Entrepreneurship Week at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani
The American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS) celebrated the Global Entrepreneurship Week with a series of events.
The Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) is a celebration of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, and it is on the second week of November of every year. World wide, events are organized during this week as an encouragement, especially for the young people, to become entrepreneurs.
GEW was also celebrated at AUIS, this year, on the 15th, and the 16th of November through three different events which were a Business Bazaar, a workshop by Five One Labs, and a panel discussion with three AUIS alumnus that are entrepreneurs.
The Business Club, which is a student organization at AUIS, organized the Business Bazaar event, in which student entrepreneurs showcased their different businesses. Two of the students Hashim Mustafa and Mukrian Ibrahim, who are both artists, showcased their arts. Tala Handmade, which is a jewelry brand, showcased different handmade jewelries at their booth. Amelon, a business that tries to save the environment with environmentally friendly dishes, cups, and other utensils, also showcased its products. Stickula, MODZ, and Maga were other businesses run by student entrepreneurs that were showcased. These students had different nationalities, and therefore, it was a diverse bazaar.
Later, on that same day, a workshop was presented to the students by Five One Labs, which is a start-up business incubator. In the workshop, Five One Labs introduced themselves first, and then they informed students on how entrepreneurship is starting a business based on an idea for solving an existing problem. They also encouraged the participants to open the Notes app on their phones, and write down problems that they face, and then find solutions for them by writing them down. This activity was to show the students how they can turn their everyday problems into start up businesses.
On the second day, a panel for three AUIS alumni was held. The panel was moderated by the IT department professor and entrepreneur, Dr. Hemn Latif. The panelists were: Mr. Hana, founder of Canvas, a digital marketing company, Dr. Randy, founder of Shop Asar, which is an online shopping platform, and professor at AUIS, Mr. Shad, founder of Ivy league, which is a restaurant. What encouraged them to build their businesses, how they started, their difficulties, and what keeps them going were discussed in the panel.
Rozhan Saman, Student Services Coordinator and the organizer of the event said that the main goal for the event was to show students the way to entrepreneurship through the Five One Lab workshop, and to inspire the current students through the panel, showing them successful entrepreneurship alumni “who have one day been at the same place as the current students.”
- Asma Jutyar