Looking to get into the South African startup scene or catch 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
Weekly Breakfast Networking Meeting
This networking event hosted by Business Networking International (BNI) welcomes all entrepreneurs to join a group of 30 business owners to build stronger relationships and networks relating to their industries. The group however only caters for one person per industry. If your industry already has a representative, you will be referred to another chapter which has a vacancy.
The breakfast is R130 and needs to be paid in advance for a seat to be secured. You will also be required to register for the event before you’re able to attend.
Date: 19 April, 8:15am to 10am
Location: 144 Campground Road, Newlands, Cape Town
FuckUp Nights Cape Town #sharethefailure
Fuckup Nights celebrate the failures of entrepreneurs and the lessons they’ve learned and new solutions they’ve applied. Fuckup Nights feature many speakers who have seven minutes to present their story, which is followed up by a question and answers session.
The speakers presenting are designer Kat van Duinen; co-founders of Plan My Wedding Jason Newmark & Chelsea Evans; the founder of Brand Rocket Stuart Shapiro and CEO and founder of Sponge Africa, Dayo Elegbe.
Date: 19 April, 5:45pm to 8:45pm
Location: Canterbury Club, 46A Canterbury St, Zonnebloem, Cape Town
Silicon Cape’s April TechTalk is on Serious Games. Meet some of the new startups in the space and hear from people who have been casually disrupting and moving way beyond gamification for a while.
Date: 19 April, 6.00pm to 8.30pm
Location: Workshop 17, V&A Waterfront, 17 Dock Rd, Cape Town
Aspiring entrepreneurs and businessmen and women are invited to attend a talk on ‘How to double your revenues every year for 5 years’ with guest speaker, Justin Coetzee from GoMetro. The talk will cover his entrepreneurial journey as well as what he learned along the way.
Following the talk will be drinks and a networking session.
Date: 20 April, 4:30pm to 5:30pm
Location: Hammandshand Road, Stellenbosch, South Africa
Cape Town Business Analysis Lean Coffee
The Lean Coffee event is an agenda-less event which gives its participants the floor to choose the agenda as well as to constructively debate and explore it. There are only a limited amount of spots available.
Date: 20 April, 5pm to 8pm
Location: Bootleggers, 39 Regent Rd, Cape Town
Pitch Night takes the form of a Shark Tank pitching competition to find the first SA Unicorn company. The competition is looking for five to 12 pre-venture companies to enter.
Date: 20 April, 6pm to late
Location: 3rd-floor Bandwidth Barn, Woodstock Exchange, 66 – 68 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange, Cape Town
Johannesburg
The event is in the form of your standard networking event, however, the organisers are looking at entrepreneurs and businessmen and women in various industries to come together and create lasting networks.
Date: 19 April, 7am to 8:30am
Location: The Street Cafe, 40 St Andrews Road, Johannesburg
Business Expansion Breakfast for business owners
This event, hosted by BNI, invites entrepreneurs to become members of the networking community. The chapter is only accepting one person per industry. This event is a paid event, R70 gets you tea/coffee and breakfast.
Date: 19 April, 7:15am to 8:45am
Location: Huddle Park, Club Street, Johannesburg
The Lean Coffee event is an agenda-less event which gives its participants the floor to choose the agenda as well as to constructively debate and explore it. There are only a limited amount of spots available.
Date: 19 April, 7:30am
Location: Father Coffee, The Zone, Rosebank, Johannesburg
The roadshow will feature many insights on how entrepreneurs could handle their investments better as well as the various financial options available to them. Mentorship, collaboration and sharing information also plays a major role in the content of the roadshow.
Date: 20 April, 8am to 5pm
Location: Emperors Palace,64 Jones Rd, O.R. Tambo, Kempton Park
The hackathon will allow young South Africans code and pitch their solutions that address issues around food access, security and agriculture.
Date: 21 April, 5pm to late
Location: JoziHub, 44 Stanley Avenue, Johannesburg
The Imbizo invites all entrepreneurs, businessmen and women to attend the event to establish better networks, attain prospective clients as well as get their businesses out there via word of mouth.
Date: 21 April, 9am to 11am
Location: Cabanga Conference Centre, 252a Montrose Ave, Northriding, Randburg
Nigeria
Fireside Chat with Annie Eimiakhena
The fireside chat will feature Annie Eimiakhena, the director and recruitment consultant of Lohi Consulting. The chat will cover her career as well as some of her best and worst moments in the industry.
Date: 21 April, 5pm to 6pm
Location: Cranium One Office, 1, Towry Close, off Idejo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos
Have a startup event that you’d like featured on next week’s event roundup? Send us an email
