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
DHL Ecommerce Money Africa Confex 2018
If you want to keep up to date with the latest trends in the ecommerce and fintech sphere, you’ll want to attend DHL Ecommerce MoneyAfrica 2018.
The conference covers the needs of the digital commerce industry as a whole, exploring themes and topics most relevant to the sector. Obtain key insights and strategic takeaways from thought leaders who are driving innovation through disruptive content focused on technology.
Date: 14 to 15 March
Location: Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), East Wing, 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: 14 March, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Startup Grind: Crowdfunding in SA with Patrick Schofield (Thundafund, BackaBuddy, Uprise.Africa)
Join Uprise.Africa CEO and founder Patrick Schofield as he shares his knowledge and experience on how you can take advantage of technology to raise money and to invest.
Date: 14 March, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
French Tech: Meet the Entrepreneur – i-Pay CEO Thomas Pays
Serial entrepreneur Thomas Pays has a track record of founding successful startups, including i-Pay, Just Perfect Digital, and Smokoo.
Join him at this event to find out everything you need to know about how to run a business in South Africa, how to grow it, and how to make it successful.
Date: 13 March, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
Heavy Chef: The power of online influence
Join digital analyst Arthur Goldstuck, Dave Duarte and social media marketer Heleen Mills as they discuss online influence, the impact of data and machine learning on influencer marketing and social media influencer campaigns.
Date: 15 March, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Workshop 17, 17 Dock Road, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
Fuckup Nights is a global movement born in Mexico in 2012 to share business failure stories. Join Knife Capital founding partner Keet van Zyl, Yoco CEO Katlego Maphai and Evolve Integrated Marketing founder Taryn Springhall as they share their failures.
After each speaker, there’s a question and answer session, as well as time for networking.
Date: 20 March, 6pm to 9pm
Location: 46A Canterbury Street, Zonnebloem, Cape Town
Johannesburg
HiiL Innovating Justice Challenge 2018 South African launch
If you have an innovation, a startup, a non-profit organisation or just an idea that will help improve access to justice for people around the world, The Hague Institute for Innovation of Law (HiiL) want to hear from you.
And to support it, HiiL is hosting a special event for Joburg-based innovators to come and find out more. At this event, you’ll be able to ask questions of the local and international HiiL team as well as innovators from previous challenges who will be present.
Date: 13 March, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Tshimologong Precinct, 47 Juta Street Johannesburg
10X Strategy:Being a magnet for sales, at scale
This one-day bootcamp will give you the winning growth strategies designed specifically for early-stage, fast growing companies. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn from experienced strategists who focus on early-stage scale ups.
Date: 15 March, 10am to 6pm
Location: The Core, 1st Floor South, Cnr Kikuyu and Leeuwkop Streets, Sunninghill, Sandton
10X-ecution: Transform chaos into systematically achieving business goals, at scale
Join entrepreneur, scale up strategist and Scale Up CEO Partner Jason Goldberg on this one-day bootcamp on execution where he will share a proven system to manage the business at scale.
Date: 16 March, 10am to 6pm
Location: The Core, 1st Floor South, Cnr Kikuyu and Leeuwkop Streets, Sunnighill, Sandton
Ghana
Injini, Africa’s first edtech dedicated incubator, will be in Accra to meet with edtech innovators and to promote applications for its second cohort.
Date: 13 March, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Meltwater Entrepreneurial School Of Technology, 20 Aluguntugui Street, Accra
Join five founders as they 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 question and answer, 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: 17 March, 9.30am to 12.30pm
Location: University of Professional Studies Accra, Graduate School – Room 9, Accra
Kenya
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: 12 March, 2pm to 3.30pm
Location: iHub, 6th Floor, Senteu Plaza, Nairobi
Date: 12 March, 5.30pm to 7pm
Location: iBizAfrica, 5th Floor, Strathmore University Student Centre, Keri Road, Nairobi
Injini, Africa’s first edtech dedicated incubator, will be in Nairobi to meet with edtech innovators and to promote applications for its second cohort.
Date: 14 March, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Spire Offices, 2nd Floor Dayiko Plaza, Ngong Road, Nairobi
Peter Nduati, the Founder and CEO of Resolution Group, will be speaking at this week’s event. His company runs Resolution Insurance Kenya and Tanzania, IAA Resolution Uganda and Speed Resolution in South Sudan. He founded the Group initially as Resolution Health East Africa in 2002.
Date: 14 March, 6pm
Location: Metta Nairobi, 14 Riverside Nairobi, Nairobi,
StartingUp Now: 24 Steps to launch and grow your business
The seven-week long StartingUp Now course provides solution-based tools and services that aim to help entrepreneurs attain their goals and successfully build their businesses.
Date: 16 March to 4 May, 1pm to 4pm
Location: iHub, Galana Road, Nairobi
Transformational Business Network (TBN) Impact Investment Summit
TBN will be holding the second East African Impact Investment Summit this week, where over 200 entrepreneurs, investors and thought leaders will gather to collaborate on scaling businesses to create jobs, transform communities and impact lives across Africa.
Date: 15 to 16 March, 7.30am to 10pm
Location: Villa Rosa Kempinski Nairobi, Chiromo Road, Nairobi
Featured image: Tech.Co via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
