On 18 February 2014, Damascus held its first Startup Weekend.
It ran for 54 hours over three days, with a bootcamp for participants beforehand and international entrepreneurs joining online. The winner got access to venture funding and publicity. For a city in the middle of a war, it was the first real look the outside world got at the entrepreneurial community here.
A few articles from the time:
- HuffPost — Startup Weekend Damascus
- Wamda — First Startup Weekend in Damascus: an active environment despite the crisis
- Techstars Communities — Startup Weekend Damascus: entrepreneurship in a war zone
- ArabNet — “Damascus to host its first Startup Weekend in February” (the article is no longer online)
