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
WomenHack is a community that assists women in tech through events, jobs, and reviews and aims at creating a more inclusive and diverse workplace for all. Event nights kick off with talks on diversity, followed by five-minute rapid interviews to keep things engaging and fun.
Date: 22 May, 7pm to 9.30pm
Location: 1 Silo Square, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
Solution Space Pitch Nights provide a platform for entrepreneurs to practice pitching their startups to local angel investors and hear what other entrepreneurs are working on. After three pitches, Q&A’s and feedback from a panel, entrepreneurs network and connect with each other over drinks and snacks.
This month’s theme is insurtech. Startups disrupting the insurance industry with innovative technology are invited to come pitch their business solutions to a panel of industry experts.
Date: 22 May, 6pm to 7.30pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, Solution Space, 9 Portswood Road, Cape Town
Future Females: Mastering a money mindset
Future Females is focusing on money this month, both from a business and personal standpoint. Join Zoona chief marketing officer Lelemba Phiri, and Coco Creative founder Jemima-Faye Goodall as they share tips.
Date: 23 May, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Workshop 17 , 17 Dock Road, V & A Waterfront, Cape Town
MEST Africa Master class: Leadership with Bridget Knight
MEST Africa’s next master class will feature master franchisee and leadership consultant Bridget Knight. Join her as she shares key insights on leadership.
Date: 24 May, 4.30pm to 6pm
Location: MEST Incubator Cape Town, Woodstock Exchange, Albert Road, Cape Town
For those working in startups, Lean (startup) coffee is a weekly one hour coffee meetup that runs a mashup of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com.
Date: 23 May, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Johannesburg
CapaCiTi Information Session: #yourdigitalfuture
Curious about the CapaCiTi Tech Skills and Job-Readiness programme? Why not attend this information session to learn more? Interested? Submit your documentation here: recruitment@capaciti.org.za
Date: 22 May, 10am to 12pm
Location:
Startup Grind Female Leader’s month: Jackie Phamotse
This week as part of its Female Leader’s month, Startup Grind hosts Jackie Phamotse — an entrepreneur, brand strategist and author. She will share her journey and unpack the stories behind her latest book Bare.
Date: 22 May, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Impello Incubation Hub, 139 Greenway Avenue, Greenside, Randburg
Join blockchain experts from Nedbank, Liquid Crypto-Money, SAP Africa and Altcoin Trader at this summit.
Topics to be discussed at the summit range from blockchain’s impact on finance, the Internet of Things and blockchain, and the current and future impact of cryptocurrency on society.
Date: 24 May, 9am to 5pm
Location: DaVinci Hotel and Suites on Nelson Mandela Square, 5th Street, Maude St, Sandton
This 24 hour pop-up event forms part of a series of hackathons leading up to the final Rehive Fintech Challenge. Throughout the series sponsors will give away over $100 000 in prizes for the best projects in fintech.
Date: 26 to 27 May, 10am to 1pm
Location: Alphacode, 1 Fredman Dr,Sandown, Sandton, Johannesburg
SiMODiSA’s Kasi Go Digital series will provide a platform for local businesses to advance by utilising technology.
The series aims to equip South African entrepreneurs in the township with digital skills through day workshops where speakers will unpack the digital economy and share insights with entrepreneurs, while also equipping them with skills and knowledge of how they can use technology to grow their small businesses.
Date: 24 May, 9am to 3pm
Location: Rabasotho Hall, Thembisa
Ghana
MEST Community Conversation: Celebrating cultural diversity
Join Eyram Tawia, the co-founder of one of Africa’s first gaming companies, Leti Arts as he chats about his entrepreneurial journey and why he believes preserving cultural diversity through gaming and entertainment is so important.
Date: 21 May, 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Location: Meltwater Incubator, 19 Banana Street, East-Legon, Accra
Startup Legal 101: Advice from top startup lawyers
What is the most appropriate type of company to start? How do you deal with co-founders, initial team members and employees? What agreements should you have in place when you start, and what pitfalls should you avoid?
If you are interested in understanding how to set-up a company the right way, you’ll want to attend this event. Learn from top local attorneys the key things that you need to know to start your company.
Date: 22 May, 6.30pm to 9.30pm
Location: KPMG Headquarters, 13 Yiyiwa Drive Off The Olusegun Obasanjo Way (formerly Achimota Road), Abelenkpe, Accra
Kenya
#WhatsNext?: Internet of Things (IoT)
The #WhatsNext IoT panel discussion will provide a platform through which participants can explore ways of opening the market to incorporate IoT technology and discuss the potential impact of IoT across multiple social impact sectors in Africa.
Panelists set to attend the event include Aeris VP social impact Harry Plant, Hello tractor CEO Jehiel Oliver, Flare by Capsule founder Caitlin Dolkhart, Azuri Technologies East Africa GM Snehar Shah, Intel Corporation software engineer Roy Allela, and IBM Research Africa chief scientist Jon Lenchener.
