Mind Soup

By the time a person reaches 25, it seems that he/she has become fully saturated emotionally, mentally and sometimes physically. In fact, our generation has witnessed the highest stress level among all generations. Recent studies  have shown that high school students today have the same anxiety levels as insane asylum mental patients during the 1950’s. Our generation strives so hard to stand out, both at work and at home, in an attempt to be noticed in the highly competitive environment that we live in. Suddenly, attaining a comfortable living is not such an easy task. We work hard to be able to hold everything together and push ourselves to and beyond our limits and this has taken its toll greatly on us. The amount of information that we now acquire by the time we are twenty is probably more information than previous generations could learn in a lifetime. With the widespread access of information through the internet, TVs, mainstream and social media, we are bombarded...

For the 5th year in a row, Beirut will host the MENA’s leading event for the digital creative sectors: ArabNet Beirut.  The 3-day festival of digital creativity, business, development and entrepreneurship will bring together more than 700 digital experts and entrepreneurs from across the MENA region and beyond. The event will feature a Design+Code Day (March 4), which will host workshops for developers and designers to hone their skills and network, and two Forum Day (March 5-6), which will include panel discussions, talks, and interviews about the opportunities in web and mobile for the media and entertainment industries, fashion, creative communities, food and beverage, and more. The conference will feature ArabNet’s signature competitions, the Startup Demo and Ideathon , which will highlight the most promising digital ideas and young companies from across the region, and give them the opportunity to connect with accelerators, incubators, investors, clients and media....

As the “edutainment reality” TV program  Stars of Science  prepares for its sixth season, the program’s creator, Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), has revealed that a total of  28,000  young Arabs were inspired to submit their inventions over the first five seasons. Launched in 2009,  Stars of Science  was designed as a platform for the next generation of Arab innovators to develop its ca pacities in science and technology. Season 1 Winner, Bassam Jalgha from Lebanon Of the 28,000 applicants,  80  of the most talented and entrepreneurial spirits were selected to participate in the TV program, and were supported by an international team of experts in developing their projects from concept to commercialization. His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Ph.D., President of Hamad bin Khalifa University commented: “Through  Stars of Science , we are empowering some of the brig...

This is not a peace offering, as I am not at war with anyone. This is a simple and straight-forward clarification about a few points about my relationship with the Online Community in Lebanon. As a member since the very early days of Twitter, I have witnessed all the phases that this community has went through from the cuddly adorable early days to the bitchy whiny era that we are in now. In 2010, I was super proud of the hard work of the bloggers and tweeps that I thought there should be an entity that protects and promotes this community. The Online Collaborative was born from a group of enthusiasts who wanted to make it worthwhile for this growing community and till this day, it has only served the goal of promoting proper online citizenship and creating an open platform for every member of the Online Community with no exclusions. Three years into the project, our volunteers have made a HUGE impact on this society (if you like to admit it or not) in an attempt to make...

Cinco Lounge, a Peruvian inspired concept has opened its doors in the heart of Beirut over a three-day extravaganza. Guests were taken on a mesmerizing journey by savoring thedelicious cuisine, tasting the trendy Pisco brandy available exclusively in Lebanon and the region at Cinco Lounge, as well as listening to the inspirations behind the new venue. Located in Sofil Center in Beirut, Cinco Lounge brings together various elements from exotic traditions, and blends them harmoniously with international culture and tradition. In essence, it is a place for people to mingle after work and meet one another, by sharing exquisite food and delightful cocktails. The idea behind the Cinco Lounge is a unique one, drawing inspiration from a trip to Peru, taken by Yasmina and Elissa Yared, who are the owners and sisters behind Cinco Lounge. They were keen to share a documentary with guests, unraveling the true charm of the venue. The entire concept of Cinco Lounge is based on the Pisco b...

Interview with Leila Khauli Hanna, a pioneer in social media adoption in the Lebanese classroom Leila Khauli Hanna is a full time Instructor of Marketing Management at AUB’s Sulaiman S. Olayan School of Business since the year 2000.  She holds a Masters of Business Administration with a specialization in Marketing and Econometrics from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. Ms. Hanna has taught courses at the Undergraduate and Graduate level in the fields of Marketing and Economics in the US, Lebanon, and France.  She has introduced and coordinated several highly specialized and cutting edge courses at the school and was nominated three times for the teaching excellence award at AUB. Her research interest lies in the Creative Industry of Lebanon and the Digital Transformation of businesses in the region.  Ms. Hanna was the first to introduce full-fledged social media integration into her courses in Lebanon. Her students use these tools to com...

