Doha, Qatar – Web Summit Qatar 2024, the world’s largest tech events debut in the Middle East and Africa, ended on a high note with the signing of 24 memorandums of understanding between Qatari institutions and the most prominent international technology companies, with the aim of promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the Gulf country.
The MoUs included the one between and the Web Summit whereby the former will sponsor the summit over the next four years, and another between Qatar Development Bank and Ooredoo.
The Web Summit, a part of Qatar’s Third National Development Strategy 2024-2030, the final stage towards achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030, aims to launch initiatives to enhance the technological ecosystem in the country, stimulate innovation, and build competencies in this sector in order to support economic diversification.
Over four days, the summit hosted 15,453 attendees from 118 countries, who witnessed the tech innovations, 10 percent of which came from Qatar and 20 percent from Africa. The event drew 401 investors, 148 partners and 380 speakers, 30 percent of which were women. A total of 37 percent of attendees were women, in addition to 31 percent of the startups being founded by women. Around 900 tech journalists and media representatives covered the summit.
“The exceptional organization of such a celebrated global event and the huge turnout we have recorded for a first-year edition showcases our country’s capacity to further its role as a leading destination for technology and innovation in the region and in launching initiatives that advance the digital and IT sector in Qatar and beyond,” the Director of the Government Communications Office (GCO) and Chairman of the Web Summit Qatar 2024 Organizing Committee Sheikh Jassim bin Mansour bin Jabor Al-Thani, said.
Qatar’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai discussed the latest developments in technological domain and gave the audience an overview of the Digital Agenda 2030, which was launched by during the Web Summit week.
Web Summit CEO Katherine Maher highlighted the events record-breaking numbers in terms of attendance and participation of tech companies and startup.
The closing day of the summit witnessed the announcement of the winner of the Best Startup Award participating in the Qatar Web Summit 2024, which is the highest award of its kind in the technology sector in the world. It was won by Breshna IO, which aims to enable users to create and share their own video games and monetize it without the need for prior knowledge of programming or game design.