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Top startup events in South Africa, Africa you should know about this week [23/07/2018]
Johannesburg has its share of exciting tech startup events this week, starting with a fireside chat tomorrow (24 July) with GEM Group executive chairman Leno Gunguluza. He will explore how the Fourth Industrial Revolution will impact businesses.
In West Africa, Ghana will this week host its first environment-themed Startup Weekend between Friday and Sunday (27 and 29 July). Also in Ghana, MEST is hosting a masterclass on market research with Dominic Rasden on Wednesday (25 July).
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
Future Females: Thinking creatively and thinking bigger
This week Future Females is looking at how creativity can help entrepreneurs think bigger and step out. Join 2ndBase Inc CEO Andre de Wet and Open Design Afrika Festival founding director Sune Stassen as they share some insights.
Date: 25 July, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Workshop 17, 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 mashup of leancoffee.org with theleanstartup.com.
Date: 25 July, 8.30am to 9.30am
Location: 1 Somerset Road, Green Point, Cape Town
Learning Lunch: Retail process, trends and systems
Join Mpho Sekwele, the founder of ecommerce platform Sintu Online, in this learning lunch that will cover retail trends, how entrepreneurs from townships can gain access to retail stores to sell their products.
Date: 26 July, 1pm to 2.30pm
Location: Philippi Village, Solution Space, 3rd Floor, Cape Town
MEST Africa Soap-Box session with Alexandra Fraser and Alpha Code
MEST Incubator in collaboration with Alpha Code are hosting Alexandra Fraser at this soap-box session where she will answer questions on the practical aspects and the process of raising early-stage capital from a variety of sources, as well as how to build a network within the funding community.
Date: 27 July, 4.30pm to 5.30pm
Location: MEST Incubator Cape Town, Albert Road, Cape Town
Johannesburg
Understand the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on business
Join GEM Group executive chairman Lebo Gunguluza in a fireside chat exploring how the Fourth Industrial Revolution can impact individuals and society.
Date: 24 July, 6pm to 9pm
Location: Impello Coworking Spaces, 139 Greenway Avenue, Greenside, Johannesburg
Science, technology and innovation measurement and practice in Russia and South Africa
This seminar presents lessons from research and development surveys in Russia and South Africa, highlighting the unique characteristics within each system of innovation. Comparisons will consider the use of standardised methodologies, the organisation of data and recent survey results.
Date: 25 July, 12.30pm to 4pm
Location: HSRC, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria, 134 Pretorius Street, Pretoria
Fireside chat with Diversifex Group CEO Tshepo Feela
Diversifex Group CEO Tshepo Feela will shares his entrepreneurial journey at this Startup Grind event. Feela, who has previously worked as an accounts executive and financial manager in some reputable corporate firms, now heads a business that employs 42 permanent staff.
Date: 26 July, 6pm to 8pm
Location: VUT, Southern Gauteng Science and Technology Park, 5 Moshoeshoe Str, Sebokeng
Durban
Future Females: Thinking creatively and thinking bigger
Join three speakers as they discuss how entrepreneurs can start thinking creatively and thinking bigger.
Date: 26 July, 7pm to 8.30pm
Location: Community ZA, 3 Millar Road, Durban
Port Elizabeth
Future Females: Thinking creatively and thinking bigger
This week Future Females is looking at how creativity can help entrepreneurs think bigger and step out.
Date: 26 July, 6pm to 8.30pm
Location: Sun International Boardwalk ICC Port Elizabeth, Tshawe Bar, 1 Marine Drive, Port Elizabeth
Ghana
MEST Masterclass: Market research
Join market research expert Dominic Ramsden in this workshop where he’ll cover the core types of research, what businesses can learn from market research, as well as how to implement your own market research and best-practice guidelines.
Date: 25 July, 12pm to 2pm
Location: MEST Incubator, East-Legon, Accra, 19 Banana Street, Ayawaso, Greater Accra
MEST Soapbox Session: Chalkboard Education
MEST Incubator Accra’s Soapbox Sessions are monthly events that welcome ecosystem members to take the stand, talk about what their startups are up to, what services and products they offer, and what their company needs are.
This week join Chalkboard Education co-founder Miora Randriambeloma as she shares her experience forming a pan-African company.
