These are the Web Summit Qatar talks everyone is buzzing about

With 70+ hours of content there is so much to learn from and be inspired by at Web Summit Qatar. Here are some of the most favourited talks by attendees on our official app.

From AI ethics to brand building in the digital age, Web Summit Qatar favourites span a wide range of topics with high profile speakers including Meta’s Andy O’Connell and Sprinklr’s Ragy Thomas. 

The AI moment

2023 was the year of AI. Will artificial intelligence continue its meteoric rise in 2024?

With new regulations providing ethical guardrails, rapid advances in language models, robotics and more, it looks as though AI will keep enabling innovative applications across many industries.

Yet hype remains a risk, and businesses must focus on using AI pragmatically. Ultimately, the AI journey has just begun, as you will hear from panellists Sachin Dev Duggal, founder and chief wizard at Builder.ai, and Mohammed Al-Hardan, head of technology, media and telecom investments with the Qatar Investment Authority.

What it takes to be a great CEO

What are the hallmarks of a successful CEO? Perhaps it’s about inspiring everyone to share the same vision, or having the courage to take risks while remaining grounded in the nuts and bolts of operations. 

Fadi Ghandour, managing partner at Wamda Capital, and Alfred Chuang, co-founder and general partner at Race Capital will be giving their expert advice. Alfred, an accomplished entrepreneur and VC, has been referred to as the ‘Silicon Valley CEO’s CEO’ by the prestigious Andreessen Horowitz.

AI and society: Transforming how people connect and communicate

What role will AI play in society and daily life, and how will it integrate with the metaverse? Join this session to discover the new AI tools and products Meta has coming up in 2024, and learn how these tools can support teams across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, WhatsApp, Reality Labs and Quest.

This talk features Andy O’Connell, VP of product policy and strategy at Meta in conversation with Sameer Hashmi of BBC.

The role of Middle Eastern funds in the global economy

As venture capital funding in North America experiences a downturn, with Crunchbase data showing a consistent decline since 2021, the Middle East, especially within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, emerges as a beacon of financial opportunity.

This talk, featuring Khaled Talhouni, managing partner at Nuwa Capital, and Noor Sweid, founder and managing partner at Global Ventures, will delve into the funding landscape of the Middle East, exploring the underlying reasons for its resilience and growth amidst global economic shifts.

Zero to one: Using AI to turn an idea into the next great app

Former Facebook engineer turned founder and CEO Amjad Masad will be talking about how AI can help entrepreneurs rapidly bring their ideas from the back of a napkin to a fully functioning app.

Founded in 2016, Amjad’s startup Replit is an online programming environment and community for collaborative software development.

Why storytelling is a marketing superpower

From Dove’s Real Beauty campaign that created a narrative of challenging Western beauty standards while promoting body positivity to Coca Cola’s Share a Coke campaign that used personalisation to tap into the sentimentality of sharing with family and friends, brands do best when they tell a clear story.

Neamat Khalil, co-founder of event company The Worx will be in conversation with JD Durkin, anchor and journalist with TheStreet and a contributor for CBS News to discuss how to find the right story and tell it in a way that engages your customers.

Is generative AI killing SaaS?

Business Insider says we’re in the final phase of software eating the world, but, this time, SaaS companies are the ones on the menu.

By enabling non-techies to customise and create their own applications at speed is GenAI really going to adversely impact the SaaS industry? Or will it fail to compete with the complexity and specificity of enterprise-level software needs?

Dive into this discussion with Oliver Steil, CEO of TeamViewer, Aspa Lekka, co-founder of JOKR and executive in residence at Alpine Investors, and Ragy Thomas, founder of Sprinklr, to unravel the future of SaaS in the age of generative AI.

The winning traits of early-stage founders

Are founders specific personality types with innate traits that predict success? Are they more dreamer or pargmatist? Is there a winning combination of qualities that can be learned in order to lead a successful startup? 

Michael Hwang, co-founder and chairman at Bigbang Angels, and Maninder Dhaliwal, managing partner with Startup Studio, will be sitting down with Amir Farha, founder and general partner with COTU Ventures, to discuss these questions and more.

Explore the full Web Summit Qatar schedule here.

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