Innovation festival Unbound 2019 begins in style

 Middle East’s biggest innovation festival ‘Unbound 2019’ kickstarted yesterday at the Bahrain National Theatre. The event, which ends today, would host over 75 speakers and 3,000 delegates from across the region and around the world. The festival celebrates the Kingdom’s commitment to creating a digital economy and fuelling a digital future for the wider MENA region.

Khalid Al Rumaihi, Chief Executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) said: “The Middle East is embracing digital disruption with technology at the heart of economic diversification. “As governments look to increasingly partner with the private sector to help drive growth and efficiencies, Unbound Bahrain has served a great platform to showcase the latest innovative products and services being developed by start-ups from around the world, which will enable into ecosystem building for FinTech, artificial intelligence, sustainability, investing and venture capital, and blockchain.

 “The EDB is further delighted to be a part of the second edition of Unbound where we have significantly seen the numbers grow as well as witness the momentum growing. With the participants attending Unbound this year we can see the quality of ecosystem that is growing in the Kingdom.

“This year, we have 35 startups from India; we have a big group coming in from Kuwait, the UK and many other countries as it is a delight to see how the diversity of all these startups coming together will unravel.”

“The reason we like start-ups is that these are massive job creators as they start small but eventually they grow to become successful and major job creators. “Moreover, Unbound is a seamless networking opportunity with local and international business leaders and innovation stakeholders, highlighting the Gulf’s rise as a leading digital hub.”