famous/ influencer/well-known type of people, especially for the stages talks and fireside chats.
For the startups, I loved many of them but am really curious to know the criteria these startups were selected upon! Because I bet I met like a couple doing software development, a bunch doing transportation and many working on health!
Aren’t there people doing something else? 🤔
What did you think of the Organization?
Score: 3/5
I know how working on such a big event can be a hassle in organizing everything and no matter how much effort you put in this you will still face some issues. From having 2 venues, 100+ volunteers, different registration gates and parallel activities there will definitely be some surprises. But this year, I loved the queuing app you use to register for the waiting lists of the workshops, but I had some issues registering in the workshops before the summit.
Volunteers
I didn’t see as many volunteers as I am used to. Maybe this is because they were scattered among the activities. I still have the same concern of why should the registration volunteers be this aggressive?! I swear I’ll show you the bracelet without you putting your arm in front of me so I don’t break and enter 😀
But I definitely understand that not every single one of the volunteers will be knowledgeable enough about everything happening. Some of them did a great job too!
Seating
One thing that I really really need to know is who decided to have these seating solutions and why? Not comfortable at all and even not as many as needed, especially the yellow boxes at AUC. However, I loved how the branding was spread all over the place and stages were very well branded with the screens that also made it easier for people to see and the yellow carpets got me to feel like downtown is all yellow for the weekend!
WrapUp!
After all, it’s definitely a big success that a summit can bring over so many people and partners and send a great image about Cairo! I absolutely loved many satellite events like the Manifesto Breakfast, the Impact Investment Panel and looking forward to attending the Doodle Factory satellite event. Not only because of the organization and so but because of the idea of having all these startups partnering up together to create something huge!
So, great job RiseUp Summit Team and looking forward to RiseUp 2019 and please please can we have Autostrad for the closing next time? 😉
I’m Noor El-Tahan and I won’t just be attending events and writing about them, I’ll be rating them too! Let me know what you think.
