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Top startup events in South Africa, Africa you should know about this week [12/11/2018]
This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week. Throughout the week The Global Entrepreneurship Network (GEN) will host a series of events at its Johannesburg campus 22 On Sloane. Register for the events here.
If you can’t make that then you’ll definitely want to attend the fourth annual Township Business Innovation Summit which takes place in Tembisa on Friday and Saturday (16 and 17 November).
AfricArena 2018 takes place on Thursday and Friday (15 and 16 November) at Century City. The conference will feature keynote speeches and panel discussions with top speakers from Europe and Africa, as well as pitches in which startups will battle it out to win investment.
Also in Cape Town this week is AfricaCom, the largest technology expo in Africa, which takes place at the Cape Town International Conference Centre between Tuesday and Thursday (13 and 15 November).
MEST will present Ghana’s first innovation market on Saturday (17 November) in Accra. This is a chance for those who want to explore local solutions in the fashion, finance, entertainment and other sectors.
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
Attend this Simodisa digital skills workshop for entrepreneurs where speakers will unpack the digital economy and share insights on how they are using technology to grow their businesses.
Date: 13 November, 9am to 3pm
Location: The Lookout Hill Tourism Centre, Corner of Spine Road and Mew, Road, Khayelitsha
Africom is the place to meet everybody who’s anybody in African telecoms and technology. AfricaCom brings together 14 000 attendees, 450 speakers and 400 exhibitors.
Date: 13 to 15 November, 9am to 3pm
Location: Cape Town International Conference Centre
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: 14 November, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
AfricArena Learning Expedition
This learning expedition will take you to some of the most important innovation spaces that are playing a key role in helping turn ideas into scaling businesses. Those from some of most promising ventures will discuss opportunities and challenges faced by tech entrepreneurs in SA.
Date: 14 November, 9am to 7pm
Location: Workshop17 Watershed, 17 Dock Road, Cape Town
Build your first AI model powered by Intel and Aerobotix
Intel, Google DSC, UCT Dev Soc, Zaio and Facebook Dev Circles CPT in collaboration with startup Aerobotics will host an interactive artificial intelligence (AI) workshop where you can build an AI Image Classification Model.
Date: 14 November, 9am to 7pm
Location: University of Cape Town, Computer Science Building. CS2A, Cape Town
Startup Grind Cape Town hosts Portia Masimuka (Karisani IT Solutions)
Startup Grind Cape Town is proud to host Portia Masimula, CEO and co-founder of software development house Karisani IT Solutions. Cape Town based Karisani IT has developed many systems and apps for global companies including ESPN.
Date: 14 November, 5.30pm to 8.30pm
Location: AWS Gardens, Wembley Square 2, 134 Solan Rd, Gardens, Cape Town
This year, the Seedstars South Africa Finals is takes place in Cape Town. The winners of the satellite events in Cape Town and Johannesburg will pitch at this event.
Date: 14 November, 4pm to 8pm
Location: Seedspace Cape Town, 8 Spin Street, Cape Town
VivaTech Tour in Cape Town: How to be a badass entrepreneur like Elon Musk?
Join this VivaTech meet-up and panel discussion held in partnership with AfricArena.
Date: 14 November, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Workshop17 Watershed, 17 Dock Road, Cape Town
AfricArena will feature keynote speeches and panel discussions with top speakers from Europe and Africa, as well as pitches in which startups will battle it out to win investment.
Date: 15 to 16 November, 9am to 6pm
Location: Century City Conference Centre, Cape Town
Intellectual Property 101: To patent or Not to patent
Join Teberer Attorneys principal Roy Taberer as he shares his insights on intellectual property law which includes patents, trademarks, designs and copyright.
Date: 15 November, 9am to 6pm
Location: UCT Graduate School of Business, Solution Space, 9 Portswood Road, Cape Town
MEST Africa Information Session
Join the MEST Africa team at the MEST Incubator Cape Town, as they share their experience working with entrepreneurs from across the continent.
