The Bedaya Centre for Entrepreneurship and SME Development (Bedaya Centre) organised its monthly meeting - held every second Sunday - with entrepreneurs at Katara.
The monthly gatherings give young people in Qatar access to guidance and training, as well as support for their businesses, by hosting experts to share experience and insight.
Bedaya Centre is a joint initiative of Qatar Development Bank and Silatech.
The networking event focuses on highlighting specific topics that assist start-ups and SMEs in Qatar. This month’s event shed light on the challenges faced by small food-based businesses in the country.
The food industry is an important business sector in most countries as it is one of the means through which a country promotes its culture. As Qatar grows to become a cultural hub for the region, more Qatari start-ups are setting up local food businesses.
The event showcased a number of young and talented Qatari individuals and small Qatari businesses that focus on promoting local Qatari cuisine. The event highlighted the challenges faced by some of the start-ups and the steps they took to overcome these challenges and become successful.
The key speakers were Abdulla al-Harmoozi, a food critic and owner of Where2Eat; Maryam al-Sharim, founder of wLetsEat, a local company that focuses on promoting young Qatari food-based businesses; and Jaber al-Hassan.
The event’s guest speaker was Aisha al-Tammimi, one of the first Qatari women to set up a business in the food industry. She spoke on her experiences in the field and the expectations young entrepreneurs should have when thinking of starting a business.
Yasmeen Hassan, entrepreneurship manager at Bedaya Centre, said: “We go all out in the centre to attract entrepreneurs to our monthly meetings as they help the audience discover more about themselves. It also helps these business pioneers understand their career aspirations and develop ideas about starting their own business. Of course, all of this comes with the help of Bedaya advisers.”
The speakers also participated in a judging competition where they selected the best dishes representing Qatari culture.
