Author: Tech4Africa

Tech4Africa partners with First National Bank and Internet Solutions

FNB, Internet Solutions endorse African technology development through partnership with Tech4Africa

Internet Solutions and First National Bank (FNB) have given their full backing to Tech4Africa, the premier Internet and emerging technology conference, in their role as Foundation Partners and have committed to supporting the long-term development of home-grown technology solutions on the continent.

“From our earliest discussions with FNB and Internet Solutions it was evident that they share our values and vision for the future of Internet and mobile technologies on the continent,” says event organiser Gareth Knight. “The reality is that Africa is playing catch-up in these sectors and that this can only be overcome through collaborating with the best minds in the industry, locally and globally.”

“Both partners bring tremendous value to the conference because of their appreciation for the way in which technology can and should be applied to drive economic prosperity in Africa, and have clearly demonstrated their skills in this sector.”

Knight points to Internet Solutions’ position as a leading provider of Internet infrastructure across the continent. As the trusted partner in IP driven solutions, Internet Solutions enables their clients to be truly competitive in the global economy.

Company MD Derek Wilcocks says Internet Solutions’ participation extends well beyond its support of the conference and providing connectivity to participants over the two days.

“We see the future of the Internet in the way people are able to collaborate. Social media is changing the way organisations work and providing opportunities for governments to interact with their citizens,” he says. “The conference topics are at the heart of the future of our industry and we want to be part of that learning experience and also contribute to that debate.”

“For us, it’s about more than the technology and technical ability, it’s about the impact that we as an organisation can have on people’s lives,” he adds.

Knight says that FNB’s role as an enabler of business and technology ideas is equally important and that the bank’s participation at Tech4Africa will hopefully spur on more home-grown development.

“FNB has demonstrated a strong entrepreneurial edge and willingness to invest in the market through introducing technology-driven solutions such as PayPal and cellphone banking. In short, they are walking the talk, which other institutions are still struggling to achieve,” he says.

FNB Commercial’s head of small business sales, Marcel Klaassen, says FNB is continuously driven by innovation, which is based on a strong entrepreneurial spirit within the division.

“We recognise the role that technology, e-commerce and innovative banking solutions play in the entrepreneurial environment and are proud to facilitate knowledge sharing and international best practice trends in these areas,” he says. “We understand that the most difficult barriers for entrepreneurs to overcome is the lack of support and mentorship and have therefore tailored a business proposition around small businesses that address both their financial and non-financial needs. We look forward to engaging with existing and aspiring technology entrepreneurs.”

Tech4Africa 2010 will be featuring international and local technology visionaries including Clay Shirky, Leila Chirayath Janah, Jonathan Snook, John Resig and many others who will be sharing their knowledge and experiences. The conference is taking place on 12 and 13 August 2010 at The Forum in Bryanston, Johannesburg.

About FNB Commercial

As a company with entrepreneurial spirit at its heart, FNB Commercial is committed to supporting South African entrepreneurs to take advantage of the business opportunities present in our country by offering innovative business banking solutions. This commitment is reflected in our vision to enable, grow and accelerate entrepreneurship in South Africa.

With this over-arching focus on entrepreneurship, FNB Commercial has a suite of ground-breaking business banking products aimed at assisting small business owners with running their businesses more efficiently. To ensure that our clients receive the support they need, we have invested in several innovative platforms that offer convenience, accessibility, cost effectiveness and security.

About Internet Solutions

Internet Solutions is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dimension Data.  The company is Southern Africa’s most established and experienced Internet Service Provider. Since 1993 Internet Solutions has been providing end-to-end connectivity solutions and related services across the African continent. Today IS is a provider of Internet Protocol-based Connectivity, Communications, Cloud and Carrier services in the African market and for African clients into the global market. IS provides services to large public and private sector organisations, medium sized organisations, and through its value channel program to smaller organisations and consumers.

