The Harvard Arab Alumni Association,(HAAA) in collaboration with the Harvard club of Lebanon (AHUAL), will hold the 13th annual Harvard Arab World Conference (HAWC) in Beirut, on Saturday, April 21st, 2018 at the Kempinski Summerland Hotel and Resort, under the patronage of the president of the council of ministers Saad Hariri.
Carine Abi Akar, Conference Co-Chair and Vice-President of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association, said the conference, which is open to both Harvard and non-Harvard affiliates, is expected to attract hundreds of professionals and students, noting that last year’s edition attracted more than 400 participants.
On Friday, April 20th, the day before the conference, the Harvard Arab Alumni Association will organize a workshop for high school and college students on admission to Harvard undergraduate and graduate programs. A representative from the Admissions office at Harvard University will be attending in person.
The HAWC agenda includes a startup competition that will bring together the Arab world’s top early stage startups to compete for an over $15,000 prize as well as the recognition from the tech and VC community. They will pitch to a panel of judges on the day of the conference.
The theme of this year’s HAWC will be “Region Rising.” “It will explore initiatives that are currently (re)shaping the face of the Arab world”, Akar explained. She added that “The HAWC proposes several panels that bring together multi-disciplinary leaders to discuss the region’s tomorrow for future generations in development, healthcare, education, human rights, energy and entrepreneurship”. According to her, “the conference will ask how the region and its people can harness its collective power to drive positive change and how the rising generation of Arabs can leverage current and emerging resources to inspire transformation”.
She also hoped that “this conference will allow Harvard graduates to participate in drawing a better future for the region with the help of their great knowledge and skills”.
List of speakers in the conference include Caesar Abi Khalil, Lebanese Minister of Energy and Water, Dr. Nasser Saidi, former Lebanese Minister of Economy and Industry, Ghassan Moukheiber, member of the Lebanese Parliament, Mrs. Nora Joumblatt, Chairperson of The Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL), Dr. Fadlo Khuri, President of American University of Beirut , and a wide array of prominent experts.
Abi Khalil and Saidi will take part, anong others, in a panel on the “challenges and future prospects” of “Lebanon’s rising Oil and Gas sector”. The panel will discuss the way to ensure the sector puts the needs of the citizens first, and the government and private sector work hand in hand to promote good governance, transparency and enhance accountability mechanisms in the sector. Panelists will also discuss the impact of Lebanon’s oil and gas industry ,on the Lebanese socio-economic landscape, environment and relations with the neighboring petroleum producing countries.
For registration and more information about the conference, please check the following link:
www.harvardarabalumni.org/hawc2018.
It should be noted that the Harvard Arab Alumni Association includes Arab students who graduated from or still study at the University of Harvard in the USA.