As the country makes strides towards self-sufficiency, ‘Embrace Doha’ is celebrating National Day with focus on inspiring entrepreneurial spirit among young Qatari nationals to discover opportunities available in the local market.
Aptly titled “Labaih Ya Amir” (Here I am at your service, O Emir), Embrace Doha’s National Day pavilion at Katara was inspired by Emir H H Sheikh Tamin bin Hamad Al Thani’s speech which calls for collective participation in building the country’s economy and protecting its security. The pavilion showcases a number of Qatari national startup businesses and incubatees at the Qatar Business Incubation Centre (QBIC).
One of the incubatees, whose stall is attracting crowds at the pavilion, is Tean Studio which sells pottery and provides workshops to individuals and companies. The company founded and run by an all-female group of Qatari national entrepreneurs sprung from their interest and passion for pottery.
“We are three girls who met in one of the workshops. We decided to have our own workshop and start working on pottery by ourselves instead of only joining workshops that are offered in the country,” Shaikha Al Khulaifi, one of the founders of Tean Studio, told The Peninsula. Tean Studio is showcasing some of its unique pottery collections while conducting workshops for children and adults at the event.
“We started at QBIC. They incubated us, and from there we started creating our collection as well as giving workshops to kids and adults. We arrange workshops with entities and started having private classes in our own workshop area which was offered to us six months from incubation,” said Al Khulaifi.
QBIC is one of the leading business centres for entrepreneurship in Qatar and the Middle East which was founded by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and Social Development Center (SDC), said Mohammed Dalloul, Operations Officer at QBIC.
“We support all Qatari entrepreneurship and try to scale up businesses in Qatar. We support them financially, logistically and through workshops,” said Dalloul, who was at the QBIC stand at the event providing information to visitors who consider turning their business ideas to reality.
“Our office is located in the New Industrial Area for a good reason, which is to help the manufacturers develop their products and maintain them in the same place. We give them an office and a workshop and a seed fund which starts from QR100,000 up to QR300,000 within two years, after which they graduate from the program so others can join and start the same journey,” he explained.
QBIC has already seen dozens of graduates and more are expected in the future with hundreds of applications it receives revealing the increasing interest in entrepreneurship in the country, he added.
In addition to Tean Studio startups and incubatees engaged in perfume and food business are also among those present at the event organised by Embrace Doha, a Qatari company which also started as a QBIC incubatee.
“My aim is to inspire people. I hope that this event will inspire more Qataris to start their own businesses. I graduated from QBIC and I recommend it for people who want to start a business or a business idea,” said Amal Al Shammari, CEO of Embrace Doha.
‘Embrace Doha’ is a first-of-its-kind Qatari company that offers a diverse range of cultural sessions and events aimed at enriching the experiences of expatriates and visitors. Since its establishment in 2014, the company has grown organising more cultural sessions and even bigger events in the country, said Al Shammari.
For the National Day celebrations, ‘Embrace Doha’ has gathered events and activities on culture, education and entertainment under one roof in their pavilion in Katara which witnesses hundreds of visitors every day since it opened on December 12.
A series of presentations including poetry, traditional dance and song interpretation by school children from various educational institutions in the country are staged regularly at the venue.
Two Bedouin tents , one for VIPs and another for the public, provide visitors knowledge and experience on authentic Qatari hospitality as they see how Arabic coffee and tea are prepared as well as sample them.
Workshops on pottery, drawing and Arabic calligraphy, henna and face painting are available at the pavilion. Qatari craftsmen demonstrating how to make native handicrafts such as traditional wooden boxes, miniature dhows, fishing and pearl diving equipment and gypsum decoration are also an attraction at the pavilion which is open from 4pm to 10 pm every day until Tuesday.
