Only in its second year, the RiseUp Summit has already positioned itself as Egypt’s main annual entrepreneurial event and is expecting a surge in attendance from the start-up community, as well as investors, mentors and business leaders from around the world.

This year’s theme reflects a change in the nature of Egypt’s start-up culture, which in its nascent phases was dominated by technological projects and mobile apps. Today, the community has grown, as has the diversity of interests, ideas and projects undertaken by young entrepreneurs.

The focus of this year’s summit is how technology can drive growth and opportunities, as well as address challenges in other sectors.

“We’re expanding the scope to see how technology can help in other sectors, like agriculture and design,” said Abdelhameed Sharara, who founded the summit last year.

The RiseUp team now comprises a total of nine people. After a successful first edition, Sharara was joined by three co-founders, including serial entrepreneur and angel investor Con O’Donnel — who founded Sarmady in 2001 before it was later acquired by Vodafone Egypt, journalist and content manager Gehad Hussein, and Mohamed Mansour — who describes himself as an entrepreneurship ecosystem builder and has worked with MC Egypt.

RiseUp Egypt, which is now a registered company, will host the annual summit on October 12-14. Sharara said the event, which is expected to attract up to 3,000 people over three days, will feature around 120 speakers, 15 parallel events and more than 35 investors from around the world who are interested in investing in Egypt.

“It’s more of a regional conference, with people coming from Europe, China, Russia and even the US,” Sharara added on Wednesday at a conference to announce the summit, which will be held again at Downtown Cairo’s tech hub, The GrEEk Campus.

This venue, inaugurated last year, is now home to 85 companies, with space for 100 more, according to Ahmed al-Alfi, founder of The GrEEk Campus and chairman at Sawari Ventures.

The summit has an overwhelming lineup of events that will focus on success stories, lessons learned, challenges and opportunities from the entrepreneurial community, with panel discussions, an investors lounge pitching day, a trade fair, fireside chats with investors and inspirational talks.

With so much on offer, it’s sometimes difficult to choose what would best benefit the numerous teams behind the many startups coming to the summit. Co-founder Gehad Hussein advises attendees on how to make the most of the three-day event: divide and conquer, network, enjoy the food, network some more and attend only the relevant talks.

People from within the local start-up community are helping with logistics for the event, such as photography, design, transportation, and even some surprise musical performances.

Representatives of the Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center (TIEC) will be attending in order to provide a link between the start-up community and the official state entities that support it.

While engaging with government bodies is important, it is not the ultimate goal of the start-up community. On the contrary, entrepreneurs often thrive in addressing challenges the government has been unable to, and would prefer the role of officials to be one that eases the process of doing business, without necessarily getting too involved in the autonomous ecosystem.

“Relevant ministries are starting to feel our presence more, but we see them as catalysts in supporting initiatives, not playing the role we play,” explains Sharara.

Technology as an enabler

This year’s discussions will be oriented toward discovering the power of technology to enable other sectors and spur Egypt’s overall economy, which has been sluggish for the past three years and is in dire need of a strong private sector and entrepreneurial spirit that can invest, create jobs and grow the economy.

“Technology is driving areas in which Egypt has suffered from persistent problems, such as energy, food security and transportation,” says Sharara.

Steven Haley, country director at MC Egypt, one of the key organizing partners of RiseUp, says agriculture is a sector where technology can make a difference. It is also one of the sectors his company focuses on.

“We are interested in how technology can shift agricultural markets that have been stagnant for a long time or enable them to reach new markets,” he says.

Financial services is another area in which start-ups might find a wealth of potential. The introduction of mobile money, electronic payments and transfers is likely to affect change in Egypt’s financial services sector and could be a key growth driver. Only around 10 percent of the population has private bank accounts. For many, their first interaction with the banking sector will come through their mobile phones, with Egypt being a country where mobile penetration has surpassed 100 percent and smart phone penetration more than 50 percent.

“Technology will definitely increase the ability of Egyptians to enter the global economy,” Haley says. More broadly, he adds, “Entrepreneurs have the ability to provide economic mobility for a large number of Egyptians.”

Ramez Mohamed, CEO of start-up accelerator Flat6Labs, also one of the key organizing partners of RiseUp, says this year they will set up an “intro booth,” where every hour an investor, entrepreneur, mentor or expert will be on hand to meet and talk to five people.

“One of the biggest obstacles for entrepreneurs is finding a co-founder or partner. RiseUp can be an opportunity for people to find this partner,” Mohamed said.

Heba Gamal, managing director at Endeavor Egypt, says, “RiseUp is important because we want to see a new generation of entrepreneurs growing and succeeding in their work.” Endeavor will set up the “Inspire Stage,” where ideas, successes stories and failures will be presented to give hopeful entrepreneurs practical advice.

The final two organizing partners, Injaz Egypt and the MIT Enterprise Forum will also be organizing panel discussions and events throughout the summit.

*As a media partner, Mada Masr will be participating in and covering the RiseUp Summit extensively.