Entrepreneur’s Show (www.karafarinshow.com / www.entrepreneurs.show ), a project of CODE International, which is a growing network of 3000+ active international techno-entrepreneurs and is aimed to be the largest network in ECO countries especially in Pakistan-Iran-Turkey axis creating an unmatched opportunities for students, academics and developing entrepreneurs to be inter-connected with the entrepreneurs from neighboring and regional countries. In our groundbreaking event in Pakistan, we accepted wide-ranging idea applications to encourage startups of any stage to compete at an international level and build an inter-disciplinary and international team of co-founders.
Our first ever event in Pakistan, Entrepreneur’s Show – Islamabad 2018 took place on 10th of October, 2018 at Seminar Hall of EE, COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan with the efforts of following core team members.
Core Team – Entrepreneur’s Show – Islamabad 2018
SSBC Volunteer Team of Entrepreneur’s Show – Islamabad 2018
A 32 member’s volunteer team of SSBC under the leadership of Haidar Shaheen was the vital player of event who deserve a special acknowledgement. The names of these members are as Zoha Khalid-event host, Afnan Ahmed, Aleena Ayun, Arslan Husain, Maryam Tahir, Faiza Kanwal, Ibtisham Abbasi, Maheen Shah, Mahnoor Bhatti, Ms Alishma, M Taimoor-Jalees, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Nabeel, Rabiya Sultana, Saba Safdar, Saman Daud, Sarah Alavi, Summaya Afaq, Syed Sarim, Zahra Afzal and Ali Sarosh as voluneteer contributor.
The others who worked voluntarily under the leadership of Ms. Noor Zahra, the chief coordinator of Entrepreneurs Show Pakistan 2018 are ; Zaina Zaidi – Szabist coordinator, Erum Afzal – NUST coordinator, Sahar Abbasi, Photographer, Sana Shahzadi, Graphic designer. The details of team members can be viewed at http://entrepreneurs.show/islamabad.
Pre-Event
After being permitted by COMSATS University Islamabad, our team worked literally worked round the clock to make it happen in less than a month. Meanwhile Ms. Zainab Bilal and Ms. Talat Mehmood coordinated with us on behalf of COMSATS University Islamabad. With discipline and high degree of professionalism, our team showcased the values of our organization. Mr. Haider Shaheen, team lead of student volunteer group of thirty members from SSBC, executed the event to perfection.
Incubation centers were approached by Mr. Jawad Shahid to inform them about the opportunities they can achieve by getting out of their nutshells. Ms. Zainab Essa also showed best of her skillsets in providing an event plan to COMSATS-Team, which was well implemented. Mr. Ahmed maintained the structure of finance and support was throughout the event. The Event was well advertised by the COMSATS, CODE International and PakistanInfo on their webpages.
Ideas Submission
In just two weeks of Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2018 we received 96 ideas from Plan 9, MIT Forum Enterprise, Jumpstart, Plan X, COMSATS-Incubator ONE, COMSATS-SSBC, NUST and other prestigious institutes all over of Pakistan. They all were examined and discussed by our Idea Committee which was headed by Mr. Jawad under the supervision of Dr. M. Irfan-Maqsood. All ideas were evaluated using the specific algorithmic approach developed at CODE International.
Participants for pitching
20
shortlisted candidates were invited for pitching in this event in the presence
of 3 investors, 8 mentors and evaluators and about 250+ participants were invited
to have a direct coordination with idea holders. 3 minutes were awarded
to each group for on stage 3-minutes pitching which is a globally accepted
technique and all ideas were evaluated by the mentors based on the Execution feasibility,
economic feasibility and international perspective.
