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
LifeQ: From Science to Product
At LifeQ we like to say that we are busy building an airplane, while we are already flying it, after having thrown it off a cliff. We started with a great vision and world-changing science, and had to learn how to match this to real world needs. We had to figure out our product. We started to create a product focused culture. In this talk Herman will talk about that product discovery journey, and share lessons learned, both good and bad. It will be more extreme than a rollercoaster ride.
Date: 13 March, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Location: Workshop 17, Seminar Room 1, The Watershed, V&A Waterfront
Learning Lunches deliver workshops for entrepreneurs to learn from experts in their field. We invite guests to speak on a range of topics that address common pain points faced by all first-time founders.
Date: 14 March 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, MTN Solution Space, 8 Portswood Road
Pitch Night provides a platform for entrepreneurs to practice pitching their idea to local angel investors and hear what other entrepreneurs are working on. After 3 pitches, Q&A and feedback from the panel, entrepreneurs are free to network and connect with each other.
Date: 14 March, 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Location: Learning Lab, MTN Solution Space, UCT Graduate School of Business, 9 Portswood Road
Want to start a business? Have you ever just wanted to start your own business and be the boss of yourself, but things just never got going? The wait is over: Join us for a half-day programme to kick start your financial future as you learn what to do next to start your profitable business. We are running two half-day programmes in March dedicated to you the future business owner.
Date: 14 March, 9:30am to 12:30pm
Location: Entrepreneur and Management Solutions, North Block, Upper Eastside, 31 Brickfield road, 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: 15 March, 8:30am to 9:30am
Location: TRUTH. coffeecult, 1 Somerset Road, Green Point
FREE #CapeMarketing Workshops for Small Businesses in Woodstock
Are you a start-up, entrepreneur or small business owner? Perhaps you just have an inkling of an idea and need some advice or inspiration. We offer a relaxed and safe space for you to discuss any issues, ideas or success stories. If you have any marketing problems you need help with, you can bring them all to the table and tap into the wealth of experience and knowledge from the group.
Date: 15 March, 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Location: The Cape Town Garage, The Woodstock Exchange, Block A / 4th Floor, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock
The IT Leaders Africa Summit is a meeting place for IT executive from across the continent. This edition of the summit will cover 4 key tracks that have been developed with the assistance advisory panel of industry leaders. These tracks are namely Strategy in a changing landscape, The Human Element, Value Driven IT, and IT Security Risks. In 2017, IT Leaders Africa is moving to the Century City Conference Centre in SA’s tech hub Cape Town, and promises to be an educational and insightful showcase of the latest trends, technology solutions, and experiences from the top IT heads across African industries.
Date: 15 – 16 March
Location: Century City Conference Centre
The FIRST EVER Western Cape Edtech meet up
Hosted by the new CiTi ed-tech cluster (www.edtech.org.za), this is an opportunity for entrepreneurs, teachers, funders, students, tech people and anyone interested to hear about and talk about how we can use technology to improve education in South Africa and the wider African continent. We are founding Africa’s first edtech dedicated incubator programme.
Date: 15 March, 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Location: Bandwidth Barn – Woodstock
FREE #CapeMarketing Workshops for Small Businesses in Diep River
Are you a start-up, entrepreneur or small business owner? Perhaps you just have an inkling of an idea and need some advice or inspiration. We offer a relaxed and safe space for you to discuss any issues, ideas or success stories. If you have any marketing problems you need help with, you can bring them all to the table and tap into the wealth of experience and knowledge from the group.
Date: 16 March, 9:00am
Location: N/A
Dr Craig Friderichs, tech entrepreneur and lover of all things mobile will be hosting a relaxed breakfast talking about his experiences with mobile leapfrogging in Africa and working with Telcos.
Date: 17 March, 8:30am to 10:00am
Location: Rise Cape Town, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock Exchange Building, 66 -68 Albert Road, Woodstock
Johannesburg
Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2017
Every year, the Global Entrepreneurship Congress gathers together thousands of entrepreneurs, investors, researchers, policymakers and other startup champions from more than 160 countries to identify new ways of helping founders start and scale new ventures around the world. At the weeklong GEC, delegates make connections, gain insights, learn about new research, and leave ready to renew their programs, policy ideas or firm founder skills.
