Schedule: 6:00-7:00pm Networking and light food 7:00-7:10pm Announcements 7:10-7:20pm Hope of a Startup Revolution - Akram Dweikat 7:20-8:00pm Web Components and Accessibility - Rob Dodson 8:00-8:15 Q&A Abstract/Speaker Bios: Hope of a Startup Revolution - Akram Dweikat Akram will be speaking about creating a startup community in Palestine, through sharing his personal experience, challenges, lessons learnt, and how GDG Nablus helped shape the community. Alongside tech startups, he will be sharing examples and experiences about social entrepreneurship in the country. He will also be sharing insights about entrepreneurship and startup in the region to give you an insider perspective to deepen your knowledge and understanding about MENA region from someone who was born and lived all of his life there. Akram Dweikat is a Palestinian computer engineer and entrepreneur based in London. He was recently recognized by TechCity UK and the UK government as an Exceptional Talent in computer engineering, innovation and entrepreneurship. Akram is a full-stack developer and wears multiple hats across the technology spectrum. He served as CTO/CIO for multiple early stage startups and helped them build their products. He has expertise in Financial Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Cyber Security, and Machine-Learning. Akram is well-known for establishing the startup and entrepreneurial community in Nablus, Palestine. He co-founded and co-led Google Developer Groups in Nablus and PALinnO, the first private seed-funding program which connected Silicon Valley investors to Palestine. Akram was one of the founding and driving forces for many entrepreneurial events in the Palestinian community including the first ever Startup Weekend. Akram was also one of eight youth selected to meet US President Barack Obama on his official visit to Palestine to discuss innovation, entrepreneurship and education. Web Components and Accessibility - Rob Dodson My favorite part of my job is when I get to work on accessibility. I see this as removing uncertainty and anxiety from people’s day, and helping them access the information they need. But working with accessibility can be frustrating, especially when you feel like you’re fighting the platform instead of working with it. This session aims to clear up some of the confusion that makes getting started with accessibility tricky, while showing off new tools to make the process easier, and highlighting ways that we can work with and extend the platform so our apps are accessible to everyone. Rob Dodson is a developer advocate at Google where he focuses on Web Components and Accessibility. His mission is to fight for a better web and to help developers build great experiences. You can catch him every other week on his YouTube series "Polycasts" or on his blog at 