A great environment to learn and get inspired

Tech4Africa is less than a week away and we’re very excited! We’ve worked so hard to create an awesome environment at the conference, so we wanted to let our delegates what’s in store for them (the reasons for what we like to call Tech4Africa the “unconference”):

1. Speakers on panels will be talking from couches, not lecterns.

2. Questions are encouraged after each session.

3. Our speakers will be listening in at other talks, just like all the other delegates.

4. Andy Budd, Joe Stump, Dustin Diaz, Jonathan Snook and John Resig, will be doing an intimate technical Q & A session, where they’ll talk about issues they’ve faced and how they’ve approached them. This is a vital session for anyone technical.

5. There will be surprises prizes under seats, and a “goody bag”.

6. We’ve created ample opportunity for hallway conversations, networking, and meeting new people.

7. There is an interactive expo environment including a news studio, Internet cafe and an FNB coffee lounge.

8. There’ll be unique badges to help start conversations and introductions.

9. A deadly serious “no ties” and “no suits” policy!

10. Between all the serious stuff, there is a Cocktail party (with DJ) and an After party, where we hope you’ll join us for some fun!

Get ready for some inspiration 😉 Hope to see you there!

Last but not least…

A few last things about the conference, before things become totally manic.

We’ve got around 65 speakers over 2 days. I’m really excited about the depth of knowledge and experience that folks like Andy Budd (Clearleft), Alex Hunter, Erin Caton (Apple), Joe Stump (SimpleGeo), Jonathan Snook (Yahoo!) and Dustin Diaz (Twitter), will bring to Tech4Africa. These guys are really amazing at what they do, and are also awesome people, so anyone at the conference is in for a treat. Take 5 minutes to checkout the full line-up if you haven’t done so.

I think you’ll agree it’s a great line-up, which represents a good mix of business and technical people, and offers great content to delegates. More than anything, this is a first in Africa, and it’s largely down to your willingness to be a part of it. For that, I thank you. I hope you can spend the two days of the conference learning, absorbing, and enjoying. There is a team of 19 full time people working on Tech4Africa, to make it the event we’d all want to go to.

We’re now working pretty much 24/7 to make this event something that we would aspire to attend.
I’m not saying that lightly. Like you, I’ve been to my fair share of conferences, and in general I find most of them bland and uninteresting, with too many exhibitors.
So, I’ve tried really hard to make this one the conference that I would want to go to. My litmus test is: would I spend my hard earned cash and go to Tech4Africa? Would my friends do the same? I’m happy to say that right now the answer is yes, and I hope that once you’re there and you’ve experienced it for yourselves, the hard work and attention to detail will be apparent, and you’ll feel the same way. Ultimately though, all we can do is provide the right environment for the speakers to shine.

The focus is on interaction, discussion, engagement, debate and learning. The focus is on you.
Unlike a lot of conferences where you go listen to someone stand behind a lectern and run through powerpoint slides, essentially giving a lecture, we’re creating an environment where everyone will either be standing, or sitting on a couch with a bunch of other people. Our focus is 100% around delegate value, and this comes through real discussion and if needs be real arguments. It also comes through the audience feeling like they’re there being engaged with, and not lectured in a one-way environment.

As a quick reminder, online registration and payment for conference tickets closes at 1pm on Tues 10th August. If you would like to register after that, then please do so on site. Registration will be open at the venue from 1pm on the 11th of August (badge collection and/or registration). Please note that we will not accept cash, and that when the venue is full, we’ll have to turn people away. For conference registrations go here.

There is a conference “after party”, which will be on Friday night (August 13th), so please book that in your calendars, get the babysitters in, bring your significant other, and join us for some fun! RSVP on the event’s Facebook page.

And lastly, expect the “unconference”: don’t wear ties, don’t wear suits, bring your sense of humour, and enjoy yourself!

It’s going to be an awesome event, and I can’t wait to see you there 😉

Regards,
Gareth Knight

Tech4Africa organizer
MD, Technovated

Design at Tech4Africa

With only a week to go till Tech4Africa kicks off in Johannesburg on the 10th of August, we take a final look at some of the exciting sessions and speakers that have been lined up to make this THE conference to attend this year.

When launching a new site or product online, probably the most important factor is how it looks, and your users can use it without hassle. Design is key to making sure your users will keep coming back for more. At Tech4Africa, we will be hosting some of most prolific experts in user interface & design.

