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
How to create financial systems within your company
Join Rise Cape Town for this lunchtime session with Walworth Consulting chief operations manager Simon Fella and Outsourced CFO managing director Louw Barnardt.
The talk will focus on best practices for creating financial systems in your company.
Date: 30 January, 1pm to 3pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange Building, Rise Cape Town, Block B, 5th Floor, Cape Town
Info Session: Moringa School Courses at MEST Incubator Cape Town
Moringa Prep is a five-week full time (it runs from 9am to 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: 30 January, 4pm to 6pm
Location: MEST Incubator Cape Town, Woodstock Exchange, 401a Albert Road, Woodstock, 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: 31 January, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
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: 31 January, 11am to 2pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, Cape Town
SCTalks: Challenges and opportunities for emerging tech startups
This year’s first #SCTech Talk will focus on challenges and opportunities for emerging tech startups. The keynote speaker, MLabs provincial manager Lebo Madise, will share her journey and lessons learned from working with emerging tech entrepreneurs and turning their dreams into business.
Other panelists who will speak at the event include iSpani Group CEO Prince Enoch Nwadeyi, Snake Nation CEO and founder Karl Carter, Loudhailer managing partner Caitlin Nash and business-to-business communications expert Louise Mitchell.
Date: 31 January, 5.30pm to 7.30pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, Cape Town
Blockchain Symposium Cape Town
The event is designed to immerse participants into the dynamic world of blockchain, covering aspects of Bitcoin, Ethereum and cryptocurrency.
Keynote speakers will include, Monica Singer from ConsenSys, Professor G-J van Rooyen from Custos Media, ABSA and Barclays CIO Andrew Baker, James Kilroe from Newton Partners, Niel de la Rouviere and Paul Kohlhaas from uPort.
Date: 1 February, 12pm to 8pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
GetSmarter CEO and co-founder Sam Paddock will hold a discussion into the strategy behind building your company to get the most out of a future exit, what you need to consider and what you must have in place.
Date: 1 February, 1.30pm to 3pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange Building, Rise Cape Town, Block B, 5th Floor, Cape Town
LinkedIn Meet-up: Creating a visual identity that makes you distinguishable
Aspiring Black Leaders and Connect + will be hosting unemployed graduates, university students, aspiring entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs and mentors to share ideas on how individuals can create a distinguished identity both on and off social media.
This meet-up aims to foster the culture of successful entrepreneurs and professionals across all industries. Email connectplus2018@gmail.com for more details.
Date: 3 February, 1pm to 3pm
Location: Rise Cape Town, 66 Albert Road, Woodstock Exchange Building, Rise Cape Town, Block B, 5th Floor, Cape Town
Johannesburg
Startup Grind Johannesburg: Romeo Khumalo (Shark Tank SA investor, media mogul)
Join Romeo Kumalo, CEO and founder of pan-African investment holding and private equity company Washirika Holdings, at the first Johannesburg Startup Grind event of the year.
Khumalo, a former Shark Tank investor, achieved success in the media and broadcasting industry before transitioning into the informations, communications and telecoms sector as CEO of Vodacom and Vodafone International, holding the positions accountable for commercial development and managing the cellular giant’s interest in African markets.
Date: 30 January, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Perch Co-Working Office Space,37 Bath Ave, Rosebank, 2196
Rebasadi x J&B Hive Reflections Sessions — Owethu Makhathini
The series sees Rebasadi partnering up with The J&B Hive for an interview-style series profiling one entrepreneur per event as she shares her journey, challenges and opportunities doing business in South Africa.
Next up on the couch is Owethu Makhathini of Makhathini Media. Makhathini is a social media guru, strategist and trend forecaster in the advertising industry. She will be interviewed by music journalist and radio personality Helen Herimbi.
Date: 1 February, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: 100 Juta Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
The Power of Technology Networking Vent Vol. 2
Want to meet with other business owners and innovators? This Silicon Burg event is the place to be.
Date: 1 February, 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Location: Standard Bank Incubator Rosebank, 5 Cradock Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg
Durban
Startup Grind Durban: Mike Saunders (DigitLab)
Join Mike Saunders, CEO of digital marketing agency DigitLab for this Startup Grind Durban event where he will talk about his entrepreneurial journey.
Date: 31 January, 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: Pavilion Hotel Durban, 15 Old Ford Road (KE Masinga), Durban
Angola
Want to connect with other entrepreneurs and other stakeholders in Luanda’s tech ecosystem? You’ll want to attend this event.
Date: 2 February, 4pm to 8pm
Location:Diamante Azul, Morro Bento, Av. 21 de Janeiro, Morro Bento, Luanda
Kenya
China 101 for Kenyan entrepreneurs
Join Angela Nzioki, a participant of Alibaba’s inaugural two-week eFounders initiative in China, and China Africa Tech Initiative founder Stephany Zoo for this workshop on Chinese business culture and the Chinese tech entrepreneurship landscape among other topics.
Date: 1 February, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, 14 Riverside Drive, Belgravia Building, 6F, Nairobi
Blockchain and cryptocurrency meetup: Distilling digital currencies
This meetup will help you gain a general understanding of bitcoin and digital currencies within a technical, regulatory, legal and monetary context.
Date: 1 February, 5pm to 9pm
Location: The Clarion Hotel, Moi Avenue, Nairobi
Featured image: Tech.Co via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0 , resized)
