Touch partners with Geek Express for the region’s first AppJamming Summit

Beirut, February 24, 2019: touch, the leading mobile telecommunications and data operator in Lebanon, managed by Zain Group, partnered with Geek Express to host the AppJamming Summit (AJS) semi-final competition on February 24th 2019 held at Antwork, Hamra. The competition was attended by 40 participants joined by touch team as part of the jury, including CCO Nadim Khater, Digital and Innovation Senior Specialist Lara Ammar, the Geek team, including Founder & CEO Manal Hakim, COO Rayan Najdi, the Antwork team including COO

Rania Banna & the Communication Lead Ghassan Jawhar, renowned tech enthusiasts and educators, and the participants’ parents.

AJS (Beirut) was the first App Development competition in the MENA region that has witnessed some of the most impressive talent among its young participants, whose ages range from 8 to 16 years old. The common thread between all the apps presented at the semi-finals was the topic of “culture”: How an application can bring people from different backgrounds and experiences together in celebration of their divergent cultures.

The competition started with groups gathered at Antwork to set up their projects and add the final touches to their projects. The teams consisted of 1-3 participants each where they submitted their final pitch of their app idea, design, and the codes which make up the customized application. Presentations covered both technical and conceptual aspects of their applications in front of a jury, which consisted of touch CCO Nadim Khater, touch Digital and Innovation Senior Specialist Lara Ammar, Geek’s COO Rayan Najdi, and Geek’s Team Lead Ali Yassine and CryptoPhi Founder & CEO Al El-Zohbi. All teams were judged by the quality of their codes, relevance and interface of their application, and the teams’ presentation skills.

Nadim Khater, Chief Commercial Officer at touch said, “Living in the digital age, we know that coding is the most basic and fundamental language to communicate with computers in order to create innovative apps and more. Being digital natives, the youth have much talent, creativity, and skills that have the potential to disrupt and generate new business models. The AJS

competition is a great opportunity to not only showcase the participating competitors’ ideas, but a chance to learn, get inspired, empowered, and prepare them for their future careers.”

Manal Hakim, CEO & Founder of Geek Express said, “At Geek Express, our aim is to empower and enable young minds. We believe the best way to do it is by teaching them how to code. We want to see them engaged as creators of technology rather than passive users. A child should be able to design his own app, not only use it. Awareness on the urgency and importance of coding, technology in general, and STEM learning is our priority. For this purpose, a lineup of STEM related hackathons, competitions, and edu-tech activities will take place at Geek Express both locally and regionally throughout the year.”