Press Release:

(28 September Dubai)

Step, organisers of Step Conference, the leading technology festival for emerging markets, hosted its first full-fledged online conference, STEP Anywhere, on August 24, 25, and 26th, 2020. The three-day event drew more than 1500 attendees. 97 showcasing tech startups, featured an exhibition of tech companies, hours of workshops, and more than 50 influential speakers, all tuning in virtually, in real-time.

High-profile speakers such as Allen Blue, co-Founder of LinkedIn; Kat Cole, COO and President of Focus Brands; Christine Tsai, CEO of 500 Startups; Dr. Jonathan Reichental, CEO of Human Future; and  Zubin Mowlavi, President of VaynerCommerce and more, tackled topics in technology, digital media, and entrepreneurship in our current times across key sectors including healthtech, foodtech, edtech, and fintech.

With the conclusion of Step Anywhere, Step is pushing forward with its virtual event strategy to organise and produce high-quality content, gather global speakers, and provide networking and showcasing opportunities to tech companies and startups. Step’s mission is to share, power, and advance tech development across MENA and the emerging world through remarkable stories and insights, and bringing together cross-generational groups through extraordinary events.

“There is a need to solve inefficiencies in the events and conferences business which was jolted by COVID. We’re excited and believe that the future of events is online where we can scale, access new markets, provide more opportunities and connections, and produce high-quality content ” said Ray Dargham, co-founder and CEO of Step.

Step Anywhere also saw the appetite of tech and digital companies eager to connect with the ecosystem including Tap Payments, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund, Criteo, Zoho and Dubai Internet City, Telr, in5, Hyperpay and Wasla.

Step continues to be a platform for tech companies and startups to test and feature their services by actually working with these companies in its event operations.  As part of their efforts to empower the startup community within the region, Tap Payments was this year’s official sponsor of the Fintech Village which featured regional startups including Mamo Pay, a P2P payments platform that recently raised $1.5 million. Tap was also the exclusive payment partner to Step, integrating the event ticket shop with their powerful payment gateway to provide a seamless experience for both the customers and the organisers.

“As the exclusive payment partner, we were excited to help bring one of the biggest tech festivals online and to witness the great response it was met with.” said Ali Abulhasan, co-founder & CEO of Tap Payments.

Step’s plans for the remaining months of 2020 include hosting focused events including Step Match for founders and investors to meet and network where the most active VCs and investors are participating; and hosting Step Saudi which launched in 2019 in Riyadh and is now going to take place virtually this November 2020. Step’s videos from talks, panels, and chats can also be accessed through Step’s streaming platform Step+.

Registration is open for Step Saudi 2020 taking place on November 24th and 25th on saudi.stepconference.com and announcements on future Step events are ongoing.

The ecosystem can catch all talks, panels, and chats from Step events through the Step+ subscription platform at stepplus.stepconference.com