Young Arab Leaders and Mohammed Bin Rashid Est. for SME Development (Dubai SME), under its educational arm Dubai Entrepreneurship Academy, are proud to have successfully organized another session of the Entrepreneur Workshop Series with Guest Speaker Jamal Al Mawed, Director of Communications of Dubai Properties Group, on the evening on 03 April 2018. It was noteworthy that Jamal commenced his presentation itself by thinking outside the box – he asked relatable questions based on professional backgrounds, which further sparked curiosity among the audience. He then presented numerous trends and statistics from the region, depicting how technology has been driving rapid change in communication and why it is vital for young professionals and entrepreneurs today to keep up with this dynamic pace of change. He advised the audience to aim at leveraging the possibilities around the change to their benefit, rather than negotiating change. Furthermore, he shared real-world examples of the effectiveness of shorter content in doing the job, proving why ‘Less is More’ in digital communication. On the flipside, however, he said, getting it wrong can have undesirable implications. Also, he shared good examples of marketing campaigns which got it right – using shared references, visual analytics, humour and gamification. He spoke about culture’s role in communications and added that demographics is a critical factor to consider. Jamal emphasized on the fact that amid substantial advancements in digital communication technologies, the essence of communicating an idea well is a good story behind it. He further added that compelling stories are the ones which resonate well with the needs and values of the target audience. He put forward a point that any idea can be sorted into one of: ‘Story-telling’, ‘Story-showing’, or ‘Story-doing’ based on the idea, its objectives and the target audience. In conclusion, he proposed that strategically leveraging the tech-driven possibilities on offer in digital and visual communications can go a long way in contributing to the success of organizations as well as entrepreneurs An interactive Q&A session followed, enabling attendees to have their queries answered by Jamal and get key takeaways to ponder over and make informed decisions. The evening closed with a networking session which helped foster knowledge-exchange. Entrepreneur Workshop Series (EWS) is an entrepreneur-focused series that presents unique topics to the startup community with regional mentors & speakers aimed at educating & providing entrepreneurs with tools & skills to launch and scale their businesses. The core idea behind this event is to equip startups and aspiring entrepreneurs with the much-needed visualization skills to clearly communicate the essence of their proposed product or service, especially when pitching to a high-profile panel of judges or investors. About the Speaker Jamal Al Mawed is a bilingual Palestinian/Emirati/British hybrid with more than a decade of experience handling the PR and Communications of multinational brands in over thirty countries. He is a regular keynote speaker at PR and Marketing summits and conferences across the world, university guest lecturer, judge for industry panels, magazine contributor and guest radio speaker. in 2010 he was the recipient of the MEPRA ‘Young Communicator of the Year Award’ and in 2016 he was named by The Huffington Post as one of ‘Ten to Watch’ in the Middle East MarComms Industry. In his role as Director of Communications for the Dubai Properties Group, Jamal Al Mawed oversees all public relations and communications related to the Group as it transforms Dubai’s landscape with iconic projects and developments such as JBR, Dubai Land, Business Bay and Culture Village. Prior to that, he managed PR and communications at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for the Middle East, Africa and South America regions, where he oversaw the brand’s traditional and digital communications across multiple continents, languages and cultures.