Tech4Africa Johannesburg 2015: Full Schedule

Tech4Africa is the largest tech innovation, startup and entrepreneur platform in Africa. 12 tracks, 4 event days including a Hackathon and a Startup Day, with over 55 excellent speakers and just 600 available seats.

10:40am SAST

They Just Don't Get It - How to Explain your product so your clients get it, love it and buy it!

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They Just Don't Get It - How to Explain your product so your clients get it, love it and buy it!

- The Curse of Knowledge: Why smart people are bad at explaining their products & services

- Explanations are like Orgasms: Lessons from nature

- Tricks of the Trade: the basic structure of any good explainer video (Hint: it's like a sales pitch)

Speakers

Elodie Burls

MD, Blink Tower

From when she can remember, Elodie wanted to change minds through media. She studied Educational Drama Theatre while chairing her University's animal rights society, and was destined to work in NGO's. That's until the entrepreneurial bug bit. She started her first business at age... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2015 10:40am - 11:10am SAST
UX/The Next Billion Track

Marketing

Session Type Solo
Who should attend advertisers, Consumers
Session DNA Enabling

10:40am SAST

The Tech startup scene in South Africa

An overview of the technology startup and innovation scene in South Africa. What the market drivers are, who is doing what and where to find support. Keith Jones is the coFounder of Sw7, the largest tech accelerator in Africa. They work with over 150 early and late stage tech businesses, are the only Microsoft Bizspark plus partners in Africa and run the first full tech accelerator inside a large blue chip, for Standard Bank. The session covers the learnings and experiences in the sector and where business go for what support, funding and access to market

Speakers

Keith Jones

CoFounder, Sw7

We are the largest tech accelerator in Africa with more support, more mentors and more alumni than any other programme in Africa. We have the pain!!! We are a startup ourselves in an emerging sector. keith had i his own tech business for 11 years and listed in London in 2009, did... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2015 10:40am - 11:10am SAST
Startup Track

Startup, Entrepreneurialism and Business

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Session Type Keynote
Who should attend Tech Founders
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #startups

10:40am SAST

Women in tech - all talk and no action?

One year on from the Women in Tech panel last year and a bunch of new initiatives have been launched. A whole lot of talking has been going on. And there's been a whole lot of negative press about the bully-boy culture in certain sectors of the tech space. So, are we getting anywhere? If not why not? And what do we need to do to bridge the gap? Join Samantha Perry, co-founder of WomeninTechZA, & 4 panelists (2 men, 2 women) as we dissect the state of the tech nation and what needs ot happen next.

Speakers

Samantha Perry

Human in charge, WomeninTechZA

Samantha Perry is the human behind WomeninTechZA (womenintech.co.za) - an initiative that aims to help address the gender gap in the ICT sector. Only 23% of tech jobs are held by women in South Africa – out of 236 000 ICT (tech) roles, women occupy 56 000 of them. As a sector... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2015 10:40am - 11:10am SAST
Keynotes/Social/Misc Track

Women in Tech, Community and Activism

Session Purpose Talk about success or failure in a positive way
Session Type Panel
Who should attend everyone
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #womenintech #diversity #oldboysclub #getthegirlgeeksinthere

11:30am SAST

Moving digital experiences in Africa from dull to desirable

This talk reveals what African consumers expect from a digital experience across categories. We report on a study amongst South African, Nigerian and Kenyan consumers to establish the digital expectation commonalities and differences when engaging with different sectors. We answer questions such as: are consumers more concerned about safety of information in the area of social networking or digital finances? Which sector has the highest consumer expectations of being device agnostic? In so doing, the presentation serves as a guide for digital service providers to assist in developing offerings that truly meet the digital consumerâ€™s expectations.

Speakers

Michel Katuta

Head of Technology and Consumer Panels, Columinate

Henk Pretorius

Co-Founder & CEO, Columinate

Wednesday October 7, 2015 11:30am - 12:00pm SAST
UX/The Next Billion Track

Next Billion, Digital Domain

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Session Type Dual
Who should attend Digital service providers
Session DNA Enabling
Tags digitalx

11:30am SAST

Frustrated with System and Data Integration?

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Frustrated with System and Data Integration?

This breakthrough solution is simple.

