Mobile Africa
Note on October 8, 2010: I have received lots of emails, blog posts etc. hoping for this work to continue. We’ve created a Facebook group to do just that. Please join us at the Mobile Brain Bank Africa Group for making mobile opportunities in Africa boom!
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Thank you!
The Mobile Africa happening in Helsinki on Thursday September 30th exceeded all expectations. Thank you for contributing to the following success:
- Over the course of day we had close to 300 visitors from 24 countries (Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Kenya, Pakistan, Japan, Spain, France, China, Canada, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, India, UK, USA, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Ghana, Somalia, Norway, Germany, and Luxembourg)
- Our event hashtag #mobbafrica generated up to 20.000 Tweets (and still continues)
- Since launched in April, this event web page has received over 26.000 visits
- 2 new partnership deals were launched (that we know of)
- Solution clinic solved 2 real life problems leading to new business, and offered 1 additional solution
- A new student led Africa market research initiative, MECHA, was formed (to be on www.mecha.org)
- Testimonials from the exhibitors and start ups pitching are 100% positive (“the right people were here”, “real African businesses”, “real contacts” etc.)
- 50 people received a Suntrica SolarStrap charger
- A follow-up event agreed to be held in Malta
If you have a success story from the event, please do let me know. If you enjoyed it, but don’t have a specific success case, you can help me rebuild it again by posting your comment to our Guestbook.
If you are blogging, you can help by sending me a link to your blog. I will add it to the list of press/blog coverage. Initial coverage so far:
http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFJOE68T05S20100930
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE68T0DX20100930
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/Nokia-sees-mobile-surge-rsg-3975427307.html?x=0&.v=2
http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2010/09/30/nokia-expects-over-300-million-new-mobile-phone-users-in-africa/
http://www.citifmonline.com/site/business/news/view/12147/3
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/nokia-sees-mobile-surge-in-africa-2010-09-30
http://in.biz.yahoo.com/100930/137/bawbkf.html
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/rtrs/20100930/tbs-nokia-africa-7318940.html
http://mobile.reuters.com/shortArticle/hotStocksNews/idUSLDE68T0DX20100930
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-51843520100930
http://www.tabj.co.za/african_business_news/nokia_gains_popularity_in_africa.html
http://areena.yle.fi/video/1322525 (TV news in Finnish, see from 0.13.24 onwards))
http://areena.yle.fi/audio/1322133 (Radio news in Finnish, hear from 0.10.20 onwards)
http://www.kauppalehti.fi/5/i/talous/uutiset/etusivu/uutinen.jsp?oid=20100923539
http://breachcandygroup.posterous.com/anybody-has-a-mobile-here-and-has-been-raped
Again, thank you for visiting and bringing the life to the party. Also my warmest appreciation to our sponsors Nokia, Dazide, Enterprise Estonia, Finnpartnership, Finpro, Jalumba, Pajat and Suntrica, speakers and exhibitors, our hard working staff, moderators Maja and Madan, judges Tim, Peter and Gian Luca, panelists Ugur, Gian Luca and Contador, Astoria Hall, the Cameroon Association for wonderful food, Flabat for ticketing service, KP for the chillingly cool music, and all who made it to the afterparty for a fine closure of the day.
Pictures from the event in Ovi and Flicr. Pre-recorded videos in Mobile Brain Bank’s channel in YouTube.
Follow this website for future activities, and don’t hesitate to come forward with ideas of your own. Mobile Brain Bank is looking for local nodes in all countries for promoting employment through mobile entrepreneurship.