The BIBAN 23 Forum, organized by Small and Medium Enterprises General Authority (Monshaat), has announced the launch of over 13 competitions and hackathons with awards worth more than SAR10 million to stimulate startups to highlight entrepreneurial projects, and to contribute to the development and building of innovative solutions that address various challenges. The event will take place between March 9 and 13, 2023, at the Riyadh Front Exhibition and Convention Center. BIBAN 23, held under the theme "Opportunities to realize entrepreneurship", aims to promote technological entrepreneurship, identify the digital capabilities of young men and women, develop their ideas, spread a culture of creativity and innovation, as well as strengthen the notion of teamwork, in a bid to discover, organize and empower creative ideas and technological innovations. The awards include: the Entrepreneurship World Cup Award, the Prince Abdulilah bin Abdulaziz Award for Entrepreneurship and Supporting Productive Families, the "She is Next Award" in collaboration with Visa, the annual KPMG Competition, and the launch of the Women in Tech Competition. The annual "Innovate" Award will also be announced at the event. The competitions will cover: the digitization challenge to the customer experience in the real estate sector, the launch of the cybersecurity challenge in partnership with the Saudi Information Technology Company (SITE), technology startups, robotics war, the "Azouma" contest, the search for the robot through the virtual world in intelligence centers, the programming field, and the quiz U employment competition from Oqqol Company. Hackathons will witness: robot hackathons, Cyberthon IQ hackathons, launch of Smarts Plus, launch of link app, launch of sports innovation lab with Saudi Al-Hilal Club, launch of PT way agreement, launch of Saudi Post Innovation Center, launch of UN competition, and launch of Innovation Week. The participating teams of entrepreneurs and startups will get engaged in several training workshops, lectures, brainstorming sessions and practical exercises provided by entrepreneurship and innovation experts through BIBAN 23, will compete with innovative projects judged by juries, experts and business partners, and winning projects will be selected, according to specific criteria. BIBAN 23 Forum attracts more than 500 entrepreneurs and brings together more than 120 empowering and supporting institutions that help boost communication and help young people by giving them entrepreneurial ideas and ways in which to invest in them in a way that realizes one of the goals of the Saudi Vision 2030 through increasing the contribution of SMEs to the GDP to 35%.