First up, be sure not to miss the session entitled “Ignore User Experience at your peril”, hosted by leading UI design expert Andy Budd. Andy comes from a long history of user design and interface, and currently heads up User Experience at Clear Left in the USA. Andy will lead you through a 1 hour session on why you should pay attention to user experience and what you can do about it.

Another “must-attend” session if you design is your thing, is an all South African panel hosted by the indomitable Allan Kent from Saatchi & Saatchi AtPlay. The panel of leading practitioners takes you through the thinking and output for a redesign of a well known, high profile, local website, PayFine.co.za. Joining Allan on the panel are Rian van der Merwe from South African start-up, now based in San Fransisco, Yola. Mike Lewis from Origin Interactive will also be joining the panel, in what should be an interesting session on this intuitive South African site, that allows you to pay your traffic fines online.

Be sure to book your place for Tech4Africa now. All our Early Bird offers have been scooped up, and it won’t be long before all the remaining seats are being snapped up at a crazy pace.

See you next week for the biggest & best tech conference South Africa has EVER seen !!

Online registration notice

Important news for those planning to register for Tech4Africa.

Note that online registration for the conference and the workshops will close at a certain point this week and the next one (you will be able to register later on site). Take these dates and times into consideration:

* Workshops: online registration will be closing at 5pm on Friday 6th of August.

* Conference: online registration will be closing at 1pm on Tuesday 10th of August.

If you miss these deadlines, you can always register later on site for both conference and workshops.
Conference registration and badge collection will be open at the venue from 1pm on the 11th of August.

The countdown has begun, we’re almost a week to go to Tech4Africa, the most diverse and unique conference in South African tech history, featuring the most prolific speakers from both South Africa as well as internationally.

Join us now! Register online here.

Let’s talk development at Tech4Africa

The countdown has begun, and with less than 2 weeks till the most diverse and unique conference in South African tech history kicks off, all the last minutes plans are being put into place. We can’t wait for the doors to open and introduce you to some of the most prolific speakers from both South Africa as well as internationally.

A big focus at Tech4Africa will be focused on development and how local startups can benefit from learning from some of the best Developers from the biggest platforms around the world. Guys like Dustin Diaz from Twitter &  John Resig from Mozilla are just some of the big names to join us at Tech4Africa.

Jonathan Snook from Yahoo will be looking at how iPhone & Android development are growing rapidly, and how you can create the perfect and usable app. Jonathan comes from a long history of web development and developing apps, and will no doubt share his fantastic knowledge on these topics.

Another session not to miss is by Andy Budd, who is an interaction designer and web standards developer from Brighton, England. Andy leads the user experience team at Clearleft, and will be hosting a session called “Ignore User Experience at your peril”. User experience is essential when developing a new product, and Andy will take us through the steps to ensure it is done 100% correctly.

With Twitter growing daily in leaps in bounds, Lead User interface engineer, Dustin Diaz, will be sharing his tips & tricks when developing with Javascript. In his session called “Unobtrusive interfaces with js” will assist developers in ensuring user interfaces are are always rich & engaging.

Another Javascript ninja, John Resig, will be presenting a session called “6 secrets to becoming a jQuery ninja”, in which John will be showing you the tricks of the trade on how to become the ultimate jQuery ninja. John comes with a wealth of jQuery knowledge is the lead developer of the jQuery Javascript library.

If there is one session you do NOT want to miss at Tech4Africa, it will be the Q&A session with all these guys, joined by Joe Stump from SimpleGeo. Andy Budd, Dustin Diaz, John Resig, Jonathan Snook & Joe Stump will all join in a 1 hour Q&A session panel, where they will be answering your questions as well as answering an interesting question – “What was your hardest challenge, and how did you overcome it?” Be sure to join the guys on the Thursday at 11:00

It’s not only the international chaps who will be sharing their experiences with you, we have a fantastic South African panel called “Ideas are cheap, execution is everything. Live to bootstrap.”
The panel will be headed up by Brett Haggard who is joined by Barbara Mallinson from Obami, Eve Dmchowska from Crowdfund,  our very own Gareth Knight from Technovated & Andy Higgins from BidorBuy. The panel will look at how South Africans need to bootstrap their product and without losing perspective or faith.

