“If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, then you have to go together. This African proverb perfectly sums up the goal set by Microsoft with the NexTech Africa conference. This new flagship event for the technology sector in Africa will be held on February 2-3, 2017 in Nairobi, Kenya.
The aim is to reflect together on issues such as the design of technology that could help African inventors, the establishment of a data culture within companies, the global relevance of African innovations. By doing so, it will allow technology and business leaders, Microsoft engineers, local developers and entrepreneurs to discuss opportunities to collaborate on the emergence of locally relevant technology.
“The 2017 edition of the NexTech Africa conference will have the theme ‘Building for Africa’. African entrepreneurs aim to solve the many problems facing businesses and market challenges. Developers have a key role in creating solutions tailored to African realities, ranging from healthcare to fintechs.
We strongly believe that new technologies facilitate access to essential services and accelerate productivity, using unique business models. Our goal with this conference is to connect the various players in the industry so that we can provide innovators with the right tools and infrastructure to fully engage in the development of technology solutions,” says Kunle Awosika, Country Manager of Microsoft Kenya.
Some of the speakers in this 2017 edition…
- Joseph Mucheru, Cabinet Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of ICT
- Ranjith Cherickel, CEO of co
- Regina Honu, CEO of Soronko Solutions
- Andreas Fruhen, CIO of M-KOPA Solar.
Representatives from Microsoft will also be speaking, including:
- Toni Townes-Whitley, Corporate Vice President of Public Sector at Microsoft Corp,
- K Rengarajan, Corporate Vice President of AI & Research,
- Hoop Somuah, Technical Advisor to the CEO of Microsoft,
- Kunle Awosika, Country Manager of Microsoft in Kenya.
For the complete list of speakers, click here.
For those who wish to attend this flagship event, click here. For those who can’t make the trip, follow the conference on the event website, or on Ch9.ms. NexTech Africa will also be relayed on Twitter, with the hashtag #NXTA.
A tailor-made program
The two-day program includes conferences, working sessions and discussion forums on the Cloud, Big Data, the Internet of Things, digital conversion and technology in emerging markets. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to speak one-on-one with Microsoft engineers.
“Through initiatives such as 4Afrika, Microsoft contributes concretely to the development of new technologies in Africa,” explains Amrote Abdella, Regional Director of Microsoft 4Afrika.
“These initiatives not only allow us to see how mobile and cloud technology is accelerating growth in Africa, but also to see the full extent of our designers’ involvement in global technology advancement. NexTech Africa is an opportunity to accelerate the use of products and services designed to meet African realities. It is also an opportunity to showcase world-class, African-designed solutions that are ready to be marketed internationally.
