Tamakkan organizes seminar promotes entrepreneurship and innovation

UAE—Tamakkan, an organization aimed at supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, will organize a seminar entitled “Harness the Power of Social Media for your Business,” a free event that will take place on 26 October at Al Mamoura Auditorium in Abu Dhabi.

The event, which is open to all, will offer practical tips on how businesses can use social media to market their products, services and ideas. Presentations will be given by Jim Buckingham, Senior Education Technology Specialist and Mathematical Modelling (Statistics) Instructor, Zayed University, and Farrukh Naeem, an established advertising copywriter, e-journalist and digital strategist with experience working with brands such as Microsoft, HP, Adidas and Canon.

The presentations will offer hands on techniques on how to use social media effectively. It will offer opportunities that exist in social media marketing, discuss the risks of mismanaged campaigns and provide examples of real life successes and failures.

“The seminar will offer insight into underused Facebook features, and tips on Twitter, Google, You Tube and other powerful social media assets,” said Sana Bagersh, CEO of BrandMoxie and founder of Tamakkan. “We hope entrepreneurs can come away with greater knowledge of new techniques that they can immediately apply to their businesses, and also with new business contacts that can help them on the path towards success.”

She explained that with limited budgets and an explosion in the opportunities available for marketers in the areas of direct targeting and consumer collaboration platforms, social media is a great way for small and business enterprises (SMEs) to differentiate themselves and operate equally alongside big companies.

“The web has leveled the playing field, and now it is the smaller and more agile new businesses that are emerging successes, as they are able to reap the benefits of this incredible communication medium more rapidly than larger and more bureaucratic entities,” she said.

Tamakkan is a corporate grass-roots non-profit initiative aimed at providing insight, inspiration and networking support to entrepreneurs and innovators. It was launched by BrandMoxie and is supported a network of public and private enterprises in the UAE. This series of seminars is sponsored by John Buck International, ALDAR, Jones the Grocer and Dots and Coms.

The upcoming seminar will also feature an entrepreneurship case study of young Omani fashion designer Sheikha Manar Mohammed Talib Al Hinai, who launched her line of modern Gulf inspired fashion which she sells through an online store and a boutique. She will be interviewed by Dr. Alma Kadragic, who currently works at the University of Wollongong, Dubai and is a former broadcast journalist and entrepreneur.

Tamakkan seminars kick off with an engaging introduction by Grant Regan who has a diverse business experience background and currently works with the outreach programme of Zayed University. Regan picks up members of the audience and subjects them to the 30 second elevator interview challenge, an exercise intended to help entrepreneurs market their ideas and services.

Tamakkan seminars also include an extended session of questions and answers, as well as general discussion, to provide entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their issues and learn from experts as well as from their peers. Entrepreneurs also benefit from networking opportunities, building relationships with other entrepreneurs and with corporate benefactors.

Bagersh explained that Tamakkan was founded on the belief that SMEs are the backbone of growing communities, and that new businesses can benefit from peer support to help them succeed.