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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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
Come meet the Facebook team, learn about Facebook platform tools for developers, and see how we work with mobile app startups through our FbStart programme. This free half-day event will bring together the Facebook team, industry experts, and a great community of startups to learn from one another. The event will provide direct access to mentorship from Facebook engineers, product managers, and partners, as well as an opportunity to mix and mingle with other startups in South Africa.
Date: 15 November, 1:00pm to 4:00pm
Location: Cape Town International Convention Centre
Join us for our next Ethereum meetup on the 15th of November discussing the future of the worlds most programmable blockchain.
Date: 15 November, 4:30pm to 6:30pm
Location: Barclays Rise, Woodstock Exchange, 66-68 Albert Road, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock
For people working in startups, lean (startup) coffee is a weekly 1-hour coffee that runs a mash-up of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com. Unlike other startup meetups, lean (startup) coffee is agendaless, speakerless and talks about what you care about. We each propose topics, vote on them and talk about the most popular ones for a few minutes. Come visit to see how it works.
Date: 16 November, 8:30am to 9:30pm
Location: TRUTH. coffeecult, 1 Somerset Road, Green Point
Rise to the Challenge: Future of Banking
Rise to the Challenge is an events series exploring the technology areas that are shaping the future of the financial industry. For this event, Rise is bringing together topic experts, startups and Barclays senior leaders to host a thought-provoking discussion around the ‘Future of Banking’.
Date: 17 November, 4:30pm to 6:30pm
Location: Barclays Rise, Woodstock Exchange, 66-68 Albert Road, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock
Find out if you are public relations ready, learn about the state of the media, think about how you tell your story for different audiences and figure out how to maximise PR for your startup. You’ll leave having refined your elevator pitch for media, plus have a few great ideas for announcements and thought leadership.
Date: 17 November, 4:30pm to 6:0pm
Location: The Learning Lab, MTN Solution Space, UCT Graduate School of Business, 8 Portswood Road, Waterfront
StartCPT Hosts Dave Glass (Electrum)
Start Up Grind is collaborating with Barclays Rise to showcase the ‘future of banking’ and entrepreneurship in this event. Dave is a born and bred Capetonian with 14 years experience in payments working in Australia, Europe and South Africa. He co-founded Electrum, a transaction processing software company, in 2012 which has now grown to 20 staff. His interests are reading and outdoor sports.
Date: 17 November, 4:30pm to 7:30pm
Location: Barclays Rise, Woodstock Exchange, 66-68 Albert Road, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock
Introduction to Entrepreneurship – Nov
Join us as we embark on a whirlwind tour of what it takes to start and run a successful business for just R195. This 3-hour workshop will give you the roadmap and the basic steps to begin your journey with confidence and direction. Knowing what to when and with whom will help avoid those pitfalls and stressful
Date: 17 November, 2:00pm to 5:00pm
Location: Entrepreneur and Management Solutions, North Block, Upper Eastside, 31 Brickfield road, Woodstock
Johannesburg
THUDfest Startup Pitch Battle powered by #SBIncubator
Global Entrepreneurship Week 2016 (#GEW2016) brings us another opportunity to connect to the entrepreneurship ecosystem locally and globally. Standard Bank South Africa has always been at the forefront of helping entrepreneurs to grow their businesses. THUD has partnered with Standard Bank’s #SBIncubator to deliver another exciting opportunity during GEW2016, entrepreneurs go head-to-head in a Startup Pitch Battle under the annual THUDfest (THUD Festival of Entrepreneurship) banner. We do this to bring entrepreneurs closer to the bank with an opportunity to showcase how far in the journey they have travelled throughout the year in building their enterprises.
Date: 14 November, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location: Rosebank
Focusing on building long term business relationships through word of mouth referrals. We are looking for professionals in selected industries to join us and were we tap into one another’s networks to grow each of our businesses.
Date: 16 November, 7:00am to 8:30am
Location: The Street Cafe (Rosebank Union Church), 40 St Andrews Road
FundEX 2016 – Funding event for entrepreneurs
Riversands Incubation Hub in partnership with the National Empowerment Fund (NEF) is set to host its inaugural FundEX event. The one-day conference and expo will showcase a wide spectrum of funders and investment providers with the aim of exposing entrepreneurs to the many funding and personal wealth creation opportunities available.
Date: 16 November, 8:30am to 7:00pm
Location: Riversands Incubation Hub, 8 Incubation Drive, Riverside View Ext 15, Fourways, Midrand
The Purpose of this Business Networking meeting is to offer you the business owner a networking platform to promote your business/service. To meet new like-minded business owners.
Date: 16 November, 8: 30am
Location: Piza e Vino Eagles Landing, Corner of Scott and Christiaan de Wet Rd, Randpark Ridger
Come and join GrowthHub for an evening of networking and talks from industry leaders. This event is titled: “Tools for Growth: The importance of Sales, Marketing and PR” so if you are in or looking to get into the entrepreneurial space, this event is not to be missed.
