Looking to get into the South African startup scene or brush up on some of your skills? Well, you’ve come to the right place.
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
Future Females: Self care and the right balance
Each month Future Females has a theme that underpins all global events and content to train and empower its community.
Join Carol Bouwer and Sandi Dekker as they share their thoughts on this theme, self care and finding the right balance.
Date: 20 February, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, 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.
Unlike other startup meetups, lean (startup) coffee has no set agenda or a line-up of speakers, instead, the talks are centred around what you care about.
Date: 21 February, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Pitch Night: Innovating financial technology
Solution Space Pitch Nights provide a platform for entrepreneurs to practice pitching their startup to local angel investors and hear what other entrepreneurs are working on.
This month’s theme is fintech, innovative startups disrupting the financial services industry are invited to come pitch their business in front of industry experts.
Date: 21 February, 6pm to 7.30pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, Solution Space, 9 Portswood Road, Cape Town
#TechTalkCPT: Invent your future series – energy
#InventYourFuture is the theme of the #TechTalkCPT talks this year and a series of events will cover some of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals including water, food security, future cities, and more.
This month, the focus is on energy, particularly affordable clean energy.
Date: 21 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: 22Seven, 60 Hout Street, Zonnebloem, Cape Town
Southern African Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (SAVCA)
SAVCA’s annual private equity industry conference is a high-level networking and information sharing event.
The conference setting is collegial, informative and inclusive, with delegate passes limited strictly to 400 so attendees.
Date: 21 to 22 February
Location: Spier Wine Farm, Stellenbosch
The anatomy of an ICO: Insights from two South African initial coin offerings (ICOs)
Ever wondered what an ICO is, how it is done and what has to be done off the back of one?
Join this talk by the representatives of two South African companies who have recently carried out or are about to launch their ICOs, Wala CTO Ross McEwan and Wealth Migrate CEO Scott Picken.
Date: 22 February, 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: 5th floor, Grove Exchange, 9 Grove Avenue, Claremont, Cape Town
Startup Grind Cape Town: Let’s talk cloud services with Naama Yanko (Google Cloud)
This week Startup Grind Cape Town hosts Naama Yanko from Google Cloud Tel Aviv, Israel. Yanko has vast knowledge about what makes startups succeed both from working with startups and as an investor.
She will also share the various free tools and capabilities that businesses in Africa can use to gain advantage in the tech space. Also in attendance will be Google Cloud Africa head Shai Morgan.
Date: 22 February, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
LaunchLab Talk: From spinout to scale-up – Frederick Lutz (Custos Media Technologies)
The first Launchlab Talk for this year will feature Custos Media Technologies COO Frederick Lutz.
Join Lutz as he talks about the start of the spin-out venture, their entrepreneurial journey, challenges, opportunities and valuable connections in the startup ecosystem.
Date: 22 February, 4.30pm to 5.30pm
Location: Nedbank Stellenbosch University LaunchLab
Johannesburg
Path to scale: A masterclass to 10x your business
Scaling a business for the first time is a herculean leadership challenge. But there is a science to scaling up. Come learn the specific tools and disciplines that help scale up leaders manage the challenging path to scale.
This three-day path to scale bootcamp will empower entrepreneurial executives with an understanding of the little-known science of scaling up.
Date: 19 February, 10am to 6pm
Location: The Core, 1st Floor South, Cnr Kikuyu and Leeuwkop Streets Sunninghill, Sandton
This forum will feature a varied and interactive programme of panels, workshops and social activities that will explore philanthropy, impact investing and social entrepreneurship as well as the challenges of wealth stewardship, family dynamics, strategies for investing and attracting investment, and more.
Date: 20 to 21 February, 9am to 9.30pm
Location: African Leadership Academy, Johannesburg
The Africa Energy Indaba Conference will discuss, debate and seek solutions to enable adequate energy generation across the continent.
Delegates, drawn from all continents, represent a combination of industry experts, project developers, financiers, energy users, government officials and manufacturers.
Date: 20 to 21 February
Location: Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
My Business Expo South Africa 2018
With more than 25 000 delegates, 250 exhibitors, 100 top of the line seminars and sessions, this is one of the biggest events for anyone serious about starting or growing a business.
Date: 21 to 22 February
Location: Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg
Fuckup Night Joburg: February edition, Money matters
This month, Impact Hub Johannesburg will focus on financial wellness and savviness.
Date: 22 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Impact Hub Joburg, 4th Floor, East Wing, 9 Walters Street, 158 Jan Smuts building, Rosebank, Johhanesburg
The potential impact of bioeconomy on Gauteng’s economic landscape is an essential subject of discussion when modeling the province as South Africa’s first knowledge-based economy.
This Innov8 session will be hosted by the BioPark@Gauteng Business Incubator, where a panel of specialists will discuss the local supply and demand for raw materials in the food, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics sectors.
Date: 22 February
Location: TBA
For the first time ever, the Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) is bringing the Global Legal Hackathon to South Africa.
The event will see local innovators compete for a place at a New York showcase of the best lawtech innovations in the world.
