LEAP 2024 to Take Place in Saudi Arabia

The third edition of the world’s most attended technology event, LEAP 2024 is going to take place on from March 4 to 7 of 2024 at Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Centre on Malham District of Riyadh. The event shall highlight global technology industry’s pioneering women.

The event is organised by Tahaluf along with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT). Tahaluf is a strategic joint venture between the Events Investment Fund (EIF), the Saudi Federation for Cybersecurity, Programming and Drones (SAFCSP) and Informa PLC.

LEAP 2024 will have a ‘Women in Tech’ program which includes investment, good content, entrepreneurial mentorship opportunities and networking in addition to a startup award. This program’s key goal is to inspire women in Saudi Arabia and beyond to engage with technology industry and fuel wider diversity initiatives.

Annabelle Mander who is Tahaluf’s Senior Vice President expressed, “Female representation is across all of LEAP’s features and reflects the event’s mission of driving economic diversification and providing market access to international business. Within Tahaluf itself, half of our team members are women, and women make up half of our SMT too.”

She added, “This even split between men and women happened naturally. For me, it's all about creating an environment where women are respected, pushed forward, promoted, and given chances to grow, and we couldn’t do it without the support and backing from our male colleagues and teammates.”

The ‘Women in Tech’ program shall have an exclusive content track with leading speakers that includes former government ministers, C-suite executives from leading tech companies, ethics advisors, and venture capitalists.

Amongst the speakers, 2 of them were:

1. Sahar Albanarna
2. Nadine Hachach Haram

Sahar Albanarna from IMPACTIQUE Bahrain, is one of the speakers of the program. She is the founder of ‘Women4Impact’ initiative.

Sahar in her statement said, “Over 26 million women worldwide with professional experience and degrees are not in the global workplace. This demographic includes a huge pool of untapped talent which technology can help unleash to fuel the co-creation of exponential solutions across multiple sectors. To help women access productive employment, we urge industry leaders to support high-impact female entrepreneurs as a means to boost their economies and accelerate the UN’s sustainable development goals by promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth.”

Nadine is the Founder and CEO of Proximie. This particular organisation is a healthcare technology firm that aims to provide productivity to patients by giving data-driven insights and expertise while improving patient outcomes.

Nadine said, “From the outset, Proximie was designed to facilitate smooth interactions between surgeons operating in-person and observers via a multi-sensory experience. This was born out of my experience as a surgeon. I knew what surgeons needed to effectively adopt and utilise technology.”

“Our company is thrilled to be exhibiting at LEAP, a global platform that provides an opportunity to meet leaders from across industry and experience the dynamism and innovation which is making Saudi Arabia one of the most exciting global hubs for technological advancement and development,” she continued.

Women entrepreneurs and startup founders will get the chance to put up their funding needs and support at Women’s Investor Forum, Entrepreneur Mentorship Scheme, and the Rocket Fuel pitch competition’s Aviatrix Award. There’s a cash prize for the winner i.e., US$150,000.