Tech4Africa 2013

Howzit! Welcome to Tech4Africa 2013!

Tech4Africa — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:28:37 +0000

Get ready for DevDays

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!

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!

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

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 — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 13:33:49 +0000

Tech4Africa News

Tech expertise – from Digital Divide to Diepsloot (Newsletter – 26/10/2012)
Investment, Invention and Inspiration @ Tech4Africa (Newsletter – 23/10/2012)
Five Reasons to be @ Tech4Africa (Newsletter – 18/10/2012)
Friday Challenge: Sponsor a student at Tech4Africa, help us grow the next generation of leaders (Newsletter – 12/10/2012)
Howdy, get your Hack on @ Tech4Africa (Newsletter – 09/10/2012)
Howzit, MTN backs Tech4Africa and a stellar lineup of content (Newsletter – 04/10/2012)
Innovation, Ignite, Ideas, Inspiration & IBM at Tech4Africa (Newsletter – 02/10/2012)
Speaker Line-up & Sponsors for 2012 (Newsletter – 21/09/2012)
Tech4Africa is about great content, relevance, and networking (Newsletter – 06/09/2012)
Introducing Neal “No Fluff, Just Stuff” Ford (Newsletter – 28/08/2012)

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

Tech4Africa — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 18:15:37 +0000

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

Tech4Africa — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 09:32:01 +0000

[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

Tech4Africa — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:21:03 +0000

[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

Tech4Africa — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:19:54 +0000

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

Tech4Africa — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:53:59 +0000

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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The anatomy & habits of mobile users, and why business should take note – Nic Haralambous Tech4Africa 2011

Tech4Africa — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:33:32 +0000

This topic covers how mobile usage has changed over the past decade or so and the changes that have taken place in the market as well as how marketing has been defined previously by brand advertising. Where previous brands sat in the middle and the consumer around it, this has changed now where this has been democratised and almost been switched around to the point where the brand is owned by the consumer rather than the company; the consumer is the centre. This is very similar to marketing from a mobile perspective. Therefore, it is important to understand that marketing from a mobile point of view is very different to the traditional method as a lot of the techniques used mobile marketing such as banner adverts can be irrelevant and sometimes can be intrusive to the consumer. In this speech Nic Haralambous talks about mobile usage from a platform perspective. However, mobile marketing can be a very powerful marketing tool if you look at it from a user’s point of view.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYDG3I8Uj3I&w=560&h=315]

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Mapping for Africa – Adam Duvander Tech4Africa 2011

Tech4Africa — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:31:04 +0000

Adam Duvander talks about how his company, ProgrammableWeb are going about mapping Africa for users so they have a functional and relevant open street map api. The talk also covers the challenges of acquiring the data and the importance of having the best interface. Finally, Adam explores the challenges competitors face when creating their maps and the correct maps which those in Africa can currently use. Finally, what are the limitations for Africa?

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

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Importance of Big Data – Steve Watt Tech4Africa 2011

Tech4Africa — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:33:55 +0000

Steve Watt from HP, talks about Big data, what it’s all about and how to access vast amount of data for the use in businesses. Big data is about mining information from unstructured data, where you ask your own questions and learn something from everything. The video covers the whole model of retrieving, storing, processing and analysing big data using open source software to benefit your business.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCBN0_GeT0Y&w=560&h=315]

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Africa’s Quest to Climb the Tech Pyramid – Tech4Africa 2011

Tech4Africa — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 10:11:47 +0000

Most of the fundamental technologies that were used in the past, and in fact some today, are poor because there was a failure to invest in these technologies and the lack of intellectual property made it difficult for investors to buy in. This was a major cause in the stagnant nature of the global GDP and it is also a major factor in the lack of growth in successful technologies within Africa. Ndubuisi talks about a framework which can lead to a very strong system and encourage Africa to continue to invent new intellectual properties and push forward, not just in ICT but all kinds of technologies i.e. mining and agricultural technology. In essence, this talk will share the redesign to close the missing links as Africa overcomes the barriers in participating industries like microelectronics and nanotechnology which remain drivers of global commerce and modern culture.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvV7xLDCMx0&w=560&h=315]

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March of the UX Designers – Tech4Africa 2011

Tech4Africa — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:38:14 +0000

“The age of competing simply over features is over”. It has become clear over the years that designing a product around its features has become less important than creating a product based around its customers which provides a superior user experience.

UX is an umbrella term where there are disciplines within other disciplines i.e. information architecture, usability research etc. Cennydd and James go in to detail about the importance of having the perfect balance in user experience (UX) design, how the successful companies have followed their practises to release a successful product resulting in loyal customers and how smaller companies can adapt these disciplines to be successful themselves.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r34LOmCw99k&w=560&h=315]

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The New Information Age – Dr. Barry Devlin Tech4Africa 2011

Tech4Africa — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 10:00:42 +0000

Dr. Barry Devlin is among the foremost authorities worldwide in business intelligence who is also a widely respected consultant, lecturer and author. Barry puts forward all of his 30 year experience in explaining how to take messy bits and bytes and convert those data in to something useful. He covers the evolution of the use and storage of information within businesses in the last 40 years. A topic he also covers is the role of relational database where they move from a supportive platform to a core platform. Essentially, to have relevant information, Barry talks about the importance of having complete, connected and comprehended data through his new architecture for information in businesses.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3_KMQFMgNg&w=560&h=315]

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How do we build better environments for developing better software? Rian Van der Merwe – Tech4Africa 2011

Tech4Africa — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 10:00:57 +0000

Rian covered an important and often overlooked topic of building a better environment for software development by trying to elaborate on the consequences of different development silos which are caused by developing in isolation. Lonely Silos, usually applicable to small start-ups with a couple of developers who are so stuck in their devices and desperate to release a minimum viable product but fail to focus on design, or being stuck in endless cycles not knowing where to end. This in return results in releasing a product that has no value to the consumer or in the worst case, failing all together largely because they’re unable to define the processes or have a structured methodology.

Functional Silos on the other hand, applicable to large business with many teams which are responsible for different parts of a product, can often have the issue of having too many people getting involved, tired developers and making changes that have no real effect.

Refining collaboration and better communication according to Rian, is one of way overcoming these challenges which will help your company build better software. Check out the video and find out how.

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