Date: 13 – 15 March
Location: Sandton Convention Centre
FinTech Africa event on the Future of Payments
Over 240 other innovation leads, experts, startups and investors already signed up for the Future of Payments 2017 at the office of RMB in Sandton on March 14. This once in a lifetime opportunity gives you the possibility to discuss developments and challenges for payments in Africa. Only the hottest FinTech companies get the opportunity to present themselves in front of major stakeholders in the African payment industry. This is the place in Africa where you get inspired, extend your network and develop business.
Date: 14 March
Location: The Pub, 1 Merchant place, Cnr Rivonia & Fredman drive, Sandton
This particular train will feature a global entrepreneurship theme. This will present an opportunity for our international GEC participants to visit Cape Town, by exploring scenic parts of South Africa on a train trip through the Karoo region. It will be an opportunity for local and international entrepreneurship stakeholders (funders, founders, accelerators, incubators) to engage and brainstorm ideas around how we can collaborate and integrate progressive entrepreneurial initiatives globally. This will garner local and international collaborative synergies.
Date: 16 – 17 March
Location: Park Station
Kenya
We invite you to the first demo night in 2017. We have great things planned for this month. Demo night is a chance to showcase what you are working on to the community and get feedback from the audience.
Date: 15 March, 6:00pm to 8:30pm
Location: Spire Office, Daykio Plaza, Ngong Lane (off Ngong Road, next to Prestige), Nairobi
Launch – Platinum Business Club
This Group is ONLY for those interested in investing in themselves and their businesses; those wanting to operate counter-intuitively (this means that you don’t believe that just because ‘John’ or ‘Susan’ do things this way then that must be the only way to do things). I’m inviting individuals who want and are ready to experience the next level in their lives and businesses! If you just want to come ‘test’ the waters, have a look or just ‘learn’ a few new things…then this isn’t for you. This Club is oriented towards those who believe ‘carpe diem’ (seizing the day); those who believe in taking ACTION; those who are brave and believe they only get out of life what they put in!
Date: 16 March, 6:30pm to 9:00pm
Location: N/A
First Bitcoin Techpreneurs Roundtable and Nyamachoma Barbecue
BitHub Africa is happy to announce the first Bitcoin Roundtable and Nyamachoma Barbecue targeting Techpreneurs & Startups looking to use the Bitcoin blockchain as a network to develop or scale solutions.
Date: 18 March, 1:00pm
Location: 2nd Floor Caradeen Collection, Karandini Rd, Dagoretti Corner, Nairobi
Nigeria
Design Driven Entrepreneurship
In the Design Driven Entrepreneurship course, participants will be looking at ways to use human-centered design to power their startups, in order to gain clear competitive advantages for their businesses
Date: 16 March, 10:00am to 12:00pm
Location: Barack Obama American Corner, Ovie Brume Foundation, 29A Gafar Animashaun Street, Off Ajose Adeogun Street, Victoria Island, Lagos
Join us for the Agile Nigeria March Meet Up where we will talk, discuss and learn about: THE ROLE OF AGILE FOR ENTREPRENEURS in industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, telecommunications, retail, service, aviation, education, entertainment and software development.
Date: 17 March, 6:00pm to 8:00pm
Location: De-vine Plus Hotel and Suites, 17-19 Abel Oreniyi Street, Off Salvation Road Opebi, Ikeja
CFA’s Startups Hangout (March): Excellence is Key to Startup Success
CFAtech.ng is bringing you CFA’s Startups Hangout a monthly meetup where Startups can connect with successful entrepreneurs and top executives who have had similar experiences along the journey. This we believe will enable startups learn a thing or two such that they can easily leapfrog without having to make the very same or similar mistakes.
Date: 17 March, 5:00pm to 8:30pm
Location: Adna Hotel Limited, 28 Oladipo Bateye Road, Ikeja, Lagos
Have a startup event that you’d like featured on next week’s event roundup? Send us an email.
Feature image: Francisco Anzola via Flickr.
