Step Podcast

Mental fitness and physical fitness are related without a doubt, but how? The interplay of thoughts, emotions, and actions has been studied, and there are common practices that proved to have a positive effect on mental well-being.

Nadine Chammas of The Life Director, Suna Zoabi-Othman of Tawazon, Viktorija Aksionova of Mindtales and Rima Bazzi reveal healthy habits and exercises people should maintain and the importance of mindfulness, meditation and awareness.

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QUOTES

"What actions am I doing on a daily basis to reach this person that I want to be?"

"It's about understanding ourselves and our body and communicating well with our thoughts."

"The younger you begin, the more possibility to have to train your mind better in the future."

" If you have a positive thought, then you have a positive emotion, and then your body is energetic, and you feel like, energetic and happy."

"Our subconscious mind doesn't differentiate between reality and fantasy."

"Responsibility comes with discipline."

"We all need help at any time of our lives."

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HIGHLIGHTS

2:06 - Mental fitness, thoughts & emotions

9:27 - Healthy common practices

13:20 - Meditation & mindfulness

22:04 - Convenient habits in busy schedules

27:49 - Monitoring mental fitness

31:13 - Advice for someone suffering mentally

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ESG is a 40 trillion industry worldwide. Many think executives should be looking into incorporating ESG principles in their organizations. Ahmed Al Naqbi of Emirates Development Bank, Abdullah Mutawi of Al Tamimi, Jihad Sadiq of FortyGuard and Shaker Zainal of MBRIF talk through the process of adopting ESG, governments' and startups' roles, self-regulation, and incentivizing ESG practices.

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QUOTES

"Us all working together is gonna allow this to make a shift, not only in the UAE but globally as well."

"Corona has actually been a big ESG catalyst."

"Investors are going to be driving a lot of the demand that ESG has implemented as well."

"Every stakeholder in the ecosystem has a role."

"It's very easy to practice ESG because you don't need to change, you just need to create."

"The duty that we have with ESG is also to try and have an exponential network effect."

"It's not just about implementing ESG principles within an organizational structure, but it's also imposing it on the supply chain."

"Don't buy goods and services from anyone, unless you've audited and vetted their own ESG practices."

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HIGHLIGHTS

4:23 - Adopting ESG principles

8:41 - Self-regulation

12:05 - Startup perspective

15:37 - Embedding ESG in culture & its adoption in local countries

22:44 - Future of ESG

25:39 - Q&A

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With the MENA region adopting BNPL faster than Europe and the US, new payment models are on the rise, affecting everything from retailers' strategies to consumers' behaviors.

Paul Carey of Al Futtaim (IKEA), Hosam Arab of Tabby, Miljan Stamenkovic of Mambu, Remo Abbondandolo of Checkout.com, and Megha Merani discuss the steps it takes to move to a cashless society, how to incentivize customers, the impact of BNPL on customers' spending patterns, the challenges new payment methods are posing, tourist-friendly payment options and the future of the payment industry.

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HIGHLIGHTS

1:28 - Challenges of new payments models

7:21 - Customer adoption

14:21- Incentivizing customers

19:53 - Tourist-friendly payment options

22:15 - Customers' buying patterns

25:47 - Responsible consumerism

29:06 - Evolution of payments

31:17 - Pandemic changes

37:00 - Future customer behavior

43:14 - Advice for retailers

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QUOTES

"It's all about the opportunities actually than challenges."

"It's partly customer demographic, partly our brands."

"This region has probably been one of the fastest globally to adopt something like BNPL."

"Incentives, once you take them away, the customer just reverts to the norm."

"It's all about transparency and offering that transparency to the end consumer."

"We're helping customers afford the items they want."

"We promote responsible spending."

"Being able to change and adapt quickly, I think it's key to being agile."

"We're looking very much to leverage the different brands we have and build that customer ecosystem."

"Customers want a bit more than just a payment method."

"It's all about building partnerships and ecosystems."

"The existing banks are failing big on coming up with new products."

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Streaming in the MENA region is becoming more and more popular, especially with new content paving the way. With our panelists heading leading media companies in MENA, Richard Fitzgerald of Augustus Media, Alaa Fadan of Telfaz11, and Butheina Kazim of Cinema Akil, the future of the industry is revealed, including digital content, production, technology, subscription, and streaming platforms.

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HIGHLIGHTS:

0:00 - Intro

2:17 - Watching content

5:38 - Content from MENA

12:50 - Future of technology in live streaming

16:21 - Subscriptions & platforms

22:23 - Specialized subscription windows

26:26 - Future of theatrical for Saudi

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QUOTES

"VOD revenues for 20 countries in the Middle East grew by $2.3 billion between 2021 and 2027 reaching a total of $4 billion Netflix "

"It's all leading towards like a very, very strong and very big industry,"

"You're gonna see a lot more stories actually coming from this region"

"Streaming is different from linear programming and formats are unconstrained"

"We're trying to build technology and we're also trying to build content all together at the same time,"

"We're going to see a lot of demand a lot of kind of competition on contents"

"The region has opportunity to create its own narrative"

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How can startups and corporates work together and create more profit? Many processes differ between startups and corporates, decision-making and risk-taking to name a few.

Shafika Houcine of Etisalat, Caroline-Carmen Neubauer of Fero.AI, Elodie Robin of Hub71, and Roberto Croci of Microsoft for Startups discuss the opportunities each has to gain from this relationship and important factors that could facilitate or disrupt it.

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HIGHLIGHTS

0:21 - Hurdles of startups and corporates working together

5:12 - Early-stage startups and corporates

13:31 - Potential changes to facilitate the relationship

18:43 - Advice for startups working with corporates

22:41 - Q&A

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QUOTES

"Non-alignment especially on the decision-making cycle is the biggest pinpoint."

