Okay, what do we have here? On November 16, 2016, The Emergent Continent, an innovation conference organised by the Lagos Business School (LBS), and TheNerve Africa will hold. Its conveners have themed it, “Make Innovation Happen”, and it will feature cross-industry thought leadership sessions on Smart Payments, Smart Cities, Smart Agric, Smart Content and Smart Corporations.
The consensus is that this is an economically gloomy period for African countries, from SA to Tunisia. Real incomes are flat, income inequality is rising, high debt and unemployment are serving as a noose, choking the performance of countries on the continent, but TheNerve’s thesis is that “innovation will work”.
“A lot has happened within the innovation space in Africa in recent times; sadly this has barely been documented or given the necessary amount of global media coverage required as America has done for its Silicon Valley. The Nerve Africa, a global business publishing company focused on continental Africa will in the course of the next 12months embark on an editorial journey themed “MAKE INNOVATION HAPPEN”, a process that will see the media company document and provide coverage of enterprise innovation within Africa. This process will start officially with an innovation conference in November 2016,” they said, in a statement.
In the same vein, they’ve invited professionals from around the world to come talk about how they’ve excelled at their fields. The speakers include (but aren’t limited to) Ashley Bendell, Shaliest Grover, Ravindra Mistri, Johan Jemdahl, Wiebe Boer, Elizabeth Rosseillo (Founder of Bitpesa), Niti Bhan, Ronald Chagoury Jr., Yinka David-West, Juliet Ehimuan (Country Manager, Google Nigeria), Prof. Ndubuisi Ekekwe, Wale Okodane, Paul Wallace (Emerging Markets reporter, Bloomberg), Bosun Tijani, Kola Aina, Yinka Adegoke (Quartz), Seyi Taylor, and Marcello Schermer (Regional Manager Africa, SeedStars).
Perez Tigidam, the Publisher of TheNerve Africa and convener of the event said “Global think tanks and reputable business schools with their ability to function as international idea managers and brokers find themselves in a prime position to affect policy.”
If you’re interested, you can reserve a spot here bit.ly/emergentcontinent
