Three innovative entrepreneurial ideas from Saudi university students will be discussed at the World Economic Forum in Davos next Tuesday.

The decision was announced in Riyadh at the conclusion of an entrepreneurial and innovation competition, called Smart Riyadh Hackathon, at the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI) on Saturday.

The event, organized for the first time in the Kingdom and the Arab world, was organized by the Saudi branch of Global Shapers Community in collaboration with the Youth Business Committee (YBC) at the RCCI.

“The Global Shapers Community’s Riyadh hub, established in the Kingdom in 2011, has built a strong base by representing the Saudi youth during the past three days,” said Reenad Saud Al-Enazi, manager of the Smart Riyadh Hackathon.

The awards for the winning projects will be broadcast and discussed within the theme of “Business Model Innovation” during the Davos sessions taking place on Tuesday (Jan. 27).

The Hackathon targeted university students in Riyadh, engaging them into making their city smart by turning their projects and ideas into reality with prototypes prepared in less than 48 hours with the help of mentors, coaches and field experts.

Participants were dominantly female (around 70%), and the projects covered various sectors related with smart cities.

Hamad Al-Deryie, won the first place for his “Community Hotspot” project idea which aimed at establishing an entity to link businesses in the community with government departments for the purposes of event management.

Mohammed Al-Rekayyan, won the second place for his project idea of “Smart Hub,” a startup incubator with a smarter business model atmosphere, compared to existing incubators and business accelerators.

Aliah Al-Marri and Nouf Al-Zayd won the third place together for their project idea of “Wasilli” which aimed at providing a reliable delivery service that links home food makers with clients in safely packed containers.

During the event, some very successful business leaders delivered lectures on tips for small business.

Sofana Al-Ammary, art and marketing consultant, advised entrepreneurs not give up in the face of failure, and to stick to an identity for the business to give a sense of uniqueness to it from the beginning.

Majed Garoob, a distinguished lawyer, stressed the importance of registering the innovative business ideas at the appropriate government department as the first step in starting a business, to avoid the theft of ideas or business model.