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.
No ad to show here.
Cape Town
Annual SAVCA Private Equity in Southern Africa Conference 2016
The conference will unpack the role of private equity in supporting the enhancement and expansion of businesses, the community and the local economy. Aimed at industry organisations, advisors, investors, regulatory bodies within or related to the private equity industry, and businesses seeking funding, the conference will host keynote speakers and industry panellists from across the globe.
Tickets go for SAVCA Members R12 500 and R14 500 for non-members.
Date: 17 & 18 February 2016
Location: Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch
Pitch to the Barclays Seeker Fund
The Barclays Seeker Fund is a corporate VC fund, set up to build a portfolio of digital company investments. The Seeker Fund is looking for early-stage ventures across Africa, that are disrupting and innovating across finances, agriculture, health, education and more.
Read more: SAVCA CEO: we need to be ‘realistic’ about SA’s growing VC sector [Q&A]
Seven-minute pitching opportunities, facilitated every two weeks, will be available to successful applicants. You can read more about it here.
Location: Barclays Rise – Woodstock Exchange (Block B)
Date: 11 February, 11am to 12:30pm
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. There’s also another Lean Coffee meeting happening on Thursday.
Date: 10 February, 8:30am to 09:30am
Location: TRUTH Coffee, Somerset Road, Greenpoint
Here’s an interesting one. The Mastermind Anonymous Meetup is a series of bi-weekly sessions which allows you to submit ideas anonymously before the event, to be discussed in a think tank type of scenario. You can decide to take ownership of your idea during the Meetup or you can remain anonymous.
Click here for more info.
Date: 11 February, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: Daddy.O workspace, The Old Biscuit Mill
Johannesburg
Innov8: Celebrating Innovation in Africa
Innov8 is described as a high-level premier networking platform hosted regularly throughout the year as an open space for innovative leaders in industry, academia and government to engage on topics relevant to the varying themes centred on entrepreneurship and innovation. At this year’s first Innov8 the theme is Celebrating Innovation in Africa. The Innovation Hub seeks to encourage tech innovations that improve the lives of ordinary Africans.
Date: 10 February
Location: The Innovation Hub
Nairobi
Presented by The Hub East Africa, the Personal Development Track consists of four independent sessions. A workshop on How to Make an Impression will be hosted 9 February.
Date: 9 February, 10am to 11:30am
Location: The Hub East Africa
If you’re a budding entrepreneur, interested in growing your business into a professional and sustainable enterprise, then our Building Blocks are for you. The workshops are said to combine theory as taught at world leading business schools with local case studies to inspire you.
Read more: Taking African innovation global: Q&A with Aaron Fu from Nairobi’s Nest
The first block of this series covers getting to know your market by being competitively strategic.
Date: 12 February, 9am to 5pm & 13 February 9am to 12:30pm
Location: The Hub East Africa
Ideas Spot is hosting a session on how startup founders should handle intellectual property, including other topics such as confidentiality, copyrights, trademarks and patents.
Date: 10 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Nailab
Lagos
The goal of #StartX2016 is to provide aspiring entrepreneurs and businesses owners with necessary technical support to take their businesses to the next level. Some topics to be discussed include Idea vs. Execution, Getting the Right Talent and Your Role in Building a Product.
Date: 13 February, 9am to 5pm
Location: LeanHub Library
If there are any other interesting and productive occasions you’d like us to add to this list, please let us know in the comments below or drop us an email.
