Doha: YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley will take part as a guest speaker in the opening ceremony of this year’s International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (IASP) 31st Annual World Conference, from October 19 to 22, 2014, in Doha.
IASP is a global gathering of 1,000 government, business and innovation figures from 45 countries and Hurley’s participation will make an invaluable contribution given his vast experience and expertise as co-founder of the world’s largest and most popular video sharing site and the third most visited site globally. This year’s event in Doha will be the first time it will have been held in the Middle East since its establishment in 1984.
The Doha event will have an influential base of delegates – a group with the ability to effect real change in how entrepreneurs are supported by public and private sector innovation catalysts around the globe, Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP), a part of Qatar Foundation Research and Development, said in a statement.
It will be an opportunity for hundreds of science and technology parks from around the globe to explore new models of support for the world’s most empowered and connected generation of technology start-ups and entrepreneurs.
The head of the IASP 2014 Doha Organising Committee and QSTP Managing Director Hamad Al Kuwari said: “IASP, for the first time, will gather in the Middle East, bringing together entrepreneurs and policymakers from all over the world. Chad Hurley is one of the most visionary and influential technology entrepreneurs in the last 20 years and to have him join, speak and contribute to the success of IASP 2014 Doha is a real privilege to our event and to the region. This year’s event is already hitting new milestones and proving extremely popular, receiving its highest participation numbers in the past four years, and attracting 138 abstract submissions and 33 key speakers.”
Hurley studied Fine Arts at Indiana University of Pennsylvania before helping to develop PayPal’s user interface for eBay. In 2005, Chad co-founded YouTube with two partners, turning it into one of the world’s top 10 web services within a year. Hurley currently also serves as an advisor to YouTube since selling it to Google Inc for $1.76bn.
One billion video clips are now seen daily on YouTube, with 24 hours’ worth of content uploaded to YouTube every minute. According to the Arab Social Media Report in 2012, studies show that there are over 167 million video views a day in the Arab region, putting the region in the number two spot in the world (behind the US and ahead of Brazil). One hour of YouTube videos are uploaded in the Arab region every minute. Residents of Qatar are more connected to the Internet than almost any other country in the world, according to the United Nations Broadband Commission’s State of Broadband Report 2013.
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