Last week was an exciting time for all mobile Moroccan entrepreneurs and developers as it happened to be the BeMYApp WeekEnd Morocco!
Organized in the first co-working space in Morocco called iNSANE! (إنسان) by evento, a young startup specialized in the organization of events around the web and digital, theBeMyapp Weekend is a 3 day mobile app development competition aiming to build successful startups by fostering the encounter of various people and profiles among them idea holders (called “idea generators”), developers, designers, and people with specific abilities (called “super powers”).
This 2012 edition of the BeMyApp weekend took place June 29th – July 1st in several continents simultaneously, in countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Belgium and Brazil.
The concept of the BeMyApp weekend is simple, and similar to Startup Weekend, with a global competition twist. Every registered idea generator has 1 minute to pitch a mobile application concept to a specialized jury on the first day (Friday, June 29th this time). The jury is composed of people with mobile/tech/digital and entrepreneurship backgrounds who select the best mobile application concepts, around which teams are formed. The best ideas will be developed during a full 48 hour marathon weekend of designing, business modeling and coding. On Sunday in every country, each team presents its mobile application to its jury, which nominates the best local mobile app. Then the four finalists from Brazil, Belgium, Morocco and Tunisia enter 48 hours of online public vote.
The winner, announced on July 5th, was mobile app “Taxi Counter,” from Morocco which won this BeMyApp World Cup.
As a member of the Moroccan jury, I was really impressed by the quality of each idea presented and the ability of each team member to work quickly together and deploy their concepts. Taxi Counter is a mobile app that meets the needs of hundred thousands of people not only in Morocco but also worldwide. Thanks to Taxi Counter, people that own a smartphone and take a taxi will be able to estimate the fare of each of their route.
I also emphasized to the jury, as well as the Taxi Counter team, the importance of integrating social media features to create a worldwide taxi user community (imagine a social network of taxi users in the world!) sharing tips, rates and recommendations. I personally think this idea has a future and especially in our MENA regions where the use of taxis is very important… Good luck Taxi Counter!
Follow @bemyappmorocco, or check out thewebsite or Facebook page, or even my Flickr stream for more on the event, and check out the video below.
29th 30th June – 1st July 2012 – BeMyApp weekend Morocco by Youcef Es-Skouri, co-founder of Evento from Karim Jazouani onVimeo.
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Karim Jazouani is an independent web consultant based in Casablanca, Morocco. He has worked as the former North Africa Head Of Sales at Yahoo!, as the former marketing and communication manager of Menara.ma, and former co-host, radio columnist and creator of the #1 Moroccan radio show on web/IT/high-tech, as well as the founder of @communiquemaroc, the main Moroccan press releases distribution website. Previously, he worked for various digital companies in France and Morocco. He holds three Masters degrees in management, coaching and e-marketing, and e-commerce, trade and sales. He’s also an extreme sports addict (longskate, bodyboard). You can find him on his LinkedIn page and on Twitter at @karimjazouani.
