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
Savant Technology Incubator Launch
Seda in partnership with the Department of Small Business Development will launch the Savant Technology Incubator this week.
Date: 17 October, 9.30am to 2pm
Location: First floor, Woodstock Studio, 2 Francis Street, Zonnebloem
Success Thinking: How to survive in the 4th Industrial Revolution
Join entrepreneur Rich Mulholland and clinical psychologist Marc Rogatschnig as they unpack the vital components for success in the Fourth Industrial Revolution at this month’s Heavy Chef event.
Date: 17 October, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: OPEN Sandton, 138 West Street, Sandown, Sandton
Rise is a global community that connects startups, corporates and experts around the world to co-create the future of financial services. Rise is offering 20 free one-day passes to work from its space and meet like minded people.
Date: 18 October, 8am to 6pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, Block B, 5th Floor, (Woodstock Exchange), 66 – 68 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
For those working in startups, lean (startup) coffee is a weekly one hour coffee meetup that runs a mashup of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com.
Date: 18 October, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
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 three pitches and a Q&A and feedback session from the panel, entrepreneurs are free to network.
Date: 19 October, 6pm to 7.30pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, Learning Lab, 9 Portswood Road, Green Point
Launchlab Talk : Scientists and engineers talking business
This is the last LaunchLab Talk of the year. Join guest speaker, Dr McElory Hoffman, from machine learning company Praelexis speak on the subject “Scientists and Engineers Talking Business”.
Date: 19 October, 4.30pm to 5.30pm
Location: Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab, Hammandshand Road, Stellenbosch
Johannesburg
How is regtech poised to transform different industry sectors and reduce the cost of compliance for greater efficiency and effectiveness? Join blockchain lawyer and Diacle founder Adam Vaziri as he shares key insights on recent developments in the blockchain space and the importance of regulation assets.
Date: 17 October, 6pm to 8pm
Location: To be announced
Live In The Next incubator session: Toby Shapshak
Join keynote speaker and tech industry heavyweight Toby Shapshak as he talks technology, innovation, insights and projections for the business of the future.
Date: 19 October, 6.30pm to 7pm
Location: Offlimit Communications, Ground Floor, Block B, 34 Impala Road, Sandton
The Hookup Dinner: How to pitch your business to corporates
With access to markets such a critical part of growth for any business, this masterclass will engage a guest who has made a success of his career with corporate sales and gone on to grow his business successfully. Come gain insights on what to look out for when engaging a corporate as a small business owner.
Date: 20 October, 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: Standard Bank Hatfield Hub, 440 Hilda Street,Pretoria
Durban
Startup Grind hosts Jasper Pons (DroneScan)
This month Startup Grind Durban hosts DroneScan co-founder Jasper Pons. DroneScan is a Durban-based startup that is using drones to scan bar-coded items in warehouses.
Date: 18 October, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Pavilion Hotel Durban, 15 Old Ford Road (KE Masinga), Durban
Illada Holdings and BizFarm will hold a digital skills training workshop covering search engine marketing, building an online presence, and mobile technologies.
Date: 21 October, 10am to 1pm
Location: University of KwaZulu-Natal Howard College, King George V Avenue, Durban
Benin
Afropreneur Tour: Etape Cotonou
Projection of the documentary Afropreneur – History of a silent revolution produced by TechOfAfrica and directed by Régis Strazel. The documentary presents the current realities of the tech and digital ecosystems of Francophone Africa through the meeting of their actors in Dakar, Abidjan, Lomé, Cotonou, Douala, Yaoundé, and Brazzaville.
Date: 21 October, 5.30m to 8.30pm
Location: Jean Monnet Libraries of the Zinsou Foundation, Fidjrossè, Cotonou
Botswana
The Lioness Lean In Breakfast Series brings together inspirational African women entrepreneurs to share, inspire and connect with the next generation of great women-led startups.
Date: 20 October, 8.30am to 11.30am
Location: Avani Gaborone Resort & Casino, 4727 Chuma Drive, Gaborone
Ghana
2017 Youth Technology and Business Summit
The Youth Technology and Business Summit is a platform for luminaries and visionaries to share current tips and tools that enable competitive advantage on the technology scene.
The summit is also designed to cover a wide range of all-inclusive topics that affect students, entrepreneurs, corporations, startups and business innovation.
Date: 19 October, 8.30am to 3pm
Location: College of Science Auditorium, KNUT, Kumasi
Barcamp Ho 2017 is a free networking forum bringing people together for learning, sharing, networking and mentoring in the Volta region. Join other stakeholders in Ho looking to network and build a supportive enterprising community.
Date: 21 October, 9am to 4pm
Location: University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho, Volta
Ivory Coast
Nest’in: The pre-accelerator of entrepreneurs
Nest’in’s goal is to give you as many tools as possible to take the entrepreneurial path. Among other things, you will learn how to carry out in-depth analysis of your client’s needs and how to define the critical assumptions of your project. You will also be taught how to launch a product, how to evaluate the potential of your ideas, and how to pitch for acceleration programmes.
Date: 16 to 25 October, 9am to 5pm
Location: Grand-Bassam, Grand-Bassam, South-Comoé, Ivory Coast
Kenya
Startup grind hosts Wandia Gichuru
Join former World Bank executive Wandia Gichuru as she talks about why she started her own business after having worked for the UN, World Banks and the UK government for 15 years.
Date: 19 October, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Creatives Garage, Kirichwa Rd, Nairobi
Entrepreneurs Forum with Bitange Ndemo
Join former Permanent Secretary of Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication Bitange Ndemo lead a conversation on women in enterprise.
Date: 21 October, 9.30am to 12.30pm
Location: 6th Floor, Senteu Plaza, Corner of Galana Road and Lenana Road, Nairobi
Nigeria
Find out how you can scoop a share of $1-million in prize funding. Join Nasir Yammama and serial entrepreneur Angela Adelaja talk about The Chivas Venture vision, objectives and anticipated outcomes.
Date: 18 October, 5pm to 7.30pm
Location: Ventures Park, 29 Mambilla street, Abuja, FCT
Join this convergence of Nigerian undergraduate innovators and entrepreneurs looking to learn, share and network.
Date: 20 October, 9am to 4pm
Location: Oduduwa Hall, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Osun State
Zimbabwe
Join this talk if you are interested in Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining.
Date: 19 October, 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Royal Harare Golf Club, Fife Avenue, Harare
Join Bitcoinfundi founder Tawanda Kembo in this introduction to Bitcoin.
Date: 21 October, 2pm to 4pm
Location: B2C Coworking, Batanai Gardens, Jason Moyo Avenue, Harare
Featured image: Erik (HASH) Hersman via Flickr (CC 2.0 BY-SA, resized)
