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
Making the leap from employee to entrepreneur in Cape Town
Do you want to start your own technology company, but don’t know where to get started? You are not alone. Every day millions of people wake up to regular jobs, but few do something about it.
At this event, you can hear the stories, tips, and best practices of those who left their jobs to pursue their own startup company.
Date: 28 November, 6.30pm to 9.30pm
Location: 25 Wale Street, Cape Town
Rise to the challenge: Cryptocurrency 101
Rise Cape Town will host a panel discussion on cryptocurrency. Feeling ready to rise to the challenge? Rise brings together the world’s best and brightest startups and experts to create the future of financial services.
Date: 28 November, 9am to 11am
Location: Rise Cape Town, Floor 5, 66 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: 29 November, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Startupbootcamp Cape Town Demo Day
Join Startupbootcamp Cape Town as it showcases 10 of the top African startups that are already changing and shaping up the future of the continent.
Date: 30 November, 2pm
Location: Ratanga Junction, Century Boulevard, Cape Town
Rising Tides with Jon Jacobson
The Rising Tides series is a programme of talks from budding and successful entrepreneurs. Join Jon Jacobson an entrepreneur and software engineer with 27 years experience in the tech industry.
Jacobson has founded three companies including customer relationship management data analytics startup Omnisisent.
Date: 30 November, 1pm to 3pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, Floor 5, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Venture Incubation Program (VIP) Winter School Demo Day
MTN Solution Space has spent the last three months building a supportive environment for startups to test and validate new business models.
The Demo event will be an evening of shared learnings, graduation and a roadmap for the future of Venture Lab.
Date: 30 November, 6pm to 9pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, Solution Space, 9 Portswood Road, Cape Town
Johannesburg
Smart City Africa: The challenges of urbanisation
What are the challenges of urbanisation in Africa and how can entrepreneurs with smart technologies help provide pragmatic solutions to these?
Join Tshimologong Precinct head Lesley Donna Williams as she hosts smart tech innovators Francois Coetzee of Connectiot, what3words Geordie Palmer and a panel of experts to discuss smart tech solutions.
Date: 28 November, 4.30pm to 7.30pm
Location: Tshimologong Precinct, 42 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Johannnesburg
Fast Forward Summit Johannesburg 2017
Ready to accelerate your business to the next level? Join Entrepreneur Institute, GeniusU, Entrepreneur Resorts and Beach Clubs founder Roger James Hamilton and other speakers at the Fast Forward Summit.
Date: 2 December to 4 December, 9pm to 6pm
Location: 1Birchwood Hotel, Viewpoint Road Bartlett, Boksburg, Johannesburg
Ghana
Founders Live is an unforgettable happy hour competition sweeping the world where five handpicked founders take the hot seat, with only 99 seconds to pitch their company and describe their value proposition in front of an eager audience.
After the pitches and audience Q&A, the crowd will vote on a winner who will not only receive an award, but recognition from the crowd and also the opportunity to talk more about their product or service
Date: 2 December, 10pm to 2pm
Location: University of Professional Studies Accra, Accra
Kenya
Streamlining healthcare through technological advancement
Kenya’s healthcare industry has suffered a lot of criticism, with most people feeling that there lacks an effective way of service delivery in the health system. Join this event to partake in a discussion on the technological methods to fix existing loophole in the medical field.
Date: 27 November, 6pm to 7.30pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, 14 Riverside Drive, 6F, Belgravia Building, Nairobi
AfricanDrone welcomes you for a drone meet-up in Nairobi. It will be an open forum to discuss the latest happenings in the Kenyan drone environment.
Date: 1 December, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Pinetree Plaza, Kaburu Drive, 8th Floor, Nairobi
Mozambique
The Young Lioness Lean In series is based on a format of presentations and networking during which is highly popular among women entrepreneurs in Africa. Speakers share their own experiences in and around entrepreneurship.
Join Idealize founder Mónica Helena Morela Evaristo, MNJ Events and services founder Maria Natália João and Naducare founder Nadia Machiana at this month’s event.
Date: 28 November, 1.30pm to 4.30pm
Location: Standard Bank Incubator, Sports Street, No. 119, 1st Floor, Maputo
Nigeria
Startup Grind Ibadan Launch Party
Startup Grind, a global network of entrepreneurs and startups, is launching a new chapter in Ibadan. Soho Network founder Segun Fatudimu will share his success story at the event.
Date: 30 November, 4.15pm to 6.30pm
Location: American Corner (Ibadan Zone, Magazine Road), Ibadan
Zimbabwe
The idea train is again in motion and you are invited to come support entrepreneurs refine, redefine and accelerate their ideas to viable businesses.
Date: 30 November, 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Location: Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel, Robert Mugabe Way, Bulawayo
Featured image: Tech.Co via Flickr (CC 2.0 BY-SA 2.0, resized)