The New Renault Clio Design Competition Celebrating the Global Launch of the New Renault Clio, Bassoul Heneine and Renault Lebanon are launching a design competition aimed at inspiring and rewarding creativity, dreams, passion and individuality. The Theme:   The New Renault Clio: High on Emotion and Personally Yours The Mechanism: University Students majoring in graphic arts or architecture, designers, Renault Clio fans and the general public are invited to personalize the New Renault Clio on a full customization application, hosted on Renault Lebanon’s Facebook page, developed exclusively for the competition.  The Renault Clio Design Competition allows Fans to participate in 2 different ways:   Design students and professionals can download the Renault Clio package and design their Renault Clio on Photoshop, Illustrator or any other photo editing software. They later upload their design on the application.    Those who just love ...

NESCAFÉ recently launched its new product, NESCAFÉ® Dolce Gusto®, into the GCC market and was about to launch it in Lebanon. This is a relatively small coffee machine for the home. For this reason, it selected around 30 tweeps from the Lebanese online community to receive and test the machine and give their feedback about it on various social networks. Below are the pros and cons of this campaign. Pros: Who doesn't love free stuff? This campaign was received very well by the tweeps it concerned and most of them are happily engaging with the campaign, posting photos of the machine and the coffee regularly on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The packaging was customized to show each person’s Twitter profile and most recent tweets. The package did not only include the coffee machine but also 5 boxes of different coffee capsules to last two months. Each capsule box had a suggested tweep name on it to make it more engaging. For example: Have an es...

Sociatag Makes Offline Marketing via Social Networks Possible This article was originally published in Cloud961's November 2013 issue . Sociatag offers a new solution for offline marketing via social networks. It allows users to directly connect and share their experiences in exhibitions, workshops and seminars with their friends, using appealing boxes that can be deployed on site. It adds a whole new dimension for the events, shops or restaurants by taking them to the online community. The Sociatag boxes are easy to install and can be fully branded in accordance to the brands' guidelines. Boxes can be Facebook Post Likes, Check-ins, Photo-booth or Simple Posts. They can also be linked to Twitter to post a predefined tweet, or Foursquare for check-ins as well. LinkedIn boxes also allow users to follow companies, join groups, bookmark job postings or simply share posts with their network. Rating boxes are available as well to get direct feedback from users. The opti...

Piotr Yordanov: Start-ups in Lebanon Lack Maturity and the Online Community is Full of Hate Inspirational People from the Lebanese Online Community This article was originally published in Cloud 961's  November issue . In an attempt to promote inspiring stories about people from the Lebanese Online Community, we, at Cloud961, have decided to dedicate a monthly column to interview an inspiring figure that has left a mark in the Lebanese online sphere. For your suggestions for this column, feel free to email me on mhijazi@cloud961.com . Piotr Yordanov is a Lebanese (with Russian origins) software engineer who graduated from the American University of Beirut. He is an entrepreneur who writes code, does web design and creates musical art. Piotr co-founded Baytbaytak, the first MENA map-based real-estate website and is currently founding Beepl, a tool to bookmark people and organize them across social networks. Piotr is now participating in the Draper University fall ses...

Online Collaborative celebrates its 3 rd year anniversary with the support of Converse’s global ‘Get Loud’ movement as they take to the streets of the city Beirut, November 2013 - Online Collaborative, the student initiative bringing together online influencers in Lebanon, celebrated its 3 rd year anniversary in style, taking part in Converse’s global ‘Get Loud’ Movement.  The movement took over the country’s digital platform, through the hype created on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Through a series of events in Beirut, a number of the Lebanese youth were brought together and engaged in activities including street art, walking photo booths, and a rocking party until dawn.  Young uprising talents took to the streets of Hamra where they expressed themselves and got loud with their street art. Spectators around the area got excited and contributed to the drawings while the music rocked in the background. Meanwhile, sneakers got even louder in other areas of ...