This is the March edition of our regular newsletters. Please send us suggestions of things you would like to see included in the newsletter. We will be covering the following:
Sharing of information, like local technology events and industry news from our region
Access to tender information
Joint venture and local outsourcing opportunities
Promotion of unique technology related products, services and events
Geek Breakfast
To all of you that attended our #geekbreakfast in February, we’d like to extend a big thank you for making the event such a success. We had over 20 members attend, which was a great turnout.
The next #geekbreakfast will take place this coming Friday the 30th, at 9am at Office Reliance. As usual R20 will buy coffee and something to snack on.
Some of the items up for discussion and feedback will be the following:
ICT Incubator
PACA Workshops
ICT product catalog
BPO industry business case
Technology Conference
Electronics Club
ICT Incubator
The Garden Route ICT Incubator is taking shape. Letters of support have been received from the Western Cape Provincial Government, SEDA andGeorgeMunicipality.
We are hopeful to be operational in the next month. Submissions for acceptance as incubatees will be opening soon. More details and criteria will be released at the #geekbreakfast.
PACA Workshops
TheGeorgeMunicipalityran a number of industry specific workshops to identify key opportunities within each sector. The ICT workshop was attended by around 22 individuals, and it turned into a very valuable session. Some of the key issues that emerged at this workshop is as follows:
The industry is heavily dependent on customers from outside the region
The industry is fragmented with little co-ordination, for example, the local BPO players makes limited use of local ICT service providers
The industry wants to market collectively, but needs to for formalize this better
The industry wants a supportive co-location space where innovation and start-ups can flourish
Four key projects in the ICT sector were chosen as PACA projects and will be championed in the coming weeks and months. These are as follows:
Create an ICT skills catalog to showcase the local talent and skills to a wider market.
Create a BPO value proposition and get this included in BPeSA’s marketing initiatives at a international level.
Plan and run the second technology expo in theGarden Route, by creating a nationally significant event, attracting a wider and larger audience.
Start discussions around a technology / R&D destination at national government level, including the Minister of Science & Technology.
Please contact us if you want to actively participate in any of these projects.
Electronics Club – G3ECS
The G#ECS (Garden Route Electronics & Engineering Club) is now well established with over 40 members. Our sessions are hosted every Wednesday night at 17:30 till 20:00 at Office Reliance. All are welcome, young and old alike.
Thanks to some sponsorships our website, packed with information, is now online. This link has some pics showing what happens at these sessions.
The first project the kids in the club will build is a motorized robot called the Gecko. These robots will participate in ‘robot wars’ during the tech conference.
ASA-Electronics in partnership with Atmel have kindly donated 12 project board kits to get the ball rolling. We thank them and all our other sponsors for getting the club of to a great start.
Technology Conference
The annual Garden Routetechnology expo will be in its second year this year, and we plan on making it a showcase of what the Garden Routecan offer. In order to make this event a serious success we will need your help.
The conference will take place in the last week of October, and will be hosted in theGeorgeCivicCenter. The venue will be used as follows:
Main Hall – Exhibitors
Banquet Hall – School competitions (robot wars, LAN parties) and Hackathon. On the Saturday night the Gala dinner will be hosted in this hall.
Auditorium – Speakers, Pitch sessions
Theme
The conference will have an overall theme of sustainable and environmentally friendly technology, i.e. green tech. This will include things like start-ups, entrepreneurship, agri & environ tech, green programming, etc.
Speakers
We are lining up a list of local and national speakers. Some will focus on green tech whilst others will focus on start-ups, social media & cyberlaw, etc.
If you are interested in presenting a topic at the event please make contact as there are still speaking slots available.
Events
Some of the events lined up includes the following:
Inter-schools competitions. Science quiz, exhibitions, LAN party, Robot Wars. The robots build at the electronics club will go head to head in a duel to the death.
Start-up competition – pitch your start-up in front of a select group of Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors from out of town. The winning start-up and runners up will receive exciting prizes and may even obtain funding from the VC’s attending.
Hackathon – Friday night will see the local software & hardware guys going head to head in an all night programming challenge. The winner takes all in this exciting challenge aimed at creating some instant solutions to some of the community driven needs in the area.
Gala Dinner & Prize Giving – Saturday night will host the formal Gala dinner where the winners of the start-up and hackathon competition will be announced. We will also be awarding prizes for various industry achievements, like best website, best logo, best mobile app, etc.
The audience
The event is aimed at a local as well as national audience. To achieve this we will be actively promoting the event at a national level, once the format, speakers and sponsors have all been confirmed. We are aiming to have at least 2,000 people attend the conference over the three days.
Exhibitors
Local and National exhibitors will fill the main hall. Google, Samsung and Eskom have already indicated their interest in exhibiting at the event, and will hopefully be followed by other national exhibitors like Vodacom, Nokia, etc.
Local schools will be exhibiting their tech and science projects, and will be judged as part of an inter-schools competition.
Local ICT suppliers can exhibit their products and services. In attendance will be business from the bigger cities whom will be exploring cooperative or outsourcing arrangements with local suppliers.
Sponsorship
If you are interested in becoming a prize, event. marketing or branding sponsor at the event please make contact ASAP.
We are currently in negotiations with both Google and Samsung whom have indicated their strong interest in participating in the event as sponsors, speakers & exhibitors.
Trade Missions
The George Business chamber is organizing trade missions fromCape Town,Port ElizabethandJohannesburg. The idea is that the Chambers in these cities identifies potential synergies / opportunities in theGarden Routeand then bring a trade delegation of matched business to the region for a three day fact finding mission.
The ICT industry has been identified as a key potential and as such we should decide how best to showcase what we as an industry can offer to business in the bigger cities. BPO, outsourced software development and hardware design comes to mind as a key showcase, but things like electronic manufacturing should not be overlooked.
ICT Job Opportunities
A number of jobs are currently listed on the consortium website. These includes:
PHP developer
Web application developer
ICT coordinator
Junior web developer
Please visit the jobs section for more details.
Consortium Website
We have received several offers of assistance with the site revamp, but need more suggestions re designs, content and functionality to be added. Please let us have some feedback as to what you would like to see changed. Finally, if you have not yet completed our ICT industry survey, please do so. It is important to us and will help us focus our energy in the right direction.
Hope to see you at our geek breakfast on Friday morning.
Regards
Imel