Date: 23 to 25 February, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Tshimologong Precinct, 39-47 Juta Street, Johannesburg
Ghana
The February Accra Tech Salon will focus on how fintech can deliver on the financial inclusion project launched by the Ghanaian government and its partners.
Date: 20 February, 9am to 11apm
Location: Pen New Media Hub, No.1, Otswe Close Osu Ako Adjei Park, Accra
Join this forum on blockchain and its impact. Learn about cryptocurrencies and how you could earn between 50% and 200% from trading them.
Date: 24 February, 10am to 1.30pm
Location: UPSA Hostel, Accra, greater Accra Region
The Business Startup Clinic (TBSUC) (Ghana Chapter)
TBSUC aims to connect entrepreneurs to viable business strategies, practical tips, and an opportunity to network with other entrepreneurs in lieu of fostering business partnerships and alliances.
This edition will tackle strategies on building, managing and growing your clientele in business, operating high standards in business as well as best health practices for entrepreneurs.
Date: 24 February, 9am to 11am
Location: Impact Hub Accra, Otswe Street, F 3934, Accra
Kenya
The importance of digital training for entrepreneurs
Learn how to fine tune your digital marketing orientation, search engine optimisation and social media marketing at this free training programme.
Date: 19 February, 9am to 4pm
Location: TBA
Nest in collaboration with the Omidyar Network are hosting this #WhatsNext Media panel discussion.
The event will provide a platform to discuss the current state of the Kenyan media ecosystem, explore the main constituents that affect the media’s public interest work and identify opportunities to support independent media.
Date: 20 February, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, 14 Riverside Drive, 6F, Belgravia Building, Nairobi
The Workshop: Digital identity models for a blockchain powered web
How do we design a workable identity model for a blockchain powered world wide web?Join Ian Grigg as he explores and discusses identity on the blockchain and identity as an edge protocol.
Grigg believes that savings groups communities in Africa and Latin America hold the key to designing identity systems for a blockchain powered internet economy.
Date: 21 February, 6pm to 7pm
Location: Pinetree Plaza, Kaburu Drive, 8th Floor, Nairobi
#NextGenTech: Machine learning and data science
This workshop on machine learning and data science will include an introduction to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.
Attendees will get a look into real world examples of AI and machine learning as well as learn approaches and workflows when solving problems in this field.
Date: 22 February, 6.30pm to 8pm
Location: Cellulant Kenya, 14 Riverside Drive, Nairobi City, Nairobi County
How can the chamas (savings groups) of Kenya and East Africa leverage blockchain technology to enhance their bookkeeping systems, governance and transparency?
Join the ChamaPesa team of Ian Grigg, Eva Stoewe and Michael Kimani for an evening of discussion, networking, mixing and mingling.
Date: 22 February, 5pm to 7.30pm
Location: Metta Nairobi, 14 Riverside Drive, 6F, Belgravia Building, Nairobi
Startup Mentoring 17/18 programme finale startup fair
Enpact’s Startup Mentoring is celebrating the end of its 2017 and 2018 East Africa & Europe international mentoring programme by showcasing the 27 participating startups
You will have the chance to meet and interact with entrepreneurs and mentors, gain insights and inspiration on the best ways to build businesses in East Africa and beyond.
Date: 23 February, 2pm to 4pm
Location: Nairobi Garage, Pinetree Plaza, Kaburu Drive /Ngong Road, Nairobi
Artificial intelligence and cryptocurrencies are the current tidal waves that every tech-savvy individual needs to shred. Take this opportunity to be part of an impacting session that will equip you with hands-on skills covering natural language processing techniques.
There will be use of real-life examples and demos in text summarisation, topic modelling, sentiment analysis and deep learning.
Date: 24 February, 9am to 5pm
Location: Korea Lab, Multimedia University of Kenya
Nigeria
Discover how to raise business capital such from angel investors, equity investors, and crowd funding sources from over 50 organisations within Nigeria, USA, UK and Europe.
Date: 23 February, 1pm to 4pm
Location: 26 Obanikoro Street, off Ikorodu Road, Lagos, LA
Startup Grind Port Harcourt hosts Emeka Nobis (Author and thought leader)
Emeka Nobis helps individuals who have a message to share with humanity — but are scared, doubtful and confused — to become exceptional by clarifying their messages, build a platform for the communication of their ideologies and to earn by establishing profitable business systems.
Nobis does this primarily through writing, consulting, coaching and training interventions. Join this fireseide chat as he shares his story.
Date: 24 February, 11am to 2pm
Location: Strategic Hub, Fonte House (behind MRS filling station), First Artillery Junction, Aba Road, Port Harcourt
SmartBusinessWoman meetups are geared towards developing strong business friendships and promoting business growth among women looking to start or already running their own enterprises.
Date: 24 February, 11am to 2pm
Location: TBA
Zambia
Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme 2018 application outreach
Do you want an opportunity to access funding for your innovation or business? Do you need guidance on the application process?
Register for a session organised by United Bank for Africa Zambia in collaboration with BongoHive to inform you about the programme and guide you through the application process.
Date: 22 February, 6pm to 8pm
Location: BongoHive, Thabo Mbeki Road, Lusaka
Featured image: Adria Richards via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
