Update, 2016-05-17: addition of Launchlab event
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.
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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.
Not all of the events are free and some will require booking in advance. Please click on the event names to find out more information.
Cape Town & Stellenbosch
This informal event is all about encouraging networking and collaboration among Cape Town’s female entrepreneurs. May’s event will see Catherine Luckhoff, Founder of Mango-MOC, HQAfrica, and Nichestreem and Malaville Toys founder Mala Bryan in conversation.
Date: 19 May, 5:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: The Vue Skybar, 15th Floor, The Capital Mirage
Most SMEs these days have access to a reliable and cost-effective IT platform and are looking for ways to automate and improve processes across their business. But this is easier said than done for an SME who often needs similar solutions than their corporate counterparts yet only have a fraction of the budget available.
Simon Hepburn, co-founder of digital productivity company bSOLVe, will provide an overview of the status quo and then share his insights on current approaches as well as new options that are becoming available curtesy of our increasing acceptance of “Cloud” in our businesses.
Date: 19 May, 3pm to 6pm
Location: University of Stellenbosch Business School, Lecture hall 216, USB main building, Bellville Park Campus
MEST Info Session at Rise Accelerator in Cape Town
This event aims to demonstrate how MEST supports entrepreneurs pre-ideation and takes them through a one-year entrepreneurial training program in Ghana where they become skilled developers, business people and have the chance to create a startup of their own, while also securing seed funding and a spot at one of its five incubators (Accra, Lagos, Nairobi, Cape Town, Johannesburg).
Led by a graduate of MEST, this info session will give attendees the opportunity to learn more about what’s it’s like to go through the MEST program and ask questions directly before the application deadline on May 20.
Date: 19 May, 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Location: Rise Cape Town
LaunchLab Ideas Programme Pitching Platform Final
The LaunchLab will be hosting the finals for its pitching event. Everyone is welcome to attend and watch the finalists compete for a prize of R150 000 in incubation support from the Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab.
Those participating will be part of the fintech, big data, edutech, argritch, or cleantech sectors and must be exceptions.
Date: 19 May, 5:45pm to 9:30pm
Location: Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab
Johannesburg
SA’s Top Disruptive Game Changers
This invitation-only dinner will see four of South Africa’s top game changers take to the stage at AlphaCode. On the panel are AlphaCode members Ryan Cohen, Co-founder of SME financing startup Merchant Capital and blockchain guru Lorien Gamaroff CEO of Bankymoon. They will be joined by Anish Shivdasani, founder of disruptive recruitment company Giraffe and recent winner of Seedstars World Summit and Gareth Cliff founder of CliffCentral.
Date: 18 May, 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: AlphaCode
Startup Thursday: The Truth about Venture Capital in South Africa
Lack of funding is often viewed as one of the biggest inhibiting factors affecting entrepreneurship in South Africa. The May edition of Startup Thursday will see a panel comprising Newtown Partners’ Managing Partner Llew Claasen, African Business Angel Network co-founder Christopher Campbell, and Sanari Capital CEO Sam Pokroy talking about what the actual state of VC funding in the country is.
Date: 19 May, 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Location: AlphaCode
Social Selling Seminar: How to Grow Your Business on LinkedIn
Hosted by Dr Nik Eberl, this seminar aims to introduce entrepreneurs to social selling and show them how to use LinkedIn to grow your business.
Date: 19 May, 9:30am to 3:30pm
Location: Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! Melrose Arch
Nairobi
Business Breakfast – Networking with Business & Thought Leaders
The monthly Business Breakfast aims to bring together with 20 other entrepreneurs to exchange experiences and ideas with three experienced business and thought leaders. Taking your time, sitting down over breakfast.
Date: 18 May, 7:30am to 8:30am
Location: The Hub East Africa
Pitch to The Ladykillers: test your business plan!
As an entrepreneur most of the time you spend pitching: to potential customers, partners, investors… you only get one chance to get it right! That is: up to now! Because we intoduce to you The Ladykillers. The Ladykillers are experienced business women and women investors. They have experience sitting in panels and judging ideas as part of pitching competitions.
If you want to get tested on your business model and strategy, why not pitch and receive brutally honest feedback helping you to take stock of where your business is at. Not as part of a competition, but just in a one-on-one setting because you want to test yourself and get better at sharing your vision.
Date: 19 May, 9:00am to 20 May, 12:am
Location: The Hub East Africa
iHub’s monthly entrepreneurs forums are hosted by Prof. Bitange Ndemo.
Prof. Ndemo is a former Permanent Secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication having served from 2005 to 2013. During his tenure in government, he initiated many transformative projects including infrastructural and development programs, as well as marketing Kenya as a destination for Business Processing Outsourcing.
He currently lectures on entrepreneurship and research methods at the University of Nairobi’s Business School. Most of his research centers on the link between ICT and small and medium enterprises in Kenya. He has spent more than two decades in the classroom and lecture halls with over 20 years of experience lecturing at the university level.
Date: 21 May, 10:00am to 12:00pm
Location: iHub
Lagos
G3 Mobile Game Developers May Meetup
G3 Games Developer Group is a monthly meetup for players in the local games space to foster conversations related to mobile games development in Nigeria.
This event, (the second in the series) is designed for programmers, publishers, designers/illustrators, indie developers, storytellers, sound engineers and everyone else who is involved in the process of bringing a game to life.
Date: 18 May, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location: Whitespace – 58 Raymond Njoku Road, Lagos
Wild Wild Web 0.1 (conquering WordPress for your startup) – Part 1 & 2
This course walks the participant through the process of creating a professional looking WordPress site with no more than a $100. It is targeted at startups with a limited budget and a great appreciation for excellence.
At the end of the course the participant would have a ready-for-business website for her/his startup and the requisite skill needed to create websites/webpages for the company’s future product.
Date: 18 May, 10:30am to 3:30pm
Location: Seedspace – 24 Agodogba Street, Parkview, Ikoyi 7th floor
