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Top startup events in South Africa, Africa you should know about this week [16/07/2018]
If you’re thinking of expanding your startup outside of South Africa, you’ll want to attend the Going Global workshop in Cape Town on Thursday (19 July) where representatives of startups that have taken that route will share their experiences with you.
For those in Johannesburg, Heavy Chef is hosting serial entrepreneur Nic Haralambous on the same day (19 July) as he talks about failure.
The Ghana Tech Summit which takes place between Wednesday and Friday (18 and 20 July) is one of West Africa’s largest tech gathering with over 100 global speakers including representatives from Facebook, Uber, Airbnb, IBM, Microsoft and more.
If you’re in North Africa and want to pitch at TechCrunch Battlefield MENA, you’ll want to attend one of two info sessions on how to apply to the startup competition taking place in Egypt this week.
This article is part of a weekly series that highlights all the top startup events, competitions, networking sessions, workshops and conferences in Africa.
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.
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
Failure with Nic Haralambous and Bruce Whitfield
In an exclusive Cape Town lunchtime event Heavy Chef, Yoco and Xero present a conversation on one of the most taboo topics in South Africa. Two of SA’s most iconic business personalities will take the stage to lift the lid on ‘Failure’. The talk coincides with the launch of the first book written by serial entrepreneur Nic Haralambous, founder of style brand Nic Harry.
Date: 16 July, 12pm to 1.30pm
Location: Inner City Ideas Cartell, 71 Waterkant Street, Cape Town City Centre, Cape Town
MEST Africa Community Conversations with Antoinette Prophy
Join 88 Business Collective founder Antoinette Prophy as she talks funding. Prophy will cover the importance of understanding your personal relationships with money before funding your business.
Date: 17 July, 1pm to 2pm
Location: MEST Incubator Cape Town, 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: 18 July, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Join leaders from some of the fastest-growing technology companies today as they share their first-hand experience with scaling internationally. They will share their learnings and also talk about: timing, tips on deciding which regions to prioritise, how to think about localisation, as well as what this means for your product and marketing team.
Date: 19 July, 6pm to 8pm
Location: East City Studio, 62 Roeland Street, Cape Town
Disruptive digitalisation, transformative change and inclusion
When it comes to disruptive digitalisation, transformative change and inclusion in South Africa, how do we design a responsive measurement agenda? Join this event organised by the Human Sciences Research Council and the Department of Science and Technology’s National Advisory Council on Innovation where experts will reflect on their innovation experience and challenges to highlight critical issues for measurement going forward.
Date: 20 July, 9am to 2pm
Location: DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Cape Town, Upper East Side, 16 Pickwick Road, Cape Town
This hackathon 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.
Are you a passionate developer, entrepreneur or designer? Team up with other like minded individuals at this event and build your ideas in 24 hours.
Date: 21 to 22 July, 10am to 2pm
Location: Terrace Building, South Park, Black River Park, 2 Fir St, Observatory, Cape Town
Johannesburg
Velobiotics and CSIR Probiotics Technology Innovation Symposium
Join the scientists, engineers and entrepreneur behind one of the most innovative technologies in the probiotics industry as they discuss the development of the technology, process of commercialisation, and challenges of market penetration.
Date: 17 July, 11am to 1pm
Location: CSIR – Knowledge Commons, Meiring Naude Road, Lynwood, Pretoria
Defining and then hitting your market’s MVV (Minimum Viable Value), in other words their sweet spot, is more important than your MVP (Minimum Viable Product), if you seek to become a must have in the market. Join this knowledge-sharing session to learn how to spec your own MVV to become a market must have.
Date: 18 July, 1.45pm to 3pm
Location: CSIR – Knowledge Commons, Meiring Naude Road, Lynwood, Pretoria
Heavy Chef: Failure with Nic Haralambous
Serial entrepreneur Nic Haralambous talks to Maps Maponyane about what it means to fail in business. The talk coincides with the launch of the first book written by Haralambous who is the founder of style brand Nic Harry.
Date: 19 July, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: OPEN Workspace, 138 West Street, Sandton
Polokwane
Code Jika, a coding ecosystem for African schools, is launching its Limpopo chapter this week.
Date: 20 July, 9am to 11.30am
Location: Protea Hotel by Marriott Polokwane Landmark, N1 Northbound, Polokwane
Benin
Join the who’s who of the digital finance sector in Benin at this forum which will feature discussion panels on fintech, insurtech, regtech, big data, blockchain and cryptocurrency.
