Mark Azzam | Inspiring Growth, with du | Ramadan Miniseries

Savvy Talk

Joining me today is Mark Azzam, Founder and Owner of Back to Games and Gameinox, Partner and Director at Boardgame Space Games Distribution. From a young age, Mark found himself traveling to imaginary realms inspired by elements of science fiction and fantasy. This also included gaming with his mother, where they played everything from snakes and ladders to chess.

After traveling the globe for more than 18 years as a pilot, Mark launched Back to Games in 2015. Serving thousands of gamers and non-gamers alike, while pioneering the tabletop shopping experience. Then in 2017, he went on to partner with Boardgame Space to make board and card games more accessible to the region, by translating the most renowned games to Arabic, and supplying its products to both hobby stores and mass market chains across the Middle East.

And finally, earlier this year he founded Gameinox to help spread gaming beyond people’s homes, through team building and employee empowerment activations, to schools, to universities, and to create the first tabletop gaming convention in the Middle East.

This is part of our special series in partnership with du Business called Inspiring Growth, to celebrate entrepreneurship and highlight business success. We feature eight successful entrepreneurs and innovators who shared their personal stories to help others learn valuable lessons. Throughout the show, we will focus on growth, exploring the path of how they turned their dreams into reality.

We hope this proves to be both inspirational and valuable for those who are facing their own personal and business challenges, as always du Business is your partner to enable business and personal growth.

You can follow Mark Azzam on LinkedIn, and find out more about his companies here:

• Back To Games: Website • Instagram • TikTok • YouTube
• Boardgame Space: Website • Instagram • YouTube
• Gameinox: Website • Instagram • TikTok

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro

1:46 From a pilot to becoming an entrepreneur

2:17 The passion for Board Games

2:56 How did you build 3 businesses? Back to Games; Boardgame Space and Gameinox

4:10 Importance & challenges of introducing people on board games

5:15 How to introduce people to the modern way of gaming

5:52 Competing for attention with screens

6:40 Translating Board Games to Arabic

7:44 Entrepreneurship path

8:39 Board Games in the Corporate world - Team and Culture building in a post-pandemic world

9:54 Dos & Don'ts

10:40 From Dreamer to a business owner

11:55 Feeling successful

12:24 Advice to young entrepreneurs

13:02 Favorite Board Games

14:57 3 board games people should try during Ramadan?

16:10 Outro