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 & Stellenbosch
Rise To The Challenge: Cyber Security
Rise Cape Town, together with Jonathan Gill, Head of Cyber Security at Barclays Africa invite you to the next edition of Rise To The Challenge: Cyber Security. This month’s event will discuss topics such as fraud, authentication and enterprise security.
Date: 22 March, 4:30pm to 6:30pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 5th Floor, Block B, Woodstock Exchange, 66 -68 Albert Road, Cape Town
LaunchLab: Water and Waste Management Challenge
We are in the middle of a water crisis and the migration to the Western Cape is not slowing down. With the increasing demand on our natural resources we need businesses that are addressing these most fundamental opportunities. We will be hosting a workshop to engage with the Stellenbosch entrepreneurial community on some of the details of the current opportunities in Stellenbosch in water and waste management. This workshop will take place at the Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab, and will also be broadcast live on the web.
Date: 23 March, 3:00pm to 5:550pm
Location: Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab, Stellenbosch
Calling creatives, engineers, scientists, policymakers, date-nerds, water conservationists and backyard tinkerers to take part in a water hackathon. South Africa is one of the forerunners of extreme water stress globally. Let’s grab this window of opportunity to avert tragedy with our collective ingenuity.
Date: 24 March, 3:00pm to 7:00pm; 25 March, 9:00am to 6:00pm
Location: Barclays Rise, Woodstock
Johannesburg
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: 22 March, 7:00am to 8:30am
Location: The Street Cafe (Rosebank Union Church), 40 St Andrews Road
Entrepreneurship in China. Meet the legends who have made it just like you!
In this workshop, we will continue expanding into the “one country two systems” reality of China with emphasis on Hong Kong as a springboard to Mainland China. The highlight of this session will be the introduction of two real case studies of foreign entrepreneurs living in Shanghai who have made it just like you! We will discuss what it means to be a foreign entrepreneur in China and the costs involved in this journey.
Date: 22 March, 7:30am to 9:30am
Location: N/A
Lean Coffee is a format for interesting people to have interesting conversations. Note that ‘Lean’ refers to the structure and not necessarily what we talk about.
Date: 24 March, 7:30am
Location: Father Coffee, The Zone, Rosebank
Free 1 Day Workshop – Ignite Your Destiny; Disrupt or Be Disrupted
Your business or your career success is completely reliant on your ability to innovate and create. In the exponential times we live in, life is moving at such a rapid pace that if we are not innovating or creating WE WILL BE LEFT BEHIND, OUR LIFES WILL BE DISRUPTED. We all know this or have heard about how technology is taking over the world, Uber and airB&B, have disrupted the taxi and hotel industry already. How many industries has your cell phone disrupted? When will the next technological innovation disrupt you and your industry?
Date: 25 March, 9:30am to 6:00pm
Location: Impello, 139 Greenway, 3rd Floor, Randburg
Sw7 host the “Meet the Geeks” braai – forthcoming
GeeksOnaPlane is a trip organised by 500 Startups, one of the largest global technology accelerators that has launched out of Silicon Valley. The trip is aimed at connecting the ecosystem players with the emerging market innovation and startup ecosystems. The ‘Geeks’ are investors, Venture Capitalists, funders, technology businesses and support partners looking to connect with the emerging markets with a view to doing business. Sw7 are hosting the Geeks on their Johannesburg leg and will be doing an ecosystem briefing session when they arrive and then hosting a braai at the new @Sw7 Workspace.
Date: 28-29 March
Location: N/A
Kenya
Global Entrepreneurship Network in Myanmar is leading a delegation to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2017 in Johannesburg, South Africa and going to meet with entrepreneurs and startup ecosystem actors two of the hottest entrepreneurship hubs in Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa and Nairobi, Kenya. You are cordially invited to be part of the discussion next week on Monday from 1pm -3 pm. The aim of the meetup will be to share insights from the Myanmar startup ecosystem and explore areas for collaboration.
Date: 20 March, 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Location: iHub, Senteu Plaza, 6th floor, Nairobi
SME Fest 2017 | The Biggest SME Growth and Networking Festival in Africa
SME Fest 2017 will be where the Africa’s SME world meets. A curated group of attendees will be gathering for two days of targeted business networking and growth opportunities. World-class speakers, business success experts, leading entrepreneurs, investors, media, Africa’s most promising SMEs and startups will come together for the most important Intra-African business gathering.
Date: 21 – 22 March
Location: KICC, Nairobi, Nairobi County, Kenya
Nigeria
Growth Capital by CcHUB and 500 startups cordially invite you to the first edition of Silicon Yaba Townhall Meeting. This Townhall meeting is designed to focus on key essential areas to local ecosystem building: Infrastructure and Talent Growth. The Townhall meeting will feature panel discussions with Silicon Valley Insiders, Silicon Yaba Players and the tech ecosystem to discuss challenges, and share stories in overcoming the talent drought and poor access to infrastructure. The aim is to build an important bridge to foster key learnings exchange for both ecosystems, from which stronger bonds of understanding can be built.
Date: 21 March, 11:45am to 2:00pm
Location: Co-Creation Hub Nigeria, 294 Herbert Macaulay Rd, Lagos, Nigeria
ACTIVATE 2017 – Digital Marketing Workshop for Business Startups and Owners
Digital Marketing Workshop for Business Startups, Business Owners, Creative Enterprise Owners, Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, Sales Professionals and Entrepreneurs who wants to move their business to the digital world
Date: 22 – 23 March
Location: 7, Shobayo Street, Ilupeju, Lagos
Startup Grind hosts Chris Kwekowe (Slatecube)
Chris is a young MIT/Harvard trained innovative Ed-Tech entrepreneur from Nigeria. He’s passionate about technology and the average African youth. His venture, Slatecube, aims at developing young African talents into world class professionals for today’s distributed workforce. He’s shared this model with the likes of US President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and across several continents and countries within the last 2 years.
Date: 25 March, 3:00pm to 5:30pm
Location: CapitalSquare Lagos, Lekki – Epe Express Road Lekki, Lagos
Online
Symphony’s DAVID GURLE: Wall Street-Backed Startup, Raised $170M in 2 Years
Access Silicon Valley invites you to join us on March 21, 2017 when we sit down with Symphony Founder & CEO, David Gurle – the man who is revolutionizing the way financial service teams interact each day.
Date: 21 March, 3:45am to 5:30am
Location: online
How to Find (and Compensate) Co-Founders for Your Startup (Live Online Event)
Join this interactive webinar to learn where to look for co-founders, how to determine co-founder compatibility, how to split equity, and how to avoid common mistakes.
Date: 23 March, 7:00pm
Location: online
Have a startup event that you’d like featured on next week’s event roundup? Send us an email.