Ideas Evaluation
Our Evaluation Board consisted of Academics, Policy Makers, Businessmen, Investors, and young entrepreneurs. The evaluation criteria was well drafted. The board of judges evaluated groups on the basis of their competency and strength (executional and economic feasibility and international market perspective) of their business models. The board comprises of the following 8 members,
| Dr Aftab Ahmed Chatta President at NAYS , Pakistan | Zeeshan Haider Awan Relationship Manager at Bank Alfalah Limited | Ali Zaheer Director of Estateman | Dr. Asif Jamal Assistant Professor at QAU, Islamabad |
| Dr.Tahir Awan Assistant Professor of Marketing, COMSATS Islamabad | Mr.Zulqarnain Jaffery IT Advisor, COMSATS Islamabad |
Dr. Amir Rashid Ch. Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering @ COMSATS Islamabad | Sadia Habib Centre Manager / HOD Robotics, Headstart School |
Event Timeline
Entrepreneurs Show has a standard format being executed everywhere in ECO countries. The event is divided into following four sessions (excluding refreshment/prayer breaks),
1. Keynote Lectures (motivational, scientific, policy making etc),
2. Ideas pitching session (3-minutes pitching of selected 20-24 ideas),
3. Experience transformation lecture by a national level startup entrepreneur
4. Final pitching for top idea selection and awarding ceremony.
SSBC team under the leadership of Mr. Haider Shaheen was in action at 8:00 AM and was divided into several committees such as VIP protocol committee, refreshment committee, on-desk registration committee, conference hall management committee etc. Protocol committee welcomed the honorable guests at the COMSATS University Islamabad main entrance and brought all to the conference hall and presented the flowers bouquet to them.
Entrepreneurs Show – Islamabad 2018 was opened by the recitation of Holy Quran and national anthem of Pakistan at 10:00 AM and all special guests, idea pitchers, keynote speakers, investors, mentors and evaluators were present during the opening ceremony of event.
Keynote speakers were included academic authorities, national and international entrepreneurs, STEM education policy makers etc. After the opening ceremony, chief coordinator of Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2019, Ms. Noor Zahra in her opening remarks, shared the milestones achieved by our organization and welcomed everyone at the annual Entrepreneur’s Show 2018 of Pakistan. Respectable Mr. Muhammad Raza Khan, Director of ORIC-COMSATS as host of event greeted everyone by giving us the platform to benefit entrepreneurs. He spoke on the “Perspective of Students Startups in National and International Economy” focusing the significance of students startups by COMSATS University as national most valuable asset.
Representative of Iranian Embassy “Mr. M.M. Zamani” (First Counselor of Embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran in Islamabad) who spoke on behalf of Excellency “Mr. Honar Doost. He appreciated the initiative of CODE International to establish network of Pakistan-Iran-Turkey entrepreneurs with vision of the largest network of techno-entrepreneurs in ECO countries. He also discussed the relation developmental steps between Pakistan-Iran taken by both nations and also requested the youth of two nations to trust each other. Honorable Speaker Dr. Manzoor H. Somroo, President ECO Science Foundation, was the main focal person of this event as he has the authority to convince the governments for trusting the youth of ECO countries and let them decide their destinations by supporting their initiatives and ideas of technology based entrepreneurship in region. Mr. Khalil Raza continued the talk of Dr. Manzoor summarizing the activities and opportunities created by ECOSF for scientific and technological youth of ECO countries.
Mr. Khalil Raza, the scientific officer of ECOSF presented the theories being implemented by ECO Science Foundation in ECO countries. He summarized the activities being performed by the ECOSF, not only just ECO countries but also all over the world to convince the world focus on the ECO region as the
rising hub of science and technology. He also discussed the opportunities being created by the ECOSF for the scientific and technological youth of ECO countries, the details can be found on the ECOSF website.
Dr. M. Irfan-maqsood, chief executive of CODE International and Entrepreneurs Show talked on “Branding and Establishing a Startup: Conspiracy Theory and Innovative Strategies” and discuss the significance of ECO region with 500+ million population and having one of the highest middle class society of the world.
He discussed the aim of CODE International to coup with this conspiracy theory by implementing the model of “multinational startup co-founders” from ECO countries and the Entrepreneurs Show is the event for networking of ECO co-founders as pathway to achieve this aim.
Two ladies speaker were also the part of keynote speakers,
1.Mrs. Monireh Bahrami presenting ScienceTech+ Accelerator, Iran. He came all the way from Iran to initiate this grand event here in Pakistan, giving a new prospect to our youth and for ECO market discussing the “Perspective of International Techno-entrepreneurship in Pakistan-Turkey-Iran Axis countries” and presented her work “KnowCancer” and “PakistanInfo”, two startups who are aiming to change the concept of general public and giving them the real truth about cancer and Pakistan, respectively. As she is PhD scholar of molecular biology working on molecular biology of cancer, KnowCancer is her passionate startup rising the cancer awareness and prevention strategies for the society.
