Amid the bright lights and character costumes, Doha News caught up with Geekdom’s CAO, a Qatari board game entrepreneur, and a Bahraini artist to explore the universe that is empowering Qatar’s young people.

Geekdom, which is backed by the Doha Film Institute, bid farewell to the June 2024 edition of its electrifying Geekend event as the virtual curtains closed on Saturday.

The three-day extravaganza attracted gamer, cosplay, artistic and business communities to step into an alternate reality of Qatar where fantasy worlds and digital adventures came to life.

Tucked away in Lusail, the Geekdom building offered visitors the opportunity to “unleash their inner geek” by connecting with others at the “Adventure Room”. Presented by Nakama, who hosted Qatar’s first One Piece Festival in May, the room served as a gateway to those brave enough to enter, inviting them to use their brains to navigate through puzzles and games.

Nakama also spearheaded a Tokyo street fashion contest, an anime edition of the popular Family Feud game, as well as an art competition which invited the community to submit original drawings of popular characters in their unique drawing style.

Another popular staple at the event was the karaoke nights. Dana Al Meer, who sang for the 2022 Qatar World Cup opening and closing ceremonies, took centre at Friday’s karaoke night – her voice reverberating among the audience.

In the midst of shower singers and seasoned performers singing karaoke, to cosplay enthusiasts donning their best attire, Doha News spoke to Geekdom’s CAO, Abdulla Al Mosallam, about how the platform can positively contribute to Qatar’s vibrant economy.

From passion projects to economic empowerment

The event featured the Geekend Market – a hub for artists and vendors to sell their wares. This ranged from one-of-a-kind collectors’ items to comic books and live drawings. 

Amid the hustle and bustle of digital dreams turning into tangible profit, Al Mosallam revealed that despite being flooded with applications, Geekdom this year couldn’t accommodate all.

“The number of applications we received this year was 95,” he said as he explained the platform’s growing demand since Geekdom’s inception in 2013.

He added that since the focus of the initiative is to bolster the local anime community, participating vendors will vary from event to event so as to ensure a diverse and inclusive representation of local talents.

Geekdom’s CAO also told Doha News that through interacting with the community offline and receiving advice from the Qatar Development Bank (QDB), the platform supports and educates young vendors to turn their passions into viable businesses.

He described the young people who have been experimenting with selling merchandise via social media as talented and passionate.

“But being here, receiving one-to-one feedback from the community – this helps them grow and develop their products. This will only serve to make them more passionate about what they do,” he said.

Al Mosallam also underscored that by developing their businesses, these young talents can emerge as formidable forces within the Qatari economy. He told Doha News that the QDB educated them on profitability and pricing strategies. He further noted that returning vendors typically submit proposals to sell new products – based on the feedback they received from visitors at the vendor’s alley.

Al Mosallam also said that the goal for the future is for Geekdom to play a greater role in launching successful Qatari businesses.

As part of Geekdom’s growth plan, Al Mosallam said: “We want to set up more businesses that will become licensed companies and contribute to the local economy and represent Qatar internationally.”

Qatari culture to the world

One successful company is headed by Abdulrahman Al Homaid, who founded Majlis Shabab in 2017 as part of the Geekend Board Game Zone.

It offers educational games in Arabic and English to boost young people’s literacy, as well as their speaking and numeracy skills. The motifs are also inspired by Qatar’s rich cultural heritage – from traditional wear to its desert topography.

“I first participated in Geekdom in 2019, after launching ‘moder kaber’,” he told Doha News. His original game aims to develop young people’s conversational skills – especially when it comes to the art of persuasion.

Al Homaid added that since first participating in 2019, he has attended subsequent Geekdom events to grow the local board game community and personally develop as an entrepreneur.

From there, Majlis Shabab would continue to develop more board games and was propelled to international heights.

In 2023, Al Homaid’s company participated as an exhibitor in Spiel, the world’s leading games convention in Germany. However, the board game entrepreneur was adamant about maintaining the cultural flavour and exporting it abroad.

“All the characters’ designs remained in ghutrah, or hijab and abaya,” he said. This sparked curiosity to know more about his culture among Spiel’s convention-goers.

“A lot of people initially assumed that Qatar is all about sports and we have no interest in board games – this couldn’t be any further from the truth,” he told Doha News.

Reflecting on his entrepreneurial journey so far, he said that he aims to continue developing new board and games and grow more buzz locally and internationally for Qatar’s contributions to the sector.

‘This is part of our identity, we have a voice’

Geekdom’s initiatives, including the Geekend, are globally oriented in its embrace of Japanese-popular culture, yet culturally rooted – as exemplified by the participation of Bahraini cartoon artist, Salah Abu-Idrees.

While completing a live drawing of newlyweds, he explained to Doha News that his visit to Doha is part of a regional tour to connect with like-minded individuals. He also discussed the integral role Japanese anime and manga play in the Gulf’s culture.

“We all grew up watching these cartoons. In our childhood, we wouldn’t have known they were ‘anime’ shows, but those cartoons are deeply rooted as part of our identity, and I think events like this showcase that we have a voice in these stories,” he said.

Beyond being consumers of the genre, the Bahraini cartoonist underscored the passion among the Gulf’s youth to recreate their childhood memories through art and design. Whether through using digital tools, or creating sculptures or keychains – these are signals of the region’s nostalgia to the shows that were part of their childhoods.

Abu-Idrees also expressed his hopes for future generations to leave their mark within this genre, which continues to inspire and influence the region’s cultural landscape – a road he said wouldn’t be free from obstacles.

He said that some people may argue that Japanese anime and manga are not part of the region’s culture – partly because they don’t understand its sheer impact on the upbringing of many of the youth in the Gulf countries, and the larger Arab world.

“Some people go as far as to fight against it,” he told Doha News.

However, he concluded that the region’s young enthusiasts can use this genre to create new paradigms of storylines and characters based on the GCC’s culture which can be shared with the world, much like mainstream anime has successfully achieved.

“This will attract new audiences from all over the world to want to experience the GCC,” he concluded.