From the Archives: The Concept Behind Disrupt!/Books!/
In 1910, Virginia Woolf and her friends dressed up in costumes and donned fake beards in order to convince the Royal Navy they were a group of Abyssinian princes.
And thus they pulled off what became known in newspapers as the ‘Dreadnought Hoax,’ earning a 40-minute guided tour of the ship.
Fortunately, unlike Virginia Woolf and her friends, the only “Dead-nought hoax” expected from creative’s getting the right sort of guided tour of the book publishing industry is a registration form and a sell-able idea!
Disrupt!/Books!/ is a three-day competitive ideathon created by a startup, for startups, which aims to bring together the right mix of thinkers, doers and facilitators in the book publishing industry.
Disrupting the book industry will be the dominating theme throughout the event. This is about ‘BIG Change’ and ideas that can change how content is published and consumed in the MENA region.
Everything is designed to make sense, to have the right creative touch and to be practical, in order to serve the creative participants, to prepare their ideas for the business start-up world. That’s because the entrepreneurs are our super-heroes. Because entrepreneurs have ideas that can create change and change societies — and nothing changes a society, more than books.
Besides the two highly anticipated open air parties before and after the event, including a stunning wish lantern display on the last night, one of the main features of Disrupt!/Books!/ will be the on-stage 3 min pitches of 15 Jordanian book publishing ideas.
Leading the training are Project Pen’s experienced people in the book publishing business, Oasis 500’s experienced business geniuses, Diana Abbadi — manga artist and creative hero, the kings personal photographer — the honourable Zohrab Markarian and the fanatic admirers at Zoomaal only to name a few. Each will be presenting and mentoring participants in the areas of:
- Characteristics of Cultural and Creative Industries
- What makes good content
- Creative Business Model Canvas
- Business effectuation
- Team building, branding and cultural management
- Crowd-funding for creative’s in the MENA region
- Designing and perfecting your 3 min pitch
However, there is more. Participants in Jordan to be trained in unique training methods including challenge session, ritual dissent and Sketch jams to achieve the best creative training possible. There will also be a generous cash prize for the winning startup idea, and a publishing contract with Project pen on offer.
Participants will be part of something remarkable! Join the first ever event of its kind to disrupt books in the Middle East!
Disrupt!/Books!/ has 3 objectives:
Show & Tell: New ideas, new methods, new characters and learn the growing trends of various cultural and creative industries.
Get things done: Develop your book-publishing ideas to the practical business world, learn and share experiences, solve problems, learn to attract investments and form partnerships.
Have an awesome time! The two open air parties, judge jury pitch session, ritual dissent, challenge session, Project pen sketch Jam and wish lantern ceremony provides a little taste of what’s to come!
Pictures of the completed event are online on facebook here.
Eman Shafi.