Integration can be unnecessarily complex. And instead of enabling better and faster enterprise, it can slow you down, or even bring your business to a standstill. This is not how it is supposed to be!

This is why you cannot miss this presentation, because we will share real life successful and proven solutions to the most common and frustrating of integration challenges.
If you’re trying to move into the cloud, integrate new customers with your system, or simply and seamlessly sync your data between the Pretoria and the Poffadder branch, you need to be here.

Moderators

Wallis Buchan

Director, Dev2

Wednesday October 7, 2015 11:30am - 12:00pm SAST
Technologist Track

Tech, Design and Development

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Session Type Showcase
Who should attend All
Session DNA Enabling

3:40pm SAST

Vini. Video. Vinci. Why digital video is the king of content

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Presentation will cover: the power of video, the latest trends in video viewing, stats relating to video ads, looking at how video has infiltrated google, facebook, and other online platforms, the power of the vine, and how to create a digital video strategy with ads, vignettes, stories, even ongoing series â€“ each serving to achieve the relevant objectives of the brand/publisher/corporation/organisation.

Speakers

Devon Brough

Director: Strategic Partnerships, HoneyKome

Wednesday October 7, 2015 3:40pm - 4:10pm SAST
eCommerce/Marketing/Mobile Track

Marketing, Content and Distribution

Session Purpose Tell a story
Session Type Solo
Who should attend Advertising agencies, Bloggers, Brand Managers, Content Providers, Marketing agencies, Marketing Managers, Publishers, Students looking for new careers
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #movingstories, #OMGVideo, #VideoisKing, #VideoSwarm, #ViniVideoVinci

10:40am SAST

Single Devlopers with the Power of Big Corporations

In this new mobile-first, cloud-first world? What are we doing to support the future of business? The Cloud is designed to help organizations and developers navigate this era of moreâ€”more devices, more apps, more data, more capacity, more innovationâ€¦more speed.

Speakers

Brent Samodien

Technical Evangelist, Microsoft

Passionate technologist who enjoys designing and implementing innovative solutions which deliver measurable benefits. I create value by bridging the gap between business and technology through a focus on strategy,people, processes, information and communication technology. I... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2015 10:40am - 11:10am SAST
Technologist Track

Tech, Design and Development

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Session Type Showcase
Who should attend architects, CIO, developers
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #Cloud #Dev #Azure

11:30am SAST

Developing for the future

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We show you how to develop apps and ideas by utilizing cloud based technologies and micro service to create an integrated experience during the application lifecycle for various teams and stakeholders with in your business. We show off key features that prove increased productivity within your delivery cycle with awareness around what is going on in a real-time fashion on projects. We also show you the benefits of elasticity that decrease cost of ownership and scale on demand as you need it.

During the session we will take you through a scenario of a simple project created for future development techniques in mind and draw some comparisons of how it compares with how it is being done in the industry at the moment

Speakers

Oliver Smit

Discipline Lead Architecture and Quality, Mint Management Technologies

Multi skilled polyglot and technologist with a big love for technology, development and electronics. Work for Mint management technologies where I am responsible for leading the Architecture stream in the Mint business, by designing and implementing best practice on all solutions... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2015 11:30am - 12:00pm SAST
Technologist Track

Tech, Design and Development

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Who should attend All
Session DNA Enabling

2:00pm SAST

How not to build an internship program

As ClickMaven, we don’t do jobs. We do mastery and purpose.

We've created an internship program that equips digitally savvy graduates with the skills they need in order to make their mark in the industry.Using a highly structured 6-month internship we equip them with technical and business acumen skills.

We aim to inspire and assist other agencies to develop programs/opportunities where they can bridge the skills gap.

Speakers

Tshepiso Theletsane

Talent & Operations Manager, Clickmaven

Tshepiso is an exceptional professional Talent & Operations Manager at ClickMaven. She has run the internship program at ClickMaven for the past two and a half years and taken it to new heights. She began her journey at ClickMaven as an intern herself and has learned tonnes of new... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2015 2:00pm - 2:30pm SAST
IoT/Makers/Leadership Track

Leadership, Entrepreneurialism and Business

Session Purpose Talk about success or failure in a positive way
Session Type Success story or case study
Who should attend agencies, entrepreneurs, small business owners., startups
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #superintern #superteam #clickmaven #clickmavensuperintern #CMSuperIntern

2:00pm SAST

Why you should be a polyglot programmer

"What do you mean you don't have 10 years of Java experience?!" Let's face it, the tech industry has a bit of a hang-up about languages and frameworks. I'm here to tell you about a different kind of developer - one who defies this single-mindedness and moves between tech stacks. The polyglot programmer. Let me show you what it means to be a polyglot and which skills you need to hone. I'll tell you why it's a good career move and why employers will care. Along the way, I'll tell you some stories about polyglot coders out in the wild...

