Discovering new ways to foster ideas and entrepreneurship is one of my favorite sport these days, and even more when it concerns building media business. So, when Julien Le Bot asked me, with some old chaps, to attend the launch of the 4M Mashreq Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq) New Media Startup Program he’s leading, I didn’t hesitate much and packed my bag for a short but exciting trip to Beyrouth.

This program, led by Canal France International, in collaboration with AltCity and SKEyes, aims « to support online news providers and promote plurality in the media and diversity of editorial content. It is designed to contribute to the production and transmission of independent, top-quality news that reflects a changing society.«

What I discovered there was not only a coworking space and a bunch of tech savvy guys, but also a vibrant community of makers and digital empowerers. And, really, when you look at the sitation overthere (war, and real blood, are only at a 45min-drive away), all of a sudden, « journalism », « news » and « engagement » become words with a true meaning, so far away of the crappy bullshit filling everyday newspapers in my peacefull Belgium. But anyway…

« What can be done for places who need it the most ? »

To understand why the 4M’s program is taking place right here in Beyrouth, I’ve sitted down with David Munir Nabti, co-founder and director of AltCity.

David, who grew up in Palo Alto, studied political science and international economics at UC Berkeley, worked at the Stanford Graduate Program in Journalism and at tech companies, including Google, CISCO and Californian public broadcaster KQED in 2003, have a very strowg vision of what he’s doing, and most importantly, why this as to be done.

« What we really think is the most important about supporting startups anywhere, an especially here in Lebanon, is about community (…) We’ve been around for 2 1/2 years, we have had almost 700 events ranging from small meeting, workshops, up to big conferences around design, media, fashion ».

« I grow up in Silicon Valley and have studied about Transitioning Systems. And the question I asked myself whas « What can be done to contribute for a more innovative, creative, productive entrepreneurial environnement in place who need it the most, instead of place who need it the least, as Silicon Valley » (…) We did a lot of research and visited about 25 -30 spaces around the world that taked somes approachs to creating this kind of environnement (..) then we came with this model »

« We are using 50 or 60 % of the capacity of the space right now, so we really want to finish and fully activate it (…) What we are really excited about is working more hardcore indepth with more startups. We have been working at competition, challenges etc, but we haven’t had the founding, the core support to actually working with them for 2, 3 or 4 months to help them trought the core phases helping them launch (…) We want to see more projects be launching, running and becoming regionnaly and globaly competitive out of the space and also out of Lebanon in general. »

Deadline for receipt of applications: 3 February 2014

Anyway, I’ve been especially amazed by the courage and determination of the folks at Mosireen (Egypt) and SyriaUntold. I really hope that they will inspire other citizens in the Middle-East to build, develop and raise awareness throught new media startups. So hurry up of you are concerned and don »t hesitate to fill in the application form !

And it will be my pleasure and honor to help, if I may doing so.

« Organisations chosen to participate will attend 5 one-week incubator sessions at Alt City’s offices in Beirut between April and November 2014. During the week-long sessions, customised guidance will be offered based on the specific needs of each organisation. The aim is that the projects will be developed over the course of the sessions, each of which will be based on a specific theme: developing groundbreaking editorial content, technical solutions, finding the right business model, project management, etc. »