Date: 22 May, 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, 14 Riverside, Belgravia Building, 6th Floor, Wing A, Nairobi
Machine learning and artificial intelligence: Revolutionising product and service delivery
Are you a data science enthusiast? Does machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) pique your interest? Then you’ll definitely want to attend this event.
Topics to be discussed include application of ML and AI in products and service delivery, user experience design for ML and AI products, and the efficiency, and accuracy of AI.
Date: 24 May, 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: Moringa School, Ngong Lane, Nairobi
Techstars Startup Weekend Women’s Edition Nairobi
Techstars Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.
Beginning with Friday night pitches and continuing through brainstorming, business plan development, and basic prototype creation, Techstars Startup Weekends culminate in Sunday night demos and presentations.
Date: 25 May to 27 May, 5.30pm to 8pm
Location: iHub, Senteu Plaza, Junction of Galana and Lenana Rd, Nairobi
Nigeria
FarmHack 2018 brings together hackers from all walks of life to solve agricultural issues in logistics, mechanisation, data analysis, and marketing among other things.
Date: 25 to 26 May, 9am to 5pm
Location: Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Lautech, Ogbomoso, YO, Nigeria
Transition Enteprise Hub (TEH) 2018
TEH May 2018 is set to be a convergence of dynamic network of young entrepreneurs, business people and budding entrepreneurs, for the purpose of inspiring, educating, and equipping all concerned with resource and connections that will kickstart the Nigerian and global economy at large.
Date: 26 May, 4pm to 7pm
Location: The Transition Centre, Unique World Garden, Accra Street, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja
Startup Grind Lagos: Celebrating female leaders with Stephanie Obi and Saudat Salami
Stephanie Obi, who helps women entrepreneurs create, launch, and sell online courses, will be joined by EasyShop Easy Cook founder Saudat Salami at this week’s Startup Grind event.
The event will feature a discussion on “turning knowledge into gold”.
Date: 26 May, 3pm to 5pm
Location: MEST Incubator, 19B Adeyemi Lawson Street , Ikoyi, Lagos
Startup Grind Jos hosts Oniovo Dat (CEO Corporate Wash)
Join Oniove Dat will talk about her entrepreneurial journey, particularly about how she founded Corporate Data Wash 25 years ago.
Date: 26 May, 12pm to 3pm
Location: nHub, 3rd Floor, TAEN Business Complex, Opposite former NITEL Office, Yakubu Gowon Way, Jos
Startup Grind fireside chat with June Gachui
June Gachui is a principal consultant at JGIP, a lawyer, singer and an actress. Join her at this fireside chat as she shares how she achieved her accomplishments.
Date: 31 May, 6pm to 9pm
Location: IHub, Senteu Plaza, Nairobi
Tanzania
Unreasonable Info session Arusha
Join this event to get insights on fundraising and the social enterprise space in Arusha.
Date: 21 May, 3pm to 6pm
Location: Anza/Kili Hub Office, Floor 7, NSSF Mafao House, Old Moshi Road, Arusha
Innovation and the role of the public and private sector in providing inclusive solutions
This event is an opportunity for innovators, private sector players, donors, academia and government to come together to hear about innovative projects being implemented in the water and sanitation space.
The discussion will centre on the gaps in service provision, current government initiatives, innovative solutions, and the roles and incentives for private sector participation in the sector.
Date: 24 May, 9am to 1pm
Location: COSTECH, Main Hall, Dar es Salaam
Rwanda
Startup Grind Kigali Female Leader’s Month: Janet Nkubana on the self as a source of strength
As part of its Female Leader’s Month, this May Startup Grind’s will host over 150 women on stages around the world. For its second Startup Grind’s women’s event, Startup Grind Kigali will host Gahaya Links co-founder Janet Nkubana.
Date: 24 May, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: TBA, Kigali
Uganda
Join Bit2big CEO Michael Kiberu Nagenda as he tackles questions on entrepreneurship, skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, mistakes to avoid, possible causes of failure, and common challenges, and how to solve them.
Date: 25 May, 5pm to 8pm
Location: International University Of East Africa, Ggaba Road, Kampala
Zimbabwe
Road to Silicon Valley Bulawayo
Road to Silicon Valley is a series of talks that will be held monthly as a lead up to the global competition where a team from a Zimbabwean university will be selected to represent the country at the Enactus World Cup.
This week’s speaker’s include MOB Capital’s Morris Mpala, Inspired Women representative Nokuthaba Moyo, and Wendy Ncube of Women in Technology.
Date: 24 May, 5pm to 7pm
Location: Tech Village, 2nd Floor Bambani Centre (Old Kingdom Bank), Corner Jason Moyo and 9th Avenue, Bulawayo
