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 them 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.
The breakfast is R130 which 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: 31 May, 8:15am to 10am
Location: 144 Campground Road, Newlands, Cape Town
Venture Incubation Programme Demo Day
Join young entrepreneurs at the MTN Venture Incubation Programme as they pitch their business ideas to a crowd of connected individuals and investors.
Date: 31 May, 6pm to 8:30pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, Solution Space, 9 Portswood Road, Cape Town
The theme of Silicon Cape’s May #SCTalk is Tech eKasi. Vuyisa Qabaka, Baratang Miya, Bhuti Mbele and Lebogang Madise will highlight the role startups play in solving township challenge using tech and looking at how we build a truly inclusive ecosystem. The event will be moderated by Cape Talk’s Kieno Kammies.
The evening will also include pitching battles and networking.
Date: 31 May, 5.30pm to 8pm
Location: 17 Dock Road, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
This workshop is dedicated to female entrepreneurs who want to discuss other women in entrepreneurial endeavours. The meetup is designed to be a supportive space for open dialogue.
Date: 1 June, 8:00am to 11:00am
Location: 7 Dock Street, Waterfront, Cape Town
Join the Codebridge Community evening, a dedicated time, every two weeks where those from the community can work on interesting projects they just never seem to get around to doing.
Bring along your passion project or join a project already on the go.
Date: 1 June, 6.30pm to 9.30pm
Location: 1 Thicket Street, Claremont, Cape Town
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: 31 May, 7:30am till late
Location: Proof Cafe, 6 Sandton Gautrain Station, Johannesburg.
Growing Your Business With Google
This workshop will aim to help your business to better utilise Google by getting you to stand out on the search engine; reach your target market and improve your page rankings.
Date: 31 May, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Community Centre Co-Working Space, 357 Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg.
Join award-winning consultant, Landi Jac and entrepreneur Mike Handcock as they take you through various factors on how to better your business. The two will look at factors such as what to address in your marketing, how targeted messages can bump sales and what trends will impact your business will be looked at.
Date: 1 June, 9:30am to 12:30am
Location: RE/MAX Dazzle, 75 Monument Road, Johannesburg.
Small business networking – Imbizo
The Imbizo will allow other small and medium business owners to interact and collaborate on certain ideas and issues facing their businesses.
Date: 2 June, 9am to 11am
Location: 252A Montrose Ave, Northriding, Randburg.
Kenya
Mettā Workshop: Big Data in Retail & Blockchain
The event will cover two sessions, the first being Bithub’s African Blockchain Opportunity followed by Brave Ventures’ Big Data in the Retail Industry.
The first session will feature a quick intro on bitcoin and blockchain followed by a Q&A with the panel.
The second session will feature an introduction to data science toolkits as well as a hands-on analysis of retail data.
Date: 30 May, 9am to 12pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, 14 Riverside Drive, Belgravia Building, Nairobi, Nairobi County.
Financial Modeling Training in Nairobi
This financial modelling bootcamp will tackle issues around designing and structuring models to various financial issues and translate them into Excel.
The bootcamp will also help its attenddees to process and create easy to maintain financial models in Excel and learn charting and dashboarding techniques among others.
Date: 3 June, 9am, to 5pm
Location: Hilton Nairobi, Mama Ngina Street, Nairobi, Nairobi County.
Nigeria
FREE Exposition on Human Resources Management for SMEs
This workshop will detail such topics as how SMEs can sustain an HR department with a limited number of employees, the simplest way to manage employee performance and how to hire the right employee.
Date: 31 May, 10am to 1pm
Location: Simeons Pivot Resources, 19 Town Planning Way, Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
Leap Africa’s CEO Forum will tackle issues covering corporate governance, innovation and marketing, financial planning and management, as well as how to manage your staff for operational success.
Date: 1 June, 9am to 6pm
Location: Landmark Event Centre, Water Corporation Road, Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
Poize Insider Business seminar for Female entrepreneurs in Ibadan
This seminar is targetted at women entrepreneurs who want to take their businesses to the next level by addressing issues around business and financial planning.
Date: 2 June, 9am to 5pm
Location: American Corner, Nigerian Society for Information, Arts and Culture, Leventis Building, 54 Magazine Road, Jericho, Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria.
Have a startup event that you’d like featured on next week’s event roundup? Send us an email
