The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) recently hosted a digitalization roundtable at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Pretoria, South Africa. It was an opportunity for networking and social interaction between entrepreneurs, embassy representatives and business leaders in technology and innovation. Three speakers provided thought leadership from the industry; Dr Eugene van …
In the early days of the Ukraine invasion, IT enthusiasts on quadbikes helped prevent a colossal 65km Russian tank convoy from reaching Ukraine’s capital. Armed with drones and night-vision goggles they ambushed the tanks and supply points during a series of night raids. Blocked by wreckage and paralysed by fuel shortages, 15,000 soldiers and heavy …
According to last night’s Vent-Con 2020 conference, about 10,000 people worldwide are trying to build ventilators to help solve the anticipated shortage due to COVID19. Highly qualified speakers from various countries shared a panel to showcase their projects, discuss design considerations and help get teams from “workbench to deployment”. I was interested in all these …
Africa’s first hosting of the largest telecomms conference in the world was an important opportunity for the industry to showcase South Africa to the 91 attending countries. Not just Durban’s beautiful foreshore and local cuisine but the innovation of a sector that Nelson Mandela urged in 1995 to work towards “information riches” for all countries. …
ITU 2018: African connectivity for local solutions Read More »
In welcoming 91 countries to Durban, Ramaphosa has stressed the importance of bridging the digital divide to create an inclusive society. This builds on the theme of Nelson Mandela’s speech at Africa’s first ITU in Geneva during 1995 when he said that telecommunications can help developing countries become “information rich”. Ramaphosa also hopes that the …
11000 people packed into the Sandton Convention Centre for Africa’s largest annual gathering of business leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs. Featuring over 250 talks and exhibitions at this year’s event it is a market place of ideas covering venture capital, education, digital, insurtech, AI, banking and much more. During the day I presented a talk on …
Leaderex 2018: Agility, the future of banking and SME support Read More »
The views of Table Mountain from the top floor of our Portside building in Cape Town are outstanding. Even more so when the British Prime Minister stood in front of them recently to open the SA-UK business forum. An historical, first ever visit to Africa for Theresa May she brought a high profile delegation of …
ITWeb’s “Meeting of the Minds” Artificial Intelligence conference took place in Johannesburg recently. Keynote speaker and professor of ethics Dr Aimee van Wynsberghe called for future-proofing AI with responsible design. Named one of Netherland’s top 400 influential women she is driving ethical-robotics thinking through her research and foundation work. She cited examples of human fatalities …
AI 2018: Lessons for humans, selfies with robots Read More »
“Don’t run a campaign, create a stage”, this is how Lars Silberbauer built LEGO’s social media presence into the world’s most powerful brand in 2015, according to Forbes. Silberbauer is in South Africa for the BCX Disrupt conference and also spoke at an Entelect networking session about how the company re-invented itself from a traditional …
Durban is one of the leading cities of South Africa and was a host of the Soccer World Cup in 2010. The Ethekwini Municipality has recognised the importance of bringing together business, government and the community to help drive the city’s aspirations forward. One of these goals is that Durban becomes South Africa’s next Silicon …