Date: 17 November, 5:30pm
Location: 1 Chadwick Avenue, Sandton
The SiMODiSA VentureTrain is a unique networking and brainstorming event on the Shosholoza Meyl Premier Classe Train to gather a targeted selection of entrepreneurs, funders and thought leaders in one space to share experiences and debate relevant challenges in the South African entrepreneurship ecosystem with the aim to advance/ improve it. This particular train will have a FinTech theme and we invite all FinTech players in South Africa to join.
Date: 17 – 18 November
Location: Johannesburg
Kenya
Nairobi Edtech Meetup: 2nd Year Anniversary Celebrations + FINAL DEMO NIGHT!
In just two years Nairobi Edtech Meetup has grown from an idea in our founders’ minds to the largest EdTech Meetup in Kenya. We are 1,100+ members strong and have hosted nearly 22 events, workshops and demo days. Clearly, we couldn’t have done it without the tremendous love and support we’ve received from YOU (members). We invite YOU to join us for an evening of food, beverages, speakers, surprises and some plain ole’ fun to celebrate this milestone. This will be our wrap-up event for 2016, thank YOU again for making 2016 great.
Date: 16 November, 5:30pm
Location: Spire Office, Daykio Plaza, Ngong Lane (off Ngong Road, next to Prestige), Nairobi
RiseUp Summit is MEA top entrepreneurship event happening this December 9th to 11th in downtown Cairo. The summit will be bringing entrepreneurs, investors from across the globe including Middle East. This edition is aimed at fusing entrepreneurs, investors, innovators, media and talent from all over the world.
Date: 16 November, 5:00pm to 6:00pm
Location: @iBizAfrica, Keri Road, Nairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya
Startup Grind: Kamal Budhabhatti (Little)
Kamal Budhabhatti is the founder at Craft Silicon, a Kenyan tech company that provides software solutions for core banking, micro-finance, switching and electronics payments and most recently launched Little rides in partnership with Safaricom. He will be featured at the Brave Data Festival at a fireside hosted by Startup Grind.
Date: 17 November, 6:00pm to 8:30pm
Location: Nexus CoWork, Ground Floor, Riara Corporate Suites, Riara Road, Nairobi
e-ENSURES would like to invite you to a presentation at @iBizAfrica about Market research for startups. e-ENSURES is the first African Online Market Research Company dedicated to assisting small & medium startups and entrepreneurs across Africa.Their focus is on offering affordable Market research to startups and entrepreneurs.
Date: 17 November, 11:00am to 12:00pm
Location: @iBizAfrica 5th floor Student Centre,Strathmore University, PO Box 59857, 00200 Kenya, Madaraka Estate, Ole Sangele Road, City Square Nairobi, Nairobi
November Entrepreneurs Forum with Umsizi LLP
Umsizi LLP was born out of a need to provide practical and timely legal solutions to trendsetting entrepreneurs and innovators in various sectors. On Saturday, 19th November, 2016, Ms. Reba Chabeda -Ouko a Partner at Umsizi LLP will lead a discussion on what legal aspects you need to know as a entrepreneur, from the set-up to the day to day running of the start up .The discussions will be around registration, taxation and intellectual property.
Date: 19 November, 10:00am to 12:00pm
Location: iHub
Nigeria
Do you have a passion for capacity building ? The Edupreneur event is targeted at new start-ups, business owners, teachers, businessmen and businesswomen, graduates and entrepreneurs.
Date: 15 November, 9:00am to 5:00pm
Location: Ikorodu, 14 Sanni Adetunbi, Olainukan Bus stop, Isawo, Ikorodu, Lagos
GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK: Osun Entrepreneurs and management of recession
The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) is a year-round platform of programs and initiatives aimed at creating one global entrepreneurial ecosystem. GEN helps people in 160 countries unleash their ideas and turn them into promising new ventures—creating jobs, accelerating innovation and strengthening economic stability around the world. Ranging from efforts to inspire and educate nascent entrepreneurs to advancing research and connecting global leaders in person, GEN operates in all types of economies and cultures.
Date: 17 November, 8:00am to 12:00pm
Location: AURORA CONFERENCE AND EVENT CENTRE, Plot 6, Block 1XA, Iwo-Ikirun Expressway, Ring-Road, By NNPC Mega Station, OSOGBO, OSUN
A startup’s sustainable success comes from growth. Period. Not from funds raised, a cool name, or number of patents held. The companies that make it do so because they maintain long-term growth. So how does a startup with limited resources and zero brand equity acquire users 10x more than the incumbent? The answer is not a bigger marketing budget or a better brand, it is growth hacking.
Date: 17 to 18 November
Location: Landmark Centre, Plot 2&3 Water Corporation Road, Victoria Island, Lagos State
Do you run a startup or aspiring to run one? Then let’s meet at StartUp Hangout 1.0. We are bringing together amazing startups with a deep sense of commitment, contribution and community. This platform seeks to bring together startups who will create the economic future of Nigeria from tech to manufacturing, agriculture and a lot more.
Date: 19 November, 10:30am to 1:30pm
Location: 60 Moleye Street, Behind Total Petrol Station, Spencer B/stop, Off Herbert Macaulay Way, Alagomeji Yaba, Lagos
Have a startup event that you’d like featured on next week’s event roundup? Send us an email.
Feature image: Chris Eason via Flickr.