KnowCancer is an encyclopedia established for the general public which is not well aware about specific terminology and can see the breakthroughs and scientific inventions regarding the treatment of cancer.
2. Dr. Zarrin Fatima represented ORIC-GCWU, Sialkot, who was also the key speaker of Entrepreneurs Show – 2017 in Mashhad, Iran. She was the most valuable speaker of the event, as she discussed the theoretical approaches being applied in the commercialization of science and technology and what basic principles of innovation and commercialization is not being considered by the developing techno-entrepreneurs.
Her presentation talk was on the “Commercialization of Scientific projects towards the Development of National Techno-Entrepreneurs” and she presented science of commercialization in very simple way.
Mr. Nasir Ijaz, CEO of The Tea Craft of Pakistan was the main sponsor of Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2018. He joined as the investor of this event and also as the motivational speaker of Entrepreneurs Show as he was also the sponsor and motivational speaker of Entrepreneurs Show – Iran 2017 in Mashhad, Iran.
A Glimpse of Conference Hall of Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2018
Pitching Ideas Session
96 ideas were received after the Call of Ideas Submission given by CODE International and SSBC-COMSATS University Islamabad from different institutes, organizations and incubation centers of Pakistan and following 20 ideas were selected for pitching after being screened by the idea committee head and executives.
Shortlisted ideas Title:
| Idea Owner Name/s | Title of Idea |
| Abdul Muqeet Khan | Visumify |
| Ijaz ul rehman najeeb | Geosocio |
| Muhammad Arslan | Careers and Goals |
| Salsabeel Kiani ,Shaina Laraib , Naufal Mansoor | Intelligent Memory System |
| Faheem Shahzad | The Team |
| Rida Azhar | Time Zone Social Media App |
| Raja Muhammad Ali | Door2Door |
| Nisar Ahmed | Healz |
| Abdul Hadi | Canvas |
| Muhammad Waqas Arshad | Protection Against Sex Harassment |
| Iqra Shahid | Ease Creators |
| Rubeena Omar | Pak Karubaar |
| Muhammad Samad | Tutorzap |
| Rohan Manzoor | Gtnews: The News Drive Thru |
| Muhammad Asad Haider | AI security cloud platform |
| Shaf Ali | IOT Cloudware |
| Ahsan Ameen & Mudassar Ahmed | Compu Electronica |
A Glimpse of Idea Pitching Session
Closing Remarks and Experience Transfer Session
After the tough round of pitching session of Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2018, Dr. Zarin Fatima Rizvi gave the conclusive remarks and at last techno-entrepreneurship experience transfer talk was given by Muhammad Aswal, CEO @ CricFlex that how he establish this startup from an idea and how it travelled to success. Mr. Arshad Hussain Rizvi, Advisor and Chief Patron of Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2018 presented certificates and awards to our precenters and finalists of event at closing ceremony.
Finalists and Winner Explanation
All the participants gave their best with remarkable performance, but as always there is no failure but only learning, three were shortlisted by our judges as winner and runner ups of Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2018. Salsabeel Kiani and her team with idea “Intelligent Memory System” were awarded 50K PKR as prize money by CODE International.
- Intelligent Memory System – Salsabeel Kiani, Shaina Laraib and Naufal Mansoor
- IOT Cloudware – Shaf Ali
- ComputElectronica – Ahsan Ameen and Mudassar Ahmed.
Closing and Awarding Ceremony
After pitching competition, concluding remarks on Idea presentation
| Salsabeel Kiani, Shaina Laraib and Naufal Mansoor winners of Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2018 presenting Intelligent Memory System | |
| Shaf Ali and Co, the Runner up of Entrepreneur Show – Pakistan 2018 with idea of IOT Cloudware | Ahsan Ameen and Mudassar Ahmed, appreciated as 2nd runner up of Entrepreneurs Show Pakistan 2018 presented their idea “ComputElectronica” |
| Group Photo of Entrepenerus Show – Pakistan 2018 with executives, organizing committee members, honorable evaluators and position holder after closing ceremony Entrepreneurs Show – Pakistan 2018, Supported By |