Banque du Liban Accelerate

Banque du Liban wrapped up the second day of its annual conference "BDL Accelerate 2016", gathering a large number of local and international speakers who shared with more than 20000 attendees their experiences and tips in business, innovation and startups.

Since early morning, attendees started flowing inside the main stage to participate in the conference of the main speaker Steve Wozniak known as "The Woz", who founded Apple along with Steve Jobs.

At the beginning, Mrs. Marianne Hoayek, Head of the Executive Office of the Central Bank of Lebanon, and the Supervisor and Organizer of BDL Accelerate 2016, welcomed Wozniak and thanked him for coming especially to Beirut to participate in this big event and she said that a large number of people didn't believe at first that "The Woz" will be present in BDL Accelerate this year, but it happened. Afterwards, Mrs. Hoayek invited Wozniak to take the stage for his speech.

Wozniak spoke about his career in computer engineering and the challenges he encountered that pushed him to succeed and found Apple with Steve Jobs who was very close to him. Then he spoke about his ambitions that led to the foundation of Apple, since he presented the prototype he created five times to the company he once worked for without getting the consent to execute it, which made him found Apple and execute this prototype that changed the world of technology today.

At the end, Wozniak gave tips to every entrepreneur wishing to found a startup saying that the foundation of every startup needs three essential departments: Marketing, computer engineering and business. And he wrapped up the conference saying that success is not defined by a university degree but by talent.

Kataeb Party Chief, the Member of Parliament Sami Gemayel, visited during the day BDL Accelerate, where he visited all stands of startups and exhibitors.