BilAraby 2026 brings 1,000+ participants to Education City this weekend

Qatar Foundation (QF) has announced that it has completed its preparations to host the second edition of the "BilAraby 2026" forum, organized by the Foundation's "BilAraby" initiative under the theme "With Our Ideas, We Build", on September 19 and 20 at the "Multaqa" building (Education City Student Center) in Doha, with the participation of more than 1000 participants from more than 25 nationalities.

In an exclusive statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Mr. Hisham Noureen, Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Programs at Qatar Foundation, stressed that the Foundation views the "Bel Arabi" initiative as a strategic investment in the ability of Arabic-speaking communities to produce knowledge, contribute to the development of ideas and turn them into practical and viable solutions that contribute to the progress of societies.

Noureen explained that Qatar Foundation's endeavors are based on combining pride in culture and authentic values and openness to global experiences, with the aim of finding solutions that respond to the needs of societies and give entrepreneurs an active role in the progress of their countries.

The Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Programs pointed out that the forum's program includes more than 12 exploratory sessions, 19 interactive exhibitions, in addition to inspirational speeches on the main stage, interactive workshops, and artistic, cultural and creative performances with the participation of more than 11 local and regional partners, indicating that the forum constitutes a global gathering of Arab voices to promote intellectual exchange and celebrate Arab innovation.

Regarding the participation in this edition, the forum revealed that the forum has received more than 400 applications for participation for the 2026 edition, from which about 15 inspirational speakers were selected whose experiences are distributed in vital fields including media, science and technology, precision medicine, architecture and heritage, entrepreneurship, sustainability, peacebuilding, sports, and social work.

He noted that this year's forum program includes prominent Arab names, including Palestinian journalist Wael Al-Dahdouh, director of Al Jazeera's bureau in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian-Jordanian entrepreneur Essam Hijazi, founder of the "UpScrolled" platform, Algerian researcher Bashir Halimi, who specializes in adapting technology to the Arabic language, and engineer Hamad Mubarak Al-Hajri, founder of Sununu.

He pointed out that this diversity gives the Arabic language a wide scope to be a language of contemporary thought and solutions stemming from people's reality, pointing out that the initiative attracted more than 1,100 applications through its first and second editions, in a remarkable turnout that reflects its growing success.

Regarding the preparations that preceded the main gathering in Doha, Mr. Hisham Nourine told QNA that the forum comes as a culmination of the intensive regional tour launched by the initiative during the period from 4 to 9 August, which included three Arab cities, namely Damascus, Amman and Djerba, where it witnessed the participation of 14 speakers, about a thousand participants and 10 strategic partners, which contributes to linking ideas to the cities in which they were born and transferring intellectual dialogue to a wider scale in Doha.

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