Last Friday we were proud to host an insightful online session led by Intelak for a global MBA programme. With students attending from all over the world, the event consisted of three fantastic speakers and a lively Q&A.

Intelak is a ground-breaking partnership between Emirates, Dubai Tourism, Microsoft and Accenture which shines a light on the most innovative start-up solutions and creates synergies in the sector between start-ups and corporates. Supporting Dubai’s position as a leader in aviation, travel and tourism, the start-up hub nurtures and scales the most exciting new companies across three bespoke programmes.

Mia Jafari, Intelak Hub & Programme Manager, introduced these programmes, their differences to traditional accelerators and incubators and why Intelak start-ups have an impressive 80% survival rate. Mia discussed the strong business leaders who made quick and effective decisions in 2020 as well as several overarching themes in the sector including safe travel in a post-Covid world, contactless touch points, AI travel assistants and gamification. Bringing together great thinkers from around the globe, Intelak is a pioneering component of the Silicon Oasis eco-system.

Next up was Hongbo Sun, CEO and co-founder of Bonflite. Bonflite is a global duty free e-commerce platform for air travellers, in the form of a mobile app. Hongbo discussed his entrepreneurial journey, the drive for incremental sales and pivoting within the sector instead of pivoting away from it.

The third and final speaker was Tarun Krishna, Managing Partner and Co-founder of Trift. Trift offers a collection of virtual travel experiences. Narrated by both travellers and locals, the traveltech focuses on destinations in underdeveloped economies or those often seen in a bad light and aims to challenge misconceptions. Tarun discussed pivoting, partnerships and more as his technology grows ever more relevant in the post-Covid era.

We would like to warmly extend our thanks to Intelak and their wonderful entrepreneurs as well as to all participating students who made the morning thought-provoking and inspiring. We hope to see you all in Dubai in 2021.

Why not involve the pioneers of Intelak in your business education programme with an online company visit or 4-week company project? Insider London is also excited to offer an exclusive full-day programme with Intelak in Dubai. Get in touch now via contact@insiderlondon.com to find out more.