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.
No ad to show here.
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.
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.
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
#Co CreateSA and Startup Safari collaborate to bring you the fifth instalment of Fuckup Nights Cape Town. Speakers include Janneke Niessen co-founder of Inspiring Fifty and Improve Digital, Andre De Wet head of Africa at iflix and Wilma Coetzee co-owner of NY Bagels Cape Town.
Date: 4 September, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Bobs Bar District 6, 46A Canterbury Street, Zonnebloem, Cape Town
Machine Intelligence and its applications
Experts from Stellenbosch University, industry, and the machine intelligence community will participate in this showcase of machine intelligence and its applications. The format of the event will be a few presentations with Q&A along with a panel discussion.
Date: 5 September, 6.30pm to 8pm
Location: LaunchLab, Stellenbosch University
For people working in startups, lean (startup) coffee is a weekly one hour coffee meetup that runs a mash-up of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com.
Date: 6 September, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
The 10th edition of the SA Innovation Summit brings together corporates, thought leaders investors, entrepreneurs, academia and policy makers. This year’s theme is Innovation Revolution. Two of the key speakers to look forward to are Ran Neu-Ner, co-CEO of the Creative Council and Janneke Niessen, winner of the Ernst and Young Most Innovative Leader 2016.
The Pitching Den and Inventors Garage competitions will feature again, with exciting startups and inventors showing off their products and services to the judges
Date: 6 to 8 September, 7.30am to 6pm
Location: Cape Town Stadium, Fritz Sonnenberg Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Startup Grind hosts Hannes Van Rensburg
Hannes van Rensburg is the founder of Fundamo the first mobile banking solution that was acquired by Visa in June 2011 for $110-million. Van Rensburg is the father of mobile payments and has been voted as one of the top hundred most influential people in telecommunication three years in a row.
At this week’s event Van Rensburg will share lessons learnt from successes and failures pioneering mobile banking and how he sold the business to Visa.
Date: 7 September, 6pm to 7pm
Location: Cape Town Stadium, Fritz Sonnenberg Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Johannesburg
htxt.africa & Standard Bank Innovation Challenge
The htxt.africa & Standard Bank Innovation Challenge, which takes place at Leaderex, will see seven innovators get a chance to pitch their big idea to a panel of highly respected and influential judges, including Jayshree Naidoo, head of Standard Bank’s incubator programme.
Date: 5 September, 8.30am to 10am
Location: Sandton Convention Centre, 161 Maude Street, Sandton, Johannesburg
Join SiMODiSA and partners at South Africa’s biggest startup conference. Attend practical masterclasses with top entrepreneurs and connect with accelerators, incubators and funding institutions. Receive one-on-one coaching and prepare for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in Africa.
Date: 5 September, 10am to 5pm
Location: Sandton Convention Centre, 161 Maude Street, Sandton, Johannesburg
Startup Grind hosts Natalie Du Toit
Olympian and Paralympian Natalie Du Toit has moved on from her memorable sporting career to apply her skills and determination to the business world. Du Toit has partnered with Innocomm SA in the field of reputation management, focusing on social media. As an expert social media strategist, she aims to turn her clients into influencers themselves and to generate a return on investment.
Date: 5 September, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Standard Bank Hatfield Hub (Inside Standard Bank Branch) , 440 Hilda Street, Hatfield, Pretoria
Fak’ugesi: African Digital Innovation Festival
Fak’ugesi African Digital Innovation Festival in Johannesburg celebrates technology, creativity, collaboration and innovation from across the African continent. This year’s festival is theme is “Brave hearts beat as one”.
Date: 6 to 16 September
Location: Tshimologong Precinct, 39-47 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
The diffusion of intellectual property rights around the world
Intellectual Property (IP) is usually analysed mainly in contemporary Western legal and economic terms but when you look at copyright, patents, and trademarks historically and across cultures, a different picture emerges, one which experts at this event think is both complex and disturbing.
