So I recently got this email from the Healthcare Technology Management Association (HTMA) about the "Open Innovation Week" which is organized by Bader Young Enterpreneurs Program. The email goes as such:

Bader, with local partners such as AltCity, are organizing the OIW for the World Bank, which aims to promote open innovation and collaboration, design thinking and entrepreneurship mindset and tools.

We're doing this through inspirational talks from top international speakers (MIT and Stanford d. School, among others), through ideation and targeted workshops, and through a 10-week mentorship program for startup teams.

To achieve a successful Ideation workshop, we've partnered with various Ministries (see attached flyer) to get their experts to pose Challenges, with are big problems that the country faces, and to use those challenges during the Ideation session to push teams to come up with solutions that have business potential. On the other hand, teams that already have ideas will benefit from the concentration of experts present to discuss and refine their projects.
The top teams out of the Ideation session go through specialized workshops during the following week, and will receive training to prepare a pitch to experts and investors on the 28th. From that, 3-5 teams will be chosen and will receive from Bader 10 weeks of mentorship, in-kind services, access to investors and international programs.
As you can see, the OIW aims to achieve multiple objectives:
- Bringing various entrepreneurship stakeholders in one place (gov, academia, researchers, startups)
- Injecting a mindset of cross-disciplinary and open innovation thinking
- Funneling top startups into a robust mentorship program, to help them progress quickly.

Note: All events are free, and no equity will be taken.
Open Innovation Week (#OpenLB) in Lebanon
February 20-28, 2015
www.fb.com/OpenLB
Open Innovation Week is coming soon! The Week includes a 2-day conference, many workshops, and the Startup Challenge. There are great local, regional, and international speakers, with over 20 partners bringing you amazing presentations and workshops around open innovation (including open source, hardware, content, data, design methods, and more).
In collaboration with the World Bank, the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Ministry of Economy and Trade and several ministries/agencies in Lebanon have identified key challenges in the country, and we're inviting the local innovation community to come up with solutions using open source, and pitch these solutions at the end of the week, on February 28. Top teams will get access to funding, startup support, plus the opportunity to travel to key conferences and startup programs in Europe and MENA.
On February 21-22, the 2-day Open Innovation Week Conference includes presentations, workshops, and discussions with great local and international guests. Challenges will be announced in the weeks before Open Innovation Week, and revolve around exploring how open innovation tools (software, hardware, content, design methods, data, etc) could be applied to create competitive solutions to local Lebanese challenges. The Conference also includes ideation sessions and other supports specifically for teams participating in the Startup Challenge. Click here to RSVP

These events plus all the workshops are all free, but please be sure to RSVP! Check out www.fb.com/OpenLB for the most updated list of events and activities, and for all registration information.

Also, here is the attached flyer:

My question is has anyone heard about this initiation? And if so, do you have a clear idea about what exactly are the topics of discussion going to be? Further more, is this the first event of this nature which Bader has organized? I didn't get clear answers when I contacted the representative from HTMA.

I would also be glad to hear some feedback regarding your opinions about this event.

[Edit] Interesting thing, I just realized that the LebGeeks logo is on the flyer. Samer, if you have any input regarding this matter or if you can clarify what is to be expected, that would be great. [/Edit]