Date: 26 July, 5.30pm to 7pm
Location: MEST Incubator, East-Legon, Accra, 19 Banana Street, Ayawaso, Greater Accra
Accra Environment and Waste Startup Weekend
The first environment-themed Startup Weekend in Ghana will seek to empower young people to bring ideas in eco-tech, recycling, sanitation and renewable energy in the course of the 54-hour event.
Date: 27 to 29 July, 2pm to 8pm
Location: Codetrain Hub, Accra Digital Centre, Accra, Greater Accra Region
Kenya
After Office Hours with Kenfield Griffith
After Office Hours is a monthly event where members of Nairobi Garage and innovators from around Nairobi learn from and engage with speakers who are exceptional in their areas of business. This month’s speaker is Msurvey CEO and co-founder Kenfield Griffith.
Date: 26 July, 6pm to 7pm
Location: Nairobi Garage, Ngong Road, 7th Floor, Pinetree Plaza, Kaburu Drive Off Ngong Rd, Nairobi, Nairobi County
Mettā Nairobi in partnership with Kenya Business Guide will be hosting top Kenyan ICT experts to discuss the narrative of the Silicon Savannah, assessing Kenya within a global and regional context in order to determine the status of the country’s ICT sector in relation to long-term trends and emerging issues.
Date: 26 July, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Mettā Nairobi, 14 Riverside, Belgravia Building 6th Floor Wing A, Nairobi, Nairobi County
Nigeria
WennoChat is 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 week find out how a mindset shift can be a major key to your startup’s breakthrough.
Date: 27 July, 3pm to 5pm
Location: 3rd Floor, Alpha & Omega Building, Asunle B/Stop, Queen Elizabeth II Road, Mokola, Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State
Bridging the gap: Connecting entrepreneurs to developers and designers
During this ecosystem hangout of developers, entrepreneurs and designers, presenters will address pain points within the community and discuss how to overcome common barriers to execution.
Date: 27 July, 6.30pm to 9.30pm
Location: IBM Innovation Center, Churchgate Street, Lagos
The Startup Square is a community of innovative entrepreneurs driven by the need to support each other to build solutions to everyday problems as a team. Join this meetup to share ideas, analyse problems, and brain storm on realistic achievable solutions.
Date: 28 July, 4pm to 6pm
Location: Olotu Square, 1 Khana Street, Dline, Port Harcourt, Rivers 500261
Startup Grind Lagos hosts Onyeka Akumah (Farmcrowdy)
This week Startup Grind Lagos hosts Farmcrowdy co-founder and CEO Onyeka Akuma in a fireside chat where he will talk about how he founded the agritech startup, the impact it has made and his goal of workig with 50 000 small scale farmers in Nigeria in the next five years.
Date: 28 July, 3pm to 5pm
Location: Cranium One, 1 Towry Crescent, Off Idejo Crescent, Adelola Odeku, Lagos, 101233
Senegal
Meet Up Concree: Finding a product market fit
A product market fit occurs when a startup’s product or service meets a market and can effortlessly sell. But, just how does a startup find its product-market fit? Join FireFly co-founder Mafal Lo, Brightmore Capital co-founder Ndeye Thiaw and Thierno Sakho as they share their diffferent perspectives on the product-market fit for startups in Senegal.
Date: 26 July, 4.30pm to 7.30pm
Location: Expresso Innovation Hub, Dakar, Dakar Region
Zimbabwe
Startup Grind Zimbabwe launch event
Startup Grind will relaunch its Zimbabwe chapter with an event featuring EcoCash CEO Natalie Jabangwe on Wednesday. Expect talks around the implementation, adoption and use of mobile money and what it means for businesses across the region.
Date: 25 July, 6pm
Location: The Venue, Avondale, Harare
Emerging Ideas Pitch Night Bulawayo
Each month, early-stage innovators and startup business owners take to the stage to pitch their ideas at Emerging Ideas Pitch Nights. There are only three pitches at each event, so if your idea is still in concept, or if you don’t have an idea yet, join the event to network, listen to pitches and offer candid feedback.
Date: 26 July, 6pm to 8pm
Location: Bulawayo Rainbow, 10th Road, Bulawayo
Nicoz Diamond Think Tank Innovators Competition Information session
Join this information session to learn more about what solutions insurance company Nicoz Diamond is looking for in its Think Tank Innovators competition.
Date: 27 July, 1pm to 3.30pm
Location: Nicoz Diamond Headquarters, Insurance Centre, 30 Samora Machel Avenue, Harare
