Dubai, October 2009 - Baraka Ventures, a social entrepreneurship and web technology business incubator and advisory services company, the first sponsor of TEDxDubai launched the TEDxDubai.com site on Zeedna, the software as a service social publishing platform.

Visitors can sign-on, connect to other TEDxsters on the community, use micro-blogging to tweet on the TEDxDubai site and on Twitter and blog about their favorite TED speakers.  Organizers can upload videos to their site video library and process event applications online.  The site uses Zeedna’s comment feature enabling users to interact and discuss their opinions on the progress of the event planning. The TED USA team can monitor the activities and excitement for the upcoming event.

Zeedna is the first middle east based social publishing platform that is well suited for institutions across sectors. The platform promises to take advantage of web 2.0 capabilities of social networking, social media publishing and much more.

“We are extremely fond of TED.com and I personally view TED Talks daily.” says Mr. Abu-Wardeh, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Zeedna. “To build a TEDx site on Zeedna is a privilege, especially when it is the region’s first major TEDx event, promising to feature inspiring ideas from across the region and giving speakers the opportunity to take center stage on a global platform”.

“Magic happened! the site offered support and enabled the community to connect in a way that wasn’t otherwise possible. The site makes it easy for attendees to register for the event, interact with each other and with speakers and remain in touch after the event takes place”. Says Giorgio Ungania TEDxDubai organiser.

Zeedna is a product in the portfolio of incubated Baraka Ventures, headquartered in the Dubai Media City Freezone. Zeedna includes features such as blogs, e-commerce, ticketed events, social community, groups, and others. Its co-founders, Rama Chakaki and Mahmoud Abu-Wardeh, have 40 years of telecommunications, Internet and startup experience between them.