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
Startup Grind Cape Town kicks off the year with Blank Kanvas and Ikapalive founder and managing director Vincent Manzini. He is a recipient of the Raymond Ackerman Academy Best Business Plan Awards and was named as a Glenfiddich Maverick in 2015.
Date: 22 January, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
Join JUMO chief product officer Martin Vogdt as he talks about how the fintech startups approaches product development to create solutions that serve a lot of people with great financial choices.
Date: 22 January, 6.30am to 8.30am
Location: Travelstart, Block B, Longkloof Studios, Darters Road, Gardens, Cape Town
Info Session: Moringa School Courses at MEST Incubator Cape Town
Moringa Prep is a five-week full time (it runs from 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: 23 January, 4pm to 6pm
Location: MEST Incubator Cape Town, Woodstock Exchange, 401a Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Future Females: Visioning and goal setting
How do you set a clear vision of the end state you are trying to achieve before you take action to reach your goals?
To get a better understanding of how to plan and lay down the foundation towards achieving your goals join Jos Dirkx and John Sanei at this event.
Date: 23 January, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
Cape Town Fintech Open Mic Night
Kick off 2018 with a bang with five presentations on topics that include blockchain, funding, fintech app development and ethereum from Kim Louw, Rex Bowden, Warren Roman, Michael Brink, Carl Thomen and Hanief Kader.
Date: 24 January, 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: 5th Floor, Grove Exchange, 9 Grove Avenue, Claremont, 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: 24 January, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Become a globally successful tech entrepreneur
Do you aspire to build your own pan-African tech company? Do you want to learn more about how you can join one of the biggest startup communities on the continent? Join the MEST Africa team as they share their experience working with entrepreneurs from across the continent.
Date: 25 January, 6pm to 7.30pm
Location: MEST Incubator Cape Town, Woodstock Exchange, 401a Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town
Startup Pitch Bootcamp: Learn how to pitch from top entreprenuers
Do you have a strong idea that you feel could be pitched more clearly? Then this bootcamp is for you. In just three hours, this intensive workshop will help you improve your pitching skills and understand the components of a great pitch, providing plenty of practice until you get it right.
Date: 25 January, 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: Savant Office, 2 Francis Street, Zonnebloem, Cape Town
Johannesburg
Fireside chat with Alan Knott-Craig
Join author, entrepreneur and Herotel chairman Alan Knott-Craig for a fireside chat at Startup Grind Pretoria’s first event of the year.
Date: 23 January, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: The Scarf Restaurant, 235 Hilda Street, Hatfield, Pretoria, 0028
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: 23 January, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Yoco Store, Corner 4th Ave and 11th St, Parkhurst, Randburg, 2193, Johannesburg
Product-market fit master class
There’s a way to reach product-market fit without guessing, learn how at this master class.
Date: 25 January
Location: Tshimologong Precinct, 39-47 Juta Street, Johannesburg
Heavy Chef: The future and how to apply it
Heavy Chef hosts serial entrepreneur, best-selling author and global innovation speaker, Craig Wing, and WWC managing director, Mike Perk, to talk about the trends that will shape 2018 and how to apply them.
Date: 25 January, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Open Workspace, 138 West Street, Sandton
Cameroon
Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs. Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, the weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations.
Date: 26 to 28 January, 7.30pm to 8pm
Location: Prepa Vogt, Prepa Vogt Yaoundé,Yaoundé
Ghana
Info Session: Moringa School Courses at MEST Incubator 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 Accra, 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: 23 January, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Meltwater Entrepreneurial School Of Technology,20 Aluguntugui Street, Accra, Greater Accra Region
Ivory Coast
Afterwork Orange Fab and Paris Region companies
Are you running a high-impact startup and intend to expand into European? Paris Région Entreprises and Orange Fab CI want to support you launch in the Paris region.
Join Paris Region Enterpises business development manager Cyril Akpama as he explains how the collaboration between Orange Fab CI and Paris Region Entreprises can help startups launch in Paris.
Date: 25 January, 7pm to 9pm
Location: Orange Fab CI, Abidjan, Abidjan
Morocco
Startup Of The Year Africa 2018
After the success of the first edition of the African Startup Award of the Year 2017, Startup.Info continues its commitment to support African innovation with the second edition of the contest.
Date: 25 January, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Casablanca, Technopark, Boulevard Dammam, Casablanca
Nigeria
Taxation and Governance: Focus on Startups and SMEs
The focus of this event is to provide a platform where revenue Agencies and taxpayers interface on critical issues with a view to agreeing on tenable decisions for effective collection and utilisation of taxes.
Date: 26 January, 9.30am to 12pm
Location: Civic Hive, 2nd Floor, 42 Montgomery Road, Yaba, Lagos
Techpoint Build is a startup clinic which aims at giving struggling entrepreneurs a leverage while running a business in Nigeria. The clinic will be anchored by career professionals, business developers and leading PR agencies among others.
Date: 27 January, 8am to 5pm
Location: Landmark Event Center, Plot 2&3, Water Corporation Road, Victoria Island Annex, Eti-Osa, Oniru, Lagos
Zimbabwe
Want to learn more about the blockchain, the theory behind it? You’ll want to attend this event.
Date: 27 January, 9am to 12pm
Location: TBA
Do you have an innovative concept and are wondering how to get it from being just an idea to a viable and sustainable business? Join this event 48-hour event where ideas will be transformed into businesses. Also attend this event if you want to find out about the 30 Day Business Incubator programme.
Date: 27 to 28 January, 8am to 5pm
Location: Angwa City, 6th Floor, Harare, Zimbabwe
Featured image: Tech.Co via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 , resized)