Date: 19 July, 8.30am to 5pm
Location: Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Benin, Cotonou, Littoral
Cameroon
Techstars Startup Weekend Buea
Techstars Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.
Date: 20 to 22 July, 8am to 10.30am
Location: Catholic University Institute of Buea, Check Point, Buea, Southwest, Cameroon
Egypt
StartEgypt Female Founders workshop
This workshop is designed to help female founders take their first steps towards actualising their business idea or startup.
Date: 17 July, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: KMT house, Maadi as Sarayat Al Gharbeyah, Cairo Governorate 11728
Meet TechCrunch learn about Startup Battlefield
TechCrunch just announced our first ever Startup Battlefield MENA taking place in Beirut, Lebanon in October. Join this event to learn how to apply for Startup Battlefield with a solid application.
Date: 17 July, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: Falak Startups, 28 Falaki Street, Greek Campus, Downtown, Cairo
TechCrunch Startup Battlefield MENA Pitch-a-thon
Meet the TechCrunch team and learn about Startup Battlefield –TechCrunch’s renowned startup launch competition — as well as about how you can get to pitch to Samantha Stein.
Date: 18 July, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Flat6Labs, Street 2, Oula, Giza Governorate
Ghana
MEST Community Conversation: Doing business in South Africa with Qisimah CEO Sakhile Xulu
Join MEST graduate and Qisimah CEO Sakhile Xulu as he talks about emerging trends for entrepreneurship in South Africa and how startups looking to enter the South African market can best prepare themselves.
Date: 18 July, 4pm to 5pm
Location: MEST Incubator, East-Legon, Accra, 19 Banana Street, Ayawaso, Greater Accra
This three-day international summit will feature 100 global speakers and over 1000 attendees. The central theme of the conference is how to catalyse entrepreneurial and business ecosystems in emerging markets.
Date: 18 to 20 July
Location: Accra International Conference Centre, Castle Rd, Accra
Kenya
Learn about the applications of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) beyond the gaming scene.
Date: 19 July, 7pm to 10pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, Nairobi, Nairobi County
IoT in problem solving for Africa’s future
There are a lot of discussions on the Internet of Things (IoT) and its contribution to solving the problems of our world. But are IoT technologies sufficient to address the grand challenges Africa faces? Join this event to find out.
Date: 20 July, 6.30pm to 9pm
Location: Moringa School, Ngong Lane, Nairobi, Nairobi County
Nigeria
WennoChat July Lagos : Big data, big impact
WennoChatis a monthly ecosystem engagement platform that brings together entrepreneurs, developers and other key ecosystem stakeholders to learn, network, share knowledge and experience around key issues affecting the Business and Technology Innovation Ecosystem in Nigeria. This month’s topic is big data and its impact on the agriculture and health sectors.
Date: 20 July, 3pm to 5pm
Location: Wennovation Hub, Lagos, 11 Rev Ogunbiyi Street GRA, Ikeja, Lagos
Techstars Startup Weekend Benin-City
Techstars Startup Weekends are 54-hour events designed to provide superior experiential education for technical and non-technical entrepreneurs.
Date: 20 to 22 July, 8am to 10.30am
Location: Benin City, Benin City
Tunisia
Getting started in entrepreneurship
If you want to start your own starup then you’ll want to attend this event. This workshop will cover financing mechanisms, tax and legals aspects of a company, the new Startup Act, and business creation.
Date: 18 July,2pm to 6.30pm
Location: 111-CoThink, 14 Rue Emir Abdelkader, Mutual City, Tunis, Tunis 1082
Drop Fear: Meet-up with Jazem Halioui, CEO of WebRadar
Webradar Tunisia CEO Jazem Halioui will chat about his entrepreneurial experience at Webradar, as well as how his professional and life experience has taught him to drop fear.
Date: 19 July, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Cogite Coworking Space, Tunis
Zimbabwe
Nicoz Diamond Think Tank Innovators competition
The Boost Fellowship in partnership with Nicoz Diamond Insurance are holding the Nicoz Diamond Think Tank Competition. Join this information session to find out how you can enter.
Date: 18 July, 1pm to 3.30pm
Location: Nicoz Diamond, Insurance Centre, 30 Samora Machel Avenue, Harare