Not in Pretoria? Follow this event at the following video conference facilities in Cape Town and Durban respectively; HSRC, Merchant House 116-118 Buitengracht Street, Cape Town and The Atrium, 5th Floor, 430 Peter Mokaba Ridge, Berea, Durban.
Date: 7 September, 12.30pm to 2pm
Location: HSRC Video Conference, 1st floor HSRC Library, Human Sciences Research Council, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria
Cyber Security Masterclass for small and medium businesses
This half-day course is designed to help businesses understand what is covered under the broad heading of cyber security to help you think about how cyber security issues affect your business and what you need to be doing to address the potential threats facing you.
This masterclass will be both engaging and informative, drawing on the experience of delegates to explore the subject and to give real world application to the subject. We explain ways in which threats manifest, and how they can be mitigated.
Date: 7 September, 8.30pm to 11.30pm
Location: Radisson Blu Gautrain Hotel, Rivonia Road, Sandton
Durban
Pathways to funding do-ference
Pulling together the Durban entrepreneurship ecosystem, this two-day Masterclass features speaker and entrepreneurs from across the city – focusing on the tricks and tools you need to grow and fund your business.
Date: 7 and 8 September, 10am to 5pm
Location: Flexible Workspace, 8 Morrison Street, North beach, Durban
Kenya
Do you have an idea, know where you want to be, but need guidance on how to get there? This workshop organised by The Entrepreneurs Hub will combine theory with practical application relevant to your situation.
Date: 6 September, 8.30am to 1pm
Location: The Entrepreneurs Hub, Waiyaki Way, Nairobi
Startup Grind Hosts Grant Brooke
Grant Brooke, co-founder of mobile-based business to business supply platform Twiga Foods, will talk about his journey starting out as an entrepreneur, looking for funding and the changes to expect when running a revolutionary business.
Date:8 September, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Metta Nairobi, Belgravia Suite 6A, 14 Riverside, Nairobi
Nigeria
Startup Grind: Ahmad Sadiq and Malissa Onojo
Join Malissa Onojo of Oh Tailor and Ahmad Sadiq founder and CEO at Microscale Embedded as they talk about their businesses and discuss how you can start a business in Abuja and be successful in it.
Date: 6 September,6pm to 7pm
Location: Ecwa Wuse 2, 34 Blantye Street, Abuja
Abuja Business Expo: SME Business Therapy
This event is organised around teaching small businesses about optimisation, an expert will discuss how small businesses can leverage technology and modern business systems to become efficient, lower costs and raise funds.
Date: 8 September, 11am to 2pm
Location: FCT, Abuja
Nigeria Entrepreneur Town Hall with Strive Masiyiwa
Join entrepreneur and philanthropist Strive Masiyiwa for this fireside chat and town hall discussion.
Date: 8 September, 11am to 1pm
Location: Landmark Centre, 2&3 Water Corporation Road, Victoria Island, Lagos
Fireside Chat at CraniumOne: Why you need a partner for your business
Join Chukwukwa Monye managing director at Ciuci Consulting speak on why you need a partner for your business. Find out all the reasons why you need a partner for your business, learn how to find the right one and how to maintain the relationship.
Date: 8 September, 5.30pm
Location: 1 Towry Close, Victoria Island, Lagos
Ghana
Accra Startup Co-Founder 101: How to Find the Right Partner
Are you interested in co-founding or joining the team of an early stage technology company or in learning how co-founder arrangements typically work?
This Founder Institute Accra accelerator organised event begins with a workshop to help aspiring founders understand what to look for in a co-founder, and effectively pitch their startup idea to prospective co-founders. Then attendees speed-pitch their idea to other attendees, based on the type of co-founder they are looking for and industries they are interested in.
Date: 8 September, 11am to 1pm
Location: Landmark Centre, 2&3 Water Corporation Road, Victoria Island, Lagos
Featured image: Daniel X. O’Neil via Flickr (CC 2.0 BY-SA, resized)
