Lubna Al Qasimi, managing director of Tejari.com, and Mohammed Kamal El Zohairy, a 17-year-old e-achiever, were among "the Dot Com Heroes" recognised yesterday as Internet entrepreneurs leading the way into the New Economy.
The event was the Visa/Arabian Business.Com awards ceremony held last night to acknowledge creative e-business sites and entrepreneurs across the Middle East.
The results were decided after a nomination process online at www.itp.net where consumers and industry players elected their favourite sites online, followed by an intensive assessment of the nominated sites by an independent panel of judges from the IT industry.
Sites on the Net which landed awards were: www.tejari.com for Best B2B Market Place Site; www.altayer-travel.com for Best Travel/Hotel Site; www.bbcarabic.com for Best News Site; www.uaemall.com for Best e-Shopping Site; www.dljdirect-eunion.com for Best Financial Services Site; and www.ameinfo.com for Best Commercial Services Site.
The Judges Special Award went to www.dubaiautismcentre.com.
Among the individual dotcom heroes was El Zohairy, who walked away with the Young e-Achiever of the Year, while the Best Arabic and Best English Portals went to www.naseej.com and www.uaebusinessdire-ctory.com, respectively.
Outstanding personal contribution awards went — apart from Lubna Al Qasimi (www.tejari.com) — to Mohammed Seddiq Al Mutawa (www.uaemall.com); Fahd Al Sharekh (www.ajeeb.com); and Abdul Jabar Abdul Jabar (www.naseej.com).
The Middle East e-Entrepreneur of the Year award was won by Ramzi Zeine (www.arabia.com).
The judges' panel included representatives from Hewlett Packard, Nortel, Cisco, Oracle, Microsoft, Compaq, IBM, Lucent, Mindware, Acer, Intel, Sun, Novell, Lotus, Sakhr, Emirates Computers, Dubai Business Channel and C2000.
"The winners, ranging from a 17-year-old to companies supported by some of the most powerful businesspeople on the planet, demonstrate that e-commerce is not just transforming all our lives, but also that the high road to success is open to all," ITP Managing Director Robert Serafin said.