"Find the right sponsor inside the organization."

"It's not the small one against the big one."

"It's really how we can create more value and more profit together."

"You need to be resilient when you have to work with corporates."

"It's about building the relationships."

"Don't hesitate to put time into building the business case."

"From the startup perspective, it's dimensions that you should think of,"

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The first artists in the MENA region to jump on the NFT train are here to talk about the new era for creatives: the mash of concrete art with NFTs. Rami Kadi of Rami Kadi Maison de Couture, NFT Artist Amrita Sethi, Kristel Bechara, the first woman in the MENA region to launch an NF T collection, and Sarah Trad of Step Feed talk about the process of introducing NFTs to concrete art, maintaining the balance, the sustainability aspect behind it and protecting artists' rights.

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HIGHLIGHTS

1:04 - Introducing NFTs to concrete art

6:05 - Maintaining the balance

11:07 - Entering the NFT art world

15:03 - Procuring platforms & sustainability

18:04 - Protecting artists' rights

22:43 - Using NFT to customize the art

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QUOTES

"What I like to do is to be able to bridge the gap between the physical and the digital world."

"Things that NFTs do is they unlock a lot of potential in creativity."

"We're able to get multi-dimensional experiences."

"If you don't do your own research, you don't read, you will not get it."

"Artists should stick to their own unique styles."

"Know your style, create your art, and then go to a curated platform."

"It's been an amazing thing for the digital creator, to be able to finally, you know, realize and be appreciated for their talents."

"You should know where to put yourself, how you should market yourself."

"You should have like a clear roadmap and you should know where your project is going and just have visibility for the future."

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EV adoption is rapidly increasing, more than 50%, year by year. With this huge trend, cities need to prepare the right electricity grid and infrastructure to support this demand. Cezanne Maherali of Uber, Haider Al-Zaabi of Mays EV, and Samar Ibrahim of EY talk policymaking and charging infrastructure and look into EV's integration with new technologies and its eco-friendly aspect.

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HIGHLIGHTS

3:03 - Technology & EVs

6:09 - Changes in policymaking

11:22 - Startups' role in the future of EVs

13:36 - The right infrastructure

17:42 - Sustainability

23:!2 - Role of the private sector

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QUOTES

"The ability to charge your car at home is a new thing."

"It's a huge industry that will definitely grow so much within the next few years."

"So even though the charging infrastructure exists, it's not close to where drivers are living."

"It's still far more expensive to own and operate and battery electric vehicle versus, you know, a typical ice vehicle."

"How can you incentivize consumers and drivers to be able to want to opt for going green versus traditional?"

"The future of EVs is more acceptance towards implementing these technologies."

"We're looking into, for example, hydrogen, solid state, new types of batteries, which are more environmentally friendly than the existing ones"

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With the integration of technology, access to mental health care becomes easier, affordable, more effective and provides more solutions, but some believe that social media and increased use of technology is to blamed for the increase in mental health issues. Inas Shashieh of Takalam, Ivan Palomino of Bessern and Daniela Rossi of Unlimited share their opinions and the challenges in onboarding consumers to trust such solutions.

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HIGHLIGHTS

5:20 - Technology - positive or negative?

9:52 - Technology's role in mental health stigmatization

14:40 - Gaining customer trust

18:17 - Customization in AI therapy

21:35 - Cost efficiency

25:30 - Common challenges

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QUOTES

"More than a third of our life involves internet."

"The stigma is not reduced because of technology, the stigma is reduced because of awareness."

"More than trusting the technology, we relied in the methodology."

"Technology can enhance and visualize the progress."

"Employees need to have the possibility to self manage themselves better."

"What we need is creating much more channels of awareness around the subject."

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The pandemic forced people to shop online, but many loved it and continued to do so even after it was over, and apparently, MENA is outperforming Europe in adopting emerging technologies. Mo Yusuf of Checkout.com explains the factors involved in transitioning to digital payments, the challenges they face, their impact on startups and crypto's future in this digital economy.

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HIGHLIGHTS

1:05 - How Checkout.com is deploying their billion

3:44- Changes in businesses during digital transition

6:05 - MENA region & emerging technologies

8:32 - Challenges of merchants & BNPL system

12:10 - Impact on startups

13:14 - Crypto future

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QUOTES

"There's no one in this region who provides something of the similar quality."

"They kind of really went from thinking about payments as a cost center to a revenue driver."

"We are very bullish on the space. We think this is where the world is going next."

"They really want the ability to leverage their payments."

"If a consumer lands on your app or comes to your website and they want to make a payment, if that payment fails, you've essentially lost marketing dollars and a bunch of investments."

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The evolution of the P2P solution has changed the financial system, influencing the underbanked and encouraging financial inclusion.

Sujoy Ghosh of Datacultr, Faisal Toukan of Ziina, Padmini Gupta of Xare, Faisal Al Haroun of Tap Payments, and Mohamed Khairy of Strategy& look at the current state of the space with the rise of crypto and the challenges that are yet to be solved.

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HIGHLIGHTS:

2:38 - Bridging the gap between banks and lenders

7:02 - Advantages of P2P payments

13:32 - Social payments & driving engagement

17:01 - Target segments

20:13 - Financial inclusion in a cost-effective way

25:42 - Digital payments

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QUOTES

"It takes the dimension of payments from being very one-way and transactional."

"The strategy is always to start with the youth and the affluent."

"We're talking about the fact that today, you can have instant payments, instant transfers without the need of having an IBAN account."

"It's making consumer lives easier. And it's making business lives easier. And it's also making the regulator's life way easier."

"Banks are always trying to catch up."

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