Looking to get into the South African startup scene or scratch up on some of your skills? Well, you’ve come to the right place. There are loads of competitions, networking sessions and workshops happening around South Africa and the rest of the continent (namely Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana) that we’ve rounded up to make your life a bit easier.
This article is part of a weekly series that highlights all the top startup competitions, networking sessions, workshops and conferences around South Africa, and the greater region. If you have any event recommendations for us to add to the list, or next week’s, please let us know in the comments below or send us an email.
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Cape Town
The Shift One Training Academy hosts a bunch of workshops and meetups every month. If you’re looking for some inspiration and golden nuggets on growing your business, this might be the right place for you. This Freebie Fridays Workshop is on taking your innovation to market.
For more information, you can visit the website here.
Date: 4 December, 10:00am to 12:00pm
Location: Unit 3, Eden on the Bay, Big Bay
The Cap40 Business Awards Gala is an annual event aiming at promoting business or individuals for their outstanding performance and contribution to the French-South African business community in the Western Cape.
Regular tickets for the ceremony, which will be held in Kirstenbosch Gardens, go for R450 each.
Date: 4 December, 6pm
Location: Moyo Kirstenbosch Restaurant
For entrepreneurs or teams with an idea, Techqala is an intense nine-day accelerator. The programme wants to provide the inspiration, processes and tools to drive your digital ideas forward — and to make a giant practical leap forward in just nine days.
Participants can either choose up to three workshops for free or partake in the entire programme. More information can be found here.
Date: 4 December, 6pm to 13 December, 2pm
Location: Silwood School of Cookery & Workshop 17
Daddy’s Directory: Business 101 Talk
Daddy’s World group, in collaboration with Daddy.O, the shared office space at The Old Biscuit Mill, seeks to leverage its network with access to a vetted group of well-priced Support Services for Small Businesses. This Directory session will include a free talk by Phezulu VBO.
Date: 1 December, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Daddy.O workspace (The Old Biscuit Mill), Woodstock
This one’s for the early bird networker. Lean (startup) coffee is a weekly one-hour coffee meetup that runs a mash-up of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com — culminating in an agenda-less meeting which sets out to democratically generate topics and ideas.
The meetup is free to attend and you can register here.
Date: 2 December, 8:30am to 09:30am
Location: TRUTH Coffee, Somerset Road, Greenpoint
SUGSA: Lean Thinking — Working Smarter, Not Harder
Join speaker Carin Eaton from Open Box Software on Lean Thinking. This is an interactive session that aims to create awareness of how to identify wasteful processes and introduce lean thinking.
Date: 3 December, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Welgemeend, Cape Dutch Manor House, Gardens
Johannesburg
Have your business cards on stand by, guys. The networking event will focus on building long-term business relationships through word-of-mouth referrals. The organisers are looking for professionals in selected industries so that attendants can tap into one another’s networks.
The event comes with a price tag of US$75 and you can register here.
Date: 2 December, 07:00am to 08:30am
Location: Cafe Dolce Vita — Shop 20, BluBird Shopping Centre
From around the continent
Set around the theme How to Find the Right Partner, the event includes a workshop to help aspiring founders understand what to look for in a co-founder, and effectively pitch their startup idea to prospective co-founders.
Date: 2 December, 06:30pm
Location: Akira Chix, Nairobi
Celebrating World Computer Literacy Day with CcHUB
In partnership with Oracle, Nigeria’s CcHUB will host 50 secondary school students who have little or no exposure to computers and introduce them to computer programming. The event will promote digital inclusion among students as well as enlighten them to the opportunities and benefits that come with being digitally proficient.
Date: 2 December, 10:30am to 2pm
Location: Mobile Experience Lab, Ground Floor, 294 Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo-Yaba, Lagos
The event features two conferences over two days and is a great opportunity to network and expand your business opportunities. Conference highlights include case studies from Nigeria’s own successful franchisors and SME business owners.
Date: 2 to 3 December
Location: Eko Hotel Convention Centre, Lagos, Nigeria
Launched in 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya; Afrikoin aims to be the most innovative digital money and financial technology gathering in Africa tackling key technical, adoption, research and regulatory issues that innovators in Africa face
For more information, click here.
Date: 3 December, 9am to 5pm
Location: La Palm Hotel, Accra
