25 Oct 2011, No Comments

“Africa-Friendly” Tech4Africa 2011

Tech4Africa is coming up this week and I’m so excited. Again, I’ll be reporting and interviewing the international speakers. What makes this event so noteworthy is that it is truly Africa focused.

I’m particularly excited about chatting to Herman Chinery-Hesse who has said that “if Africa misses the current global IT boat there may never again be an opportunity for rapid wealth creation on the continent.” I’d love to hear his ideas around ensuring that we don’t miss this boat. And I’d love to know what his view is on African Governments and whether he believes they’re in support of his thinking. He also uses the term “Africa-friendly” when he describes what his software business (he is the co-founder of SOFTtribe) builds and develops, looking forward to him describe “Africa-friendly.” Ndubuisi Ekekwe will compliment this with his take on how Africa can creatively climb the tech pyramid. And Jon Gosier’s session, which looks to be filled with opportunity will look at trends in Africa that promise to be most disruptive.

As a strategist I’m looking forward to chatting to Josh Spear, Founding Partner & Chairman of Undercurrent, a digital strategy firm in NYC. Gosh an agency just focused on digital strategy – the purist in me does a little flikflaks! Josh it seems is a very interesting person, he is currently volunteering in Japan on his Dad’s team focused on PTSD counselling in the wake of the devastating Tsunamis. He say’s “I owe Japan infinitely for it’s inspiration and impact on my life” I’m keen to see the effect that Africa has on him.

Last year’s Tech4Africa ran in two streams the tech orientated stream & the more marketing type stream. I learnt so much more from the tech-stream, even when the code went over my head there were such valuable insights based on how they applied their knowledge. This year Cennydd Bowles and James Box from Clearleft will be talking about the multi-channel experience, sjoe, can we keep up?! And I’m really interested to hear and chat to Robert Nyman talk more about HTML5 (the way forward) and how we can make the web a richer experience.

There is talk of the cloud, what big data is doing to our world, mapping in Africa and a whole lot more. It promises to be a jam-packed with digital deliciousness that I know will keep us Africa focused…and friendly.

Thanks to Gareth for the opportunity & I hope to see you there!