Looking to start 2018 off by getting things rolling? 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
Blockchain: The reality behind the hype
In this informal talk and question and answer session local developer Malcolm MacLeod will attempt to touch on various aspects of blockchain technologies and the cryptocurrencies surrounding them.
The talk will also include some brief demonstrations of the Dutch-based cryptocurrency Gulden of which Malcolm is the lead developer.
Date: 16 January, 7pm to 10pm
Location: Vulcan Labs, AECI Site, Building H2, PaardeVlei, De Beers Avenue, Somerset West
Yoco Meets is an empowerment platform where entrepreneurs participate in a product showcase, entrepreneurship chat, and a networking session. Yoco Meets allow you to share the process of making your own product, the journey of building your business around that product and everything that’s happened in between.
Date: 16 January, 6pm to 8pm
Location: 56 Shortmarket Street, Cape Town
Info Session: Moringa School Courses at MEST Incubator Cape Town
Moringa Prep is a five-week full-time (9am-6pm) introduction to programming course. This course is for beginners to learn the fundamentals of programming or more established developers looking to sharpen their base of front-end skills.
To learn more about Moringa School and find out how to join the next cohort in Cape Town, sign up to attend one of the info sessions which will be taking place every Tuesday and Thursday from 4pm to 6pm until 1 February.
Date: 16 January, 4pm to 6pm
Location: MEST Incubator Cape Town, Woodstock Exchange, 401a Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Rise to the challenge: Emerging Trends 101
Join Adrian Hope Bailie, Lauren Davies, Max Kaizen, Mike Scott and Vuyisa Qabaka for an exciting panel discussion on the Emerging Tech Trends for 2018.
Date: 17 January, 9am to 11am
Location: Rise Cape Town, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange building, Block B, 5th Floor, Cape Town
For those 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: 17 January, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Ghana
Info Session: Moringa School Courses at MEST Accra
Moringa Prep is a five-week full-time (9am-6pm) introduction to programming course. This course is for beginners to learn the fundamentals of programming or more established developers looking to sharpen their base of front-end skills.
To learn more about Moringa School and find out how to join the next cohort in Cape Town, sign up to attend one of the info sessions which will be taking place every Tuesday and Thursday from 4pm to 6pm until 1 February.
Date: 16 January, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Meltwater Entrepreneurial School Of Technology, 20 Aluguntugui Street, Accra, Greater Accra Region
Shedtalk with Regina Honu: Making impact through entrepreneurship
Award winning social entrepreneur Regina Honu will talk about her journey starting Soronko Solutions.
Date: 19 January, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Workshed, Spintex Road, Spintex Road, Accra, Greater Accra Region
Kenya
Design, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) Bootcamp
Foondi Workshops has organised a one-week Design, AI, and IoT Bootcamp in collaboration with IBM IoT Research Lab, Strathmore iLabAfrica and The Mekatilili Program.
The five-day bootcamp will focus on interactive, hands-on workshops, where participants will learn about the principles and use of design thinking, artificial intelligence using the IBM Watson, the Internet of Things (IoT), and business model generation.
Date: 15 to 21 January, 8.30am to 4pm
Location: Strathmore University – iLabAfrica, Ole Sangale Road, Nairobi, Nairobi County
Everything you need to know about cryptocurrency
Join former Yelp, Google and Uber software engineer Evan Klitzke at this workshop on crytptocurrency. Topics to be covered include how blockchains are structured, proof-of-work in Bitcoin, advantages and disadvantages of cryptocurrencies and the evolution of cryptocurrency.
Date: 16 January, 6pm to 7pm
Location: Pinetreee Plaza, Kaburu Drive, 8th Floor, Nairobi County
SureRemit — a platform for global non-cash remittances — is poised to change the global remittance market with blockchain technology. Meet up with the SureRemit team at Metta Nairobi and discuss how the emergence of blockchain is changing businesses across the world as well as how you can participate in the startup’s initial coin offering (ICO).
Date: 17 January, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, 14 Riverside Drive, Belgravia Building 6F, Nairobi, Nairobi County
Blockchain playground for SMEs
This event will explore how blockchain technology can be applied to small and medium-sized businesses.
Date: 17 January, 1pm to 4pm
Location: The Entrepreneurs Hub, Waiyaki Way, Nairobi
Bouncing back from a business failure
Join Optiven Group CEO and founder George Wachiuri share how he survived 15 business failures and moved Optiven from a zero to a billion shilling business.
Date: 17 January, 4pm to 7.30pm
Location: Edulink International College, Ndemi Road, Nairobi
Moringa Tech Talks: Cryptocurrency
Join this Moringa Tech Talk on cryptocurrency. The talk will cover how cryptocurrency works, the tech behind it and the different types of cryptocurrency among other topics.
Date: 18 January, 6.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Moringa School, Ngong Lane Plaza, 1st Floor, Nairobi
Nigeria
MEST Soapbox Sessions: Lessons from starting and growing businesses in Africa
Serial entrepreneur Rich Tanksley will share the lessons he’s learned starting and growing businesses in Africa. Tanksley, who is the vice president of special projects for a Nigerian and American consulting firm NeuBridges, has been in the tech startup space in West Africa for five years and has started, advised or been involved in more than two dozen startups.
Date: 16 January, 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Location: MEST Incubator Lagos, 19b Adeyemi Lawson Road, Ikoyi Lagos, Lagos
Minna Technology Meetup : After coding, what next in Niger State?
Minna Technology Meet up is a forum where tech enthusiasts gather to learn and meet like minds. This event will feature a hackathon that will see the participants using familiar web and mobile tools to build solutions in limited time after presentations from speakers who will speak about earning as an ICT solution developer.
Date: 20 January, 10am to 2pm
Location: Niger State Book And Other Intellectual Resource Development Agency Minna, F-Layout Road, Minna
Startup Grind Nigeria: Surviving the Grind in Abuja
Oh Tailor founder Malissa Onojo and Aiivon innovation hub co-founder will talk about how to start a business and be successful in Abuja.
Date: 20 January, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Aiivon Innovation Hub, 3rd Floor, St James House, 167 Adetokumbo Ademola Crescent, Wuse 2, Abuja
Tunisia
CoThink StartUP challenge is a 48-hour startup creation competition. Think you can develop, present and establish a business plan for your business plan in two days?
Date: 19 January, 10am to 2pm
Location: 111-CoThink, 14 Emir Abdelkader Street, Mutual town, Tunis, Tunis Governorate 1082
Featured image: Daniel X. O’Neil via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 , resized)
