Howzit! Welcome to Tech4Africa 2013!

Get ready for DevDays icon wink Howzit! Welcome to Tech4Africa 2013!

Since we’ve started, we’ve made it a priority to listen to the tech community at large so that we could get better and better. 2012 Saw us get a lot of great feedback for the developer day we held, and the general change in format of the 2 day conference.Overwhelmingly, you folks asked for more developer days, deeper content, shorter high level talks, and more focus on African tech. Similarly, we’ve been getting requests for #T4A in countries all over Africa.

Well, after a lot of work and preparation for 2013, we’re proud to start kicking things off!

First up is two developer days aimed at giving techies a place to meet new people, try new ideas out, hack around on problems, and generally geek out. These are not your typical developer workshops with ties and a projector – we want to encourage speed, execution, MVP, new ideas, new tech, and disruption. There are no boundaries, no stack predilections, no rules and most definitely no ties allowed!

Use the links below to visit the site, and get your pass for the DevDay closest to you!

After that, we go to Nairobi to kick off Tech4Africa East Africa. We’re super excited about this, and will be bringing a lot of great content to tech people there.

In October, we gather for the main event, where we’re going to combine all the good stuff, DevDays, delegate feedback, great content and awesome speakers, to put on the de facto, must-attend, take no prisoners tech event of the year. We’ve got a bigger venue, more rooms, and more bandwidth, so we’re super excited to get 2013 started!

Perhaps most importantly, for the first time we’ve opened up speaker submissions to anyone, so please submit your speaking proposal so it can be considered for 2013!

The 2013 Schedule

Please put these dates into your calendar.
Get in touch if you have any questions.

We’ve also launched our new site so please bear with us as we iron out the kinks – any feedback and bug reporting is much appreciated! icon wink Howzit! Welcome to Tech4Africa 2013!

Johannesburg DevDay

A 24hr Hackathon for developers, engineers, geeks, hackers & problem solvers. R35k total prize money on offer.

Includes snacks, drinks, pizza dinner, breakfast, lunch.
Features hacking space, case study room, demo room, wp room, chill zone & RaspBerry Pi’s.

Where: Deloitte Digital, Woodmead
When: May 24, 12:00 pm to May 25, 3:00 pm

Cape Town DevDay

A Hackathon for developers, engineers, geeks, hackers & problem solvers. R35k total prize money on offer.

Includes snacks, drinks, pizza dinner.
Features hacking space, case study room, demo room, wp room, chill zone & RaspBerry Pi’s.

Where: Bandwidth Barn
When: June 7, 8:00am to 8:00pm

Tech4Africa Nairobi

1-day event, with morning and afternoon sessions, and networking drinks afterwards.

Where: iHub
When: July 3, 8:00am to 10:00pm

Tech4Africa

The premier African technology event for everyone interested in technology in Africa.

The first day is for deep dive technical sessions, hands-on workshops and subject matter sessions, and the second day is for higher level talks, demo’s and inspiration, followed by post-event party & drinks.
Includes coffee / tea, lunch.

Where: Focus Rooms, Johannesburg
When: October 9th & 10th 2013

Get your 2-for-1 tickets:

These Pre-Early-Bird tickets are selling fast, with 30 2-for-1 tickets left!

tickets small Howzit! Welcome to Tech4Africa 2013!

Once sold out, ticket prices go up to the R1,500 Early Bird rate for a single ticket, with a final Ticket price of R2,000.

** DevDay attendees get a R250 discount on their #Tech4Africa conference price

Don’t miss out on the coolest tech event of the year, for the price of two rounds of golf, or a hairdo and pair of shoes! Grab your tickets now!

What else can I do?

Speak at Tech4Africa

Submissions are open to anyone. There are 33 submissions already.Grab the mobile conference app.

Help us serve the tech community. It’s our belief that the best way we can stay relevant is to serve the tech community.

Forward this email to your friends and colleagues. Show them some love!

Get involved.

Speaking deadlines

If you want to speak in 2013, these are the deadlines for submissions icon wink Howzit! Welcome to Tech4Africa 2013!

May
17th: Jhb DevDay
31st: CPT DevDay

June
27th: Nairobi
30th: Tech4Africa

September
Speakers announcement
Schedule 85% finalised (always changes!)

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2012 News articles

Tech4Africa News

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The most disruptive technology trends I’ve spotted – Jon Gosier Tech4Africa 2011

Jon Gosier, someone who has had the pleasure of working with some of the most ambitious African companies such as Ushahidi and Appfrica talk about the newest up and coming disruptive technologies in Africa.

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Why And How We Risked It All

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKqevnV_39I&w=560&h=315]

Part 2        Part 3

Many of us have worked for companies we didn’t like and did jobs we didn’t enjoy. But have we done anything to turn this around? Gareth Knight and Vinny Lingham shares their journey of starting their own business so they can work on things they were truly passionate about. But this has not been an easy journey for either of them and this talk covers the challenges they faced and sacrifices they had to make to turn their ideas into valuable products. But what is most important is that the speech covers how to go about coping with those challenges learn from their mistakes they made so that younger entrepreneurs can avoid them.

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iMaverick: The technology & architecture of freedom – Tech4Africa 2011

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAxmaWVmFSo&w=560&h=315]

 

Access to information shouldn’t just be restricted to insiders, experts and politicians. And the challenge is not how to conceal information but how to make information readily available for everyone. For African technology to prosper we need a political and economical environment that is conducive to business. But none of this is possible without a free and independent media. Core issue being Transparency within the internet age; transparency is critical to promoting democracy and citizen’s right empowering them in particular.  iMaverick, the founders of Africa’s first daily tablet talks about how the current political and economical situation relates to the prosperity and freedom of media & technology within Africa. Is securing the functionality of the net and protecting the integrity of its user alone enough to achieve this?

 

 

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Mobile applications for everyone, giving power to the powerless – Tech4Africa 2011

Constrain breeds innovation – Gustav Praekelt and Sebastien Lacour talks about how mobile tools can give business opportunities and give Africans the access to every day services. With over 600 million active mobile connections in Africa, there is no doubt that there is enough reach. Gustav talks about how to measure mobile phone usage and behaviour within Africa so businesses can create models which will help them manufacture specific services that are actually relevant to the customer. Gustav then talks about Ummeli, the mobile portal which helps Africans find social networks and job finders to help them meet new people, learn new things and better themselves so they can find jobs as, the no.1 problem the African youth is facing now is not illness and poverty, but lack of employment.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_avN_nnhW4I&w=560&h=315]

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How we built Motribe for Africa and beyond – Vincent Maher Tech4Africa 2011

Vincent Maher talks about Motribe, a passionate idea converted into one of the most fastest growing mobile plays in Africa. This is special considering it’s built for some of the most basic mobile platforms. Vincent talks about how his idea got converted in to a scalable business and how the business structure was set up and it is also interesting to listen to some of the problems he faced. The talk is equally great for entrepreneurs who want a good insight in to a start-up and notice common challenges start-ups face such as “do you take whatever money that’s comes your way or do you stick to you plan?”.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIW_bLTID3E&w=560&h=315]

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