Date: 15 November, 5.30pm to 6.30pm
Location: MEST Incubator Cape Town, Albert Road, Cape Town
Global EdTech Startup Awards (GESA) semi-finals for Africa
The British High Commission in Pretoria, the Cape Innovation and Technology Initiative (CiTi) and Injini have partnered to bring the Global EdTech Startup Awards semi-finals to Africa.
Date: 15 November, 2pm to 5.30pm
Location: Bandwidth Barn, Woodstock Exchange, 3rd Floor, Block B, Cape Town
Johannesburg
Township Business Innovation Summit 2018
The fourth annual Township Business Innovation Summit will be held under the theme “Entrepreneurship in the 4th Industrial Revolution”.
Date: 16 to 17 November, 9am to 5pm
Location: Hospital View, Hospital View Sports Ground, Tembisa
Microsoft Headstart South Africa Programme Launch
Are you part of a tech startup and are looking for help to grow and get the right doors opened throughout your journey? Then register to attend the launch of Microsoft’s Head Start Programme which takes place during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
Date: 14 November, 9am to 5pm
Location: 22 on SLoane, Corner William Nicol Drive and Sloane Street, Bryanston
Benin
Techstars Startup Weekend Cotonou
This is a unique opportunity to test your idea or simply to experience the entrepreneurial adventure. Startup Weekend Cotonou offers the opportunity to develop projects dedicated to innovation and entrepreneurship in Benin.
Date: 16 to 18 November, 3pm to 9pm
Location: Infosec, Cotonou, Littoral
Ghana
MEST is launching a five-week Sales 101 Workshop series targeting entrepreneurs, startups, students, and professionals looking to master their sales skills and close more deals.
Date: 14 November, 10am to 4pm
Location: MEST Accra Incubator, East-Legon, Accra, 19 Banana Street, East Legon, Accra
Join MEST as it presents Ghana’s first Innovation Market in partnership with the Association of African Universities. The day will include Ask Me Anythings with key players in the entrepreneurship and innovation scene in Ghana.
Date: 17 November, 10am to 4pm
Location: Association of African Universities, East Legon, Accra
Kenya
MEST Africa Information Session
Join the MEST Africa team at the MEST Incubator Cape Town, as they share their experience working with entrepreneurs from across the continent.
Date: 14 November, 10.30am to 11.30am
Location: Nairobi Garage, Ngong Road, 7th Floor, Nairobi
Startup Grind Eldoret hosts Samwel Kimani (Tumaini Innovation Center)
Join Tumani Innovation Center founder and director Samwel Kimani at this Startup Grind Global Entrepreneurship Week event.
Date: 17 November, 2pm to 4.30am
Location: EldoHub, Elgon View Drive (Opposite Testimony School), Eldoret
Nigeria
Corpus BDS has planned a series of weeklong events themed “Go Further” that are specially designed to interact, engage and connect with entrepreneurs in a bid to foster a thriving ecosystem.
Date: 12 to 18 November, 9am to 1pm
Location: Treasures Suites and Conferences, 66 1st Avenue, Abuja
Startup Grind Jos Business Growth Workshop
In celebration of the 2018 Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), Startup Grind Jos will host a Business Growth Workshop to expand the entrepreneurial skills of members of the local business community.
Date: 17 November, 9am to 2pm
Location: 3rd Floor, TAEN Business Complex, Opposite former NITEL Office, Yakubu Gowon Way, Jos
Tanzania
In the spirit of celebrating the Global Entrepreneurship Week, Tukosawa Women and Youth Alliance has organised Women Entrepreneurs Chat. The objective of the event is to bring together women entrepreneurs to learn from each other, share experiences, failures, success and inspire other set of future innovators.
Date: 17 November, 9am to 12pm
Location: American corner, Maktaba Kuu, Dar es Salaam
Featured image: The audience at a Startup Grind Cape Town event last month at Workshop 17 (Startup Grind Cape Town via Facebook)
