At the luxurious setting of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Dubai International Financial Center, are a set of investors, developmental funds, entrepreneurs, managers of private equity and VC funds, and managers of accelerators in the MENA Region.

I am attaching the full program below, but I am excited by my interview of my long-time friend Chris Schroeder (@cmschroed)  about his views, advice, and observations on early stage companies, investments and opportunities in the MENA Region.  Chris wrote an authoritative book on the topic called “Startup Rising” and in it he captured a lot of experiences including our own in Oasis500 (@Oasis_500) .

My speaker session is at 11 AM and is titled: Equity Investing in Early Stage Enterprises in MENA: Are early-stage enterprises where we need to be?

I will write a separate summary of my Interview with Chris Schroeder and summarizing my thoughts post my speaker session in a little while. In the meantime, the program below gives a good idea of the quality and relevance of the participants and speakers.

We need more of programs like these to kick-start the VC and eraly-stage investment industry in the MENA Region. Badly needed indeed!