400 delegates attend Mentorship Forum in Bahrain

The 2nd Annual Mentorship Forum Middle East welcomed more than 400 regional and international attendees both virtually and in person at the Gulf Hotel, Bahrain to highlight mentorship in a new post-Covid working order.

The Forum, focusing on “Prioritising Mentorship in a New World”, was opened by Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Finance and National Economy, who shared his insight and views on the importance of human capital development and the significant role that mentorship plays in supporting talent development and career progression, particularly for the next generation of business leaders.

Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa highlighted that Bahrain, under the leadership of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, with the support of HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, demonstrates the value of teamwork in achieving national development excellence.

HE Shaikh Salman noted the Kingdom’s commitment to further invest in key areas that support the national workforce, underpinned by programs and initiatives that promote sustainable economic growth.

Shaikh Salman emphasised the importance of leveraging all available opportunities to strengthen mentorship and talent development, and to ensure the next generation of business leaders are able to further advance economic progress.

Interactive panel sessions were also held on related themes exploring the use and benefits of mentorship as well as a workshop, presented by Qodwa, the mentorship arm of the CFA Society Bahrain, called “Mentorship Mastermind”, which aimed to help participants develop and launch their own dynamic mentorship schemes.

National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), the Forum’s Lead Partner, used the Forum to launch the second cohort of its own internal mentorship programme, “Inspire”, which it first unveiled at Mentorship Middle East’s inaugural event in November 2019. NBB’s second cohort, which brings senior leaders and up-and-coming professionals together, is formed for all NBB’s employees and the programme will span a year of interaction and knowledge sharing in support of talent acceleration.

Among the themes explored over the course of the day were Mentorship and Meeting Talent Development Gaps in the Hybrid Workplace, Mentorship for Boards, Cross Mentorship and the Leveraging of Diverse Talent Pools, Technology-Focused Mentoring, Mentorship for Entrepreneurs and SMEs and Speed Mentoring.

Zahraa Taher, Managing Director of FinMark Communications, the Forum’s Founder and Organiser, said: “We couldn’t be more delighted with the exceptional turn out and high calibre of speakers, panellists and participants that joined the 2nd Annual Mentorship Forum Middle East, making it an outstanding success for everyone involved.”

“Mentorship is become universally accepted as one of the most valuable and powerful tools for accelerating human capital development and we’re very pleased to see the support it is receiving in the region from leaders across the private and public sectors. We’re extremely gratefully for the support of HE Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s Minister of Finance and National Economy for opening the Forum, and to our partners, in particular our Lead Partner NBB and Mr. Jean-Christophe Durand, CEO of the Bank, who for a second consecutive year has lent his full support and that of the NBB team to making the Forum such a great success.

“We’re also very grateful to our other strategic partners and the fantastic line up of speakers and panellists who joined us from Bahrain, the region and globally. We will continue to build on the momentum gained today and plan to launch a series of mentorship workshops across the GCC in January 2022 building up to the 3rd Annual Forum, which will be held in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the end of next year,” she added.