Last but not least we will also be hosting Erik Hersman who was the man behind the ever popular African open source project Ushahidi, which allows users to crowd source crisis information to be sent via mobile. Erik will share his story on how Ushahidi has grown into the international success it is today.

With a lineup like this, you cannot afford to miss Tech4Africa this year. If you have not registered your place yet, we suggest you do so ASAP. Places are running out fast, this is one conference you do NOT want to miss out on !

SeedCamp selects top African startups

Seedcamp, a European micro seed fund that invests in early stage startup companies, has selected 10 South African technology startups to possibly attend the Seedcamp Week programme held in September in London, UK, where they will be in line for a potential €50,000 investment.

Seedcamp, in conjunction with the Tech4Africa conference, recently put out a call for applications for funding and received over 40 applications from technology startups across South Africa. The 10 selected African entrepreneurs will have a rare opportunity to pitch their businesses at a group of people connected to powerful investors, mentors and startups throughout EMEA, with one team being chosen to take part in Seedcamp Week in London.

Seedcamp offers standard investments of €30,000-50,000 to selected companies and connects next generation developers and entrepreneurs from a network of over 400 top-tier industry mentors.

The 10 selected startups include:
10Layer: The most feature-complete, competent and customisable open source content management system for serious publishers and media houses.

Cobi interactive: An incubator for developing mobile software ideas. Cobi focuses on investing in areas with varying degrees of risk – contract mobile software development, partnerships and their own products.

Cognician: The original thinking guide. A software application that automates complex intellectual tasks by asking you a range of intelligent, thought-provoking questions.

Cred: A micropayments and subscriptions service that allows you to monetise your text, audio or video content. The Cred API can be deployed with any content management system and allows for the purchase and redemption of Cred at content partners.

Feeperfect: Permitting any user to find the mobile contact number of anyone registered on iYam.mobi, using either SMS or the web. Feeperfect are building, and permitting anyone to build, quality SMS services people are willing to pay for.

FloCash: The first cross border Pan African payment network offering basic financial services to the un-banked masses, the platform of choice for facilitating e-commerce and drive the exchange of ideas, people and services between nations.

GetaGreatBoss: We enable great managers to showcase their management strength in order to attract talent and boost their own careers.

Obami: A web-based communication and collaboration platform that’s been developed for use within, and between schools. Obami ensures a safe environment for kids to interact with each other and the adults in their lives. Obami, which is free to schools, believes that helping to expand school life beyond the boundaries of the classroom wall will have a significant impact on Africa’s future.

iSigned.com: Offers secure, permanent online storage, management and sharing for legal & other important documents. Individuals & businesses can use iSigned to store wills, legal agreements, investment records, etc and share them with other parties securely.

Thisarmy: Builds clean, simple & fun web apps.

Twangoo: South Africa’s premier group buying club uses the power of the web to create a platform for its members to access exclusive deals at restaurants, spas, lessons, sports facilities, events etc.

Gareth Knight, managing director at Technovated, the company behind Tech4Africa, says: “It seems that for a long while the disconnect between entrepreneurs, angel-funders, early stage funders and established institutional funders, was a chasm too far to cross. I’m delighted that SeedCamp has come to Africa, to address that issue and create a more aspirational and conducive environment for startups and entrepreneurs. The response and quality of applications has been superb and it’s great to see these companies with disruptive ideas coming out of the woodwork. I hope to see them in London soon!”

Seedcamp is running in conjunction with Tech4Africa, a conference that runs from 12-13 August 2010 at The Forum in Bryanston. The event is targeted at business professionals and technologists from businesses of all sizes, from entrepreneurs and start-up owners through to professionals working at large organisations.

A stellar line-up of international speakers – including speakers from Twitter, Mozilla and Yahoo! – will be presenting at the conference. Clay Shirky – one of the world’s leading thinkers and writers on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies – will be a keynote speaker. More details are available at http://tech4africa.com.