Speakers

Rouan Wilsenach

Software Developer, ThoughtWorks

I'm a developer with experience consulting to clients in the financial services, health, media and education sectors. I've worked as an agile coach, helping teams learn and adopt agile engineering practices and I've helped businesses with organisation-wide agile adoption. I've delivered... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2015 2:00pm - 2:30pm SAST
Technologist Track

Tech, Work and Career

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Session Type Solo
Who should attend developers, people who hire developers, people who lead teams of developers
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #beapolyglot #polyglot #programming

2:50pm SAST

A digital trail of disruption with happily disrupted customers

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The online landscape is experiencing a digital trail of disruption and consumers are happily being disrupted. Felix will talk about what the future holds for the classifieds industry in the digital space and will touch on disruptive technologies that are fuelling the on-demand economy. Customers are after convenience and Felix will talk about the changes in the digital landscape that are already impacting our world and affecting our lives.

Speakers

Felix Erken

Co-Owner and Managing Director, Junk Mail Publishing Group

Felix Erken gave a talk at Tech4Africa 2014. He has also spoken at the International Classified Media Association (ICMA) conference in 2015. He is the MD and co-owner of Junk Mail, the largest local classifieds exchange in South Africa. The Junk Mail stable includes the flagship sites... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2015 2:50pm - 3:20pm SAST
Keynotes/Social/Misc Track

Disruption, Content and Distribution

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Session Type Solo
Who should attend app designers, Business Owners, Consumers, developers, entrepreneurs, marketing professionals
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #digitaldisruption, #digitaleconomy, #disruptivetech, #ecommerce, #ondemand, #userexperience

3:40pm SAST

SA eCommerce landscape - a closer look at alternative online payment methods

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The growing rate of eCommerce has created a hot topic of conversation. Payments are core to this and there are a number of options to fulfil these transactions. The South African market, as an example, offers a unique challenge with a need for additional methods beyond credit card. Join us in looking at insight gained at PayFast and the industry around us. We will take a closer look at the alternative options and how customers are responding.

Speakers

Jonathan Smit

MD & Founder, PayFast

Thursday October 8, 2015 3:40pm - 4:10pm SAST
eCommerce/Marketing/Mobile Track

eCommerce, eCommerce and Transactions

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Session Type Solo
Who should attend Business Owners, Entrepreneur, Store owners
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #ecommerce #payments #fintech

3:40pm SAST

How a girl from Soweto bridges the gap between offline and online

I'd like to share my story from being just another girl in Soweto, to building a career, to becoming a entrepreneur. And how tech helped me make all of that work.

Speakers

Phumelele Bezu

Co-Founder / Retailer Extraodinaire, Hair On Fleek

Thursday October 8, 2015 3:40pm - 4:10pm SAST
Startup Track

Startup, eCommerce and Transactions

Session Purpose Talk about success or failure in a positive way
Session Type Success story or case study
Who should attend all industries, everyone
Session DNA Enabling
Tags #girls, #PreviouslyUnderPriviliged, #ShowMeHowToDoIt

3:40pm SAST

Survival - The art of being a successful failure

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Lessons learnt from 2 businesses, 1 exit and almost going bust

Speakers

Nathan Jeffery

Founder and CEO, MyEcommerce

I started working when I was 12 and haven’t stopped. I’ve done everything from deliver newspapers and sell sweets at school while also working as a clown at the Spur through to working as a DJ in night clubs and working in a hair salon. I currently wear a few hats, I run MyEcommerce... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2015 3:40pm - 4:10pm SAST
Technologist Track

Startup, Work and Career

Session Purpose Impart wisdom
Session Type Solo
Who should attend All
Session DNA Enabling