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
Not a day goes by without some new token, press release or tweet storm about something happening in the crypto-currency space. How do we navigate through the craziness? Where is this all going? Is it simply a fad, or the next tsunami of disruption since the internet? Join Sharebit founder Gavin Marshall as he leads this discussion on cryptocurrencies and blockchains.
Date: 25 October, 7pm
Location: Ipreo, 5th Floor, Grove Exchange, 9 Grove Avenue, Claremont
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: 25 October, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Rising Tides: Founders story with Andrew Katzwinkel
Join Fomo Travel CEO Andrew Katzwinkel share his entrepreneurial journey and advice on the challenges and success he’s faced founding Fomo
Date: 25 October, 10am to 12pm
Location: Rise Cape, 66-68 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Join six local companies disrupting their respective sectors, ranging from road freight to real estate; Linebooker, PropertyFox, i-pay, HeyJude, iDrop and Jumpin Rides. The event will also feature and insightful talk by RLabs founder Marlon Parker.
Date: 25 October, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road. The Watershed, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
LaunchLab & ATTACQ Smart Cities Innovation Pitching Final Event
Watch the ATTACQ Smart Cities Innovation Challenge Finalists battle it out on LaunchLab’s Pitching Platform.
Date: 26 October, 5.30pm to 9pm
Location: Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab, Stellenbosch
Johannesburg
Startup Grind hosts Margaret Hirsch (Hirsch’s Homestores)
This week Startup Grind hosts Hirsch Homestores co-founder and COO Margaret Hirsch. Hirsch has become a leading example to business women in Southern Africa — coming from a humble background, to co-founding and running the multi-million rand appliance and electronic retail organisation.
Date: 25 October, 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Location: OPEN (Sandton), 138 West Street, Sandton
Ekasi Tech Festival and Gaming Expo 2017
A platform for entrepreneurs determined to disrupt the ICT sector to engage in intellectual, robust discussions examining how the townships are preparing for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Date: 25 to 27 October, 8am to 6pm
Location: Uncle Tom’s Hall, Kumalo St, Orlando West, Soweto, Johannesburg
Bloemfontein
Startup Grind Bloemfontein hosts Miles Kubheka (Vuyo’s)
Startup Grind Bloemfontein hosts Vuyo’s founder Miles Kubheka. Kubheka will talk about his entrepreneurial background, how he started the company after watching a Hansa Pilsner television advertisement as well as how he is growing the company.
Date: 25 October, 6pm to 9pm
Location: CUT Idea Gymnasium, 1 Park Road, Willows, Bloemfontein
Durban
An Introduction to Bitcoin and Bitcoin Mining
Join serial entrepreneur Jacques Sassin in this workshop on Bitcoin.
Date: 28 October, 9am to 4pm
Location: Westville Country Club, Link Road, Durban
Angola
Have you ever wondered if your company is prepared to climb that next step? How does a company’s strategy change as you grow? Does growth change your role as a founder? Find answers to these questions and more at Scale-Up Summit, the event where businesses are put to the test.
Date: 27 October, 8am to 7.30pm
Location: Centro de Conferências de Belas, Rua 28 de Agosto, Futungo – 2 Belas, Luanda
Cameroon
Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to train entrepreneurs. The workshop will start on Friday night with pitches, brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation.
Date: 27 to 29 October, 7.30pm to 10pm
Location: Domayo , Collège L’espoir,Far North, Maroua,
Congo
Afropreneur Tour – Brazzaville
Screening 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 digital and tech ecosystems of Francophone Africa through the meeting of their actors in Dakar, Abidjan, Lome, Cotonou, Douala, Yaoundé and Brazzaville.
Date: 28 October, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: MTN Movie House, Brazzaville
Ghana
How to build a globally scalable as an early-stage African entrepreneur
Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST) is showcasing Venture: An African Entrepreneur’s Journey a documentary film co-produced by the African Technology Foundation and the Lions@Frica initiative that follows the entrepreneurial journeys of the four DEMO Africa 2015 winners Zuuva, BambaPOS, InsureAfrika and Car Parts Nigeria.
Date: 25 October, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Meltwater Entrepreneurial School Of Technology, 20 Aluguntugui Street Accra, Greater Accra Region
Kenya
Thrive: An entrepreneurs open chat
Join this workshop if you want to discover how to keep the cash flowing and how to mitigate risks that could wipe out your business overnight.
Date: 24 October, 8.30am to 12pm
Location: iHub, Senteu Plaza, 6th FLoor, Nairobi, Nairobi County
Nigeria
Ignition Week is a three-day capacity development forum characterised by series of workshops and seminars which ultimately climax with an idea hackathon geared towards spurring entrepreneurship in the youth.
Date: 24 to 26 October, 9am to 3pm
Location: IBI Training Center, Discovery Mall, 215, Ademola Adetokunbo Crescent, Wuse 2 Abuja, FCT
One-day exhibition for startups, inventors, entrepreneurs, and investors. Join this event to showcase your work, build networks, link up with markets for your products and access opportunities.
Date: 25 October, 9am to 4.30pm
Location: 3rd Floor,Innovation Building, Covenant University, Ogun State Sango Ota, Ogun State
Find out how you can scoop a share of $1-million in prize funding. Join Alessia Balducci talk about The Chivas Venture vision, objectives and anticipated outcomes.
Date: 27 October, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Elab 12, Land Bridge Avenue, Oniru, Lagos
Are you an innovator, problem solver or startup founder? Join this discussion on ways to support young innovators in founding and accelerating digital organisations and companies.
Date: 27 October, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Impact Hub Lagos, 14 Gerrard Road, Lagos
The Solution 2017: Startup innovation as a driver for SDGs in Africa
The Solution is an annual forum that attracts stakeholders including; funds, investors, entrepreneurs, academia, policy, and knowledge experts under one purpose to fast-track innovation entrepreneurship & leadership development in Africa.
Date: 27 to 28 October, 10am to 5pm
Location: Abuja, FCT
MEST Lagos Masterclass: Preparing your startup to scale up
The second edition of the MEST Lagos Masterclass series is here. Join Jumia co-founder and COO Gbolahan Fagbure as he shares insights and knowledge required to navigate the difficult path of growing a new enterprises in today’s challenging business environment.
Date: 28 October, 5pm to 8pm
Location: MEST Incubator Lagos, 19b Adeyemi Lawson Road, Ikoyi Lagos, Lagos
Startup Grind Lagos hosts Afua Osei (She Leads Africa)
This month Startup Grind Lagos hosts She Leads Africa founder Afua Osei. Brand Doctor founder Tunde Phoster will also conduct a session on how to make your brand buzz worthy.
Date: 28 October, 3pm to 5pm
Location: Cranium One 1, Towry Close, Off Idejo Street, Victoria Island, Lagos
Uganda
African Summit on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASENTI)
The African Summit on Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ASENTI) is a platform for global entrepreneurship and innovation. The summit is open to applicants from Africa and across the world. This year’s summit will focus on youth Empowerment through skills training, energy, agribusiness, finance, media, science and mobile technology and new technology trends.
Date: 24 to 25 October, 8.30am to 6pm
Location: International University Of East Africa, Ggaba Road, Kampala, Central Region
Traction Camp Accelerator Programme Uganda Outreach Workshop
The main purpose of the workshop is to inform on requirements of the program as well as introduce the curriculum of the programme.
Date: 26 October, 4.30pm to 7pm
Location: Hive Colab, 90 Kanjokya Street, Kampala, Central Region
Featured image: afromusing via Flickr (CC 2.0 BY-SA, resized)
