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The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival 2026 organized a comprehensive series of specialized workshops during its opening day, providing entrepreneurs and participants with practical knowledge and tools to develop their projects and enhance their financial, technical, and creative capabilities. According to the festival organizers, the workshops took place within the “Festival Academy” zone and covered essential business development topics ranging from financial management to artificial intelligence automation.
The workshops focused on core themes including money management and investment, geographic data analysis, business automation using artificial intelligence technologies and data analytics, and building sustainable income sources for content creators. These sessions aimed to support the transition of entrepreneurial ideas from conceptualization to scalable business models, the festival announced.
Financial Literacy and Investment Strategies
Shahad Abdulhadi, co-founder of the Women Who Invest initiative, led a workshop titled “Mastering Money 101: Dos and Don’ts of Saving and Investing.” The session highlighted fundamentals of saving, budgeting, and investing, with particular emphasis on personal finance and business management realities. Participants explored conscious money and capital management plans while learning strategies to extend operational longevity and allocate resources efficiently.
Additionally, the workshop provided practical frameworks for sustainable financial resource management. These included balancing short-term and long-term goals, efficient resource distribution, and distinguishing between financial stability and growth requirements. Abdulhadi emphasized measuring returns beyond direct financial outcomes, stressing the value of skills development, operational flexibility enhancement, strategic partnership building, and supporting long-term growth in investment decisions.
Geographic Data Analysis for Competitive Advantage
Ezias Thomas Bejo, head of user experience and interface design at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, conducted a workshop titled “Geographic Data Makes a Difference: Converting Geographic Data into Profits.” The session demonstrated how startups can leverage location data and transform it into a competitive strategic advantage for their businesses. Bejo noted that most companies rely on mapping services like Google Maps without advancing to spatial analysis levels that enable deeper understanding of demand distribution, service areas, and operational costs.
Meanwhile, Bejo explained that store, office, and warehouse locations and the distances between them directly impact operational efficiency, supply chains, and strategic decision-making. He indicated that geographic data at city and neighborhood levels plays a pivotal role in planning, highlighting the importance of geographic and temporal coordination. According to specialized reports from research and consulting entities in the geographic data field, the retail sector captures approximately 21 percent of the global location analytics market, with projections indicating growth from around 27 billion dollars in 2026 to more than 63 billion dollars by 2034.
Artificial Intelligence Automation in Business Operations
In the “Business Automation with Artificial Intelligence” workshop, Philip Ride, marketing technology expert and founder of Find Your Freedom Club, reviewed the concept of AI agents and how companies use them to conduct conversations with potential and existing customers. The workshop covered the main types of AI agents and their practical applications in modern business environments.
However, Ride presented models of interactive agents capable of conducting written or voice conversations on platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and company websites, functioning as virtual receptionists. He demonstrated how these tools can support customer experience enhancement. The expert also introduced the concept of “autonomous agents” that connect directly to business systems and operate independently to manage operations and execute tasks without constant human intervention.
Conversational Programming and No-Code Development
In contrast to traditional coding methods, Ride discussed “conversational programming,” which allows users to convert ideas into applications and platforms using natural language commands instead of conventional programming languages. This approach represents a significant shift in how entrepreneurs can develop technological solutions for their businesses without extensive technical expertise.
The Sharjah Entrepreneurship Festival 2026 continues to provide applied knowledge experiences that contribute to building the entrepreneurial community’s capabilities, enhancing collaboration opportunities, exchanging expertise, and connecting talents and ideas with growth opportunities in the emirate’s and region’s entrepreneurship ecosystem. Further workshop sessions and networking events are expected throughout the festival’s remaining days, though specific schedules for upcoming activities have not been confirmed.
