World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers

WEF logo

Every year the World Economic Forum produces a list of Technology Pioneers, companies that are the most innovative technology start-ups with the potential to transform the future of business and society.

Previous Technology Pioneers include Google (2001), Wikimedia (2008), Twitter (2010) and Kickstarter (2012).

And our clients too – OMC Power this year and VNL in 2010.

We prepared and submitted  applications on behalf of both companies whose businesses and global brands were both strengthened by acknowledgement of their achievements and vision by the World Economic Forum.

A piece about VNL and the World Economic Forum also appeared in TIME magazine which you can read here: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1948486_1948485_1948477,00.html

We are currently crafting submissions for various clients for the 2015 list.

More details about the awards are here: http://www.weforum.org/community/technology-pioneers

Busy, Busy, Busy!

The last few months have been extremely busy here at TelecomsPRAfrica.

Our client base continues to grow and we are proud to work for companies which are building the telecoms infrastructure which Africa needs and deserves.

This month we are working on all kinds of stories which show how our clients continue to invest and innovate.

For those of you who have found that trade shows are a good way to cement existing relationships and build new ones, then you might be interested in submitting a speaker proposal for next year’s Mobile World Congress.

This is not traditionally an event which focuses much on Africa and emerging markets. The GSMA usually hosts some side-show seminars about m-power, m-money, m-women etc but the main conference is focused on the issues in established markets such as 5G, social media and M2M.

You can see more information here:  http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/call-for-papers-overview-2015/

The deadline for submitting a proposal is 12 September.

May 2014 already!

Barely a day goes by without an African front page story in an international paper. Oscar Pistorius, troubles in Nigeria, the internet being shut down in Somalia, the list goes on and on…

But those of us working in Africa with entrepreneurs and influencers know plenty of inspiring stories about people who are working tirelessly to build Africa’s infrastructure.

At TelecomsPRAfrica we also work hard – to ensure that the international media knows about the success stories in Africa and to put our clients in front of their customers and prospects.

This month we are working a whole raft of marketing activities: EastAfricaCom, the telecoms trade show for East Africa; a media tour in Nigeria; a product launch in Cameroon as well as our usual bread and better of media and analyst relations.

We’ve also started working with a Swedish power company which has developed a machine which converts bio-mass to electricity. Not our usual telecoms speciality but an exciting company with its eye on the African market.

Before we know it, it’ll be June and time to start working on award entries for AfricaCom and Capacity!

TMT Africa looking for speakers for London 2014 conference

TMT logo

 

 

TMT’s events are always worth attending as the team there puts a lot of time and effort into researching what’s relevant in the market, who the interesting and innovative players are – and then persuading influencers to both speak and attend.

The 5th TMT Finance & Investment Africa 2014 Conference will take place in London in June 2014 and “will bring together the most important leadership from telecoms, finance, government and advisory active across Africa to assess the latest opportunities for investment and partnership”.

TMT are open to receiving speaker proposals.  More details here:

http://www.tmtfinance.com/africa/

Webinar on Africa and ME – Pyramid Research

pyramid logo

 

 

Pyramid Research – which is owned by the same group as Light Reading – is hosting a free webinar about Telecoms In Africa and the Middle East – unique opportunities in diverse markets.  

Might be worth tuning into. Details on their website and here’s their synopsis:

Today, Africa and the Middle East is the second largest region in the world in terms of mobile subscriptions. This is a foundation which is poised to rise even higher in the future and one upon which new value will be created through improved infrastructures and advanced services. However, capturing the untapped potentials in the region is not an easy task if the diversity of the region is not recognized and the individual markets are not treated with respect to their particular necessities.

In this webinar, we describe some of the unique opportunities and challenges in a region that hosts economies ranging from the wealthy states of the Gulf to the populous sub-Saharan nations.

Findings that will be explored in this upcoming webinar include:

  • Mobile Internet revenue will maintain an explosive growth rate in the AME region and it will double in size to represent a $25bn opportunity by 2018.
  • Today, there are slightly more than 5 million households with FTTH broadband in AME. By 2018, this figure will have risen to more than 16 million.
  • In 2018, one in every two subscriptions will be running either on LTE or on 3G networks. Today, it is one in every four subscriptions.
  • Thanks to relatively liberal licensing regimes that partly offset the economic uncertainties of the region, commercial LTE services can be found in close to 10 sub-Saharan countries already.

It is no doubt that AME is a region of high risks and high returns, and therefore in its markets, information is the most valuable resource. That is why we would like to invite you to this webinar, where you will find insights drawn from our AME research, which has expanded to cover 44 countries, corresponding to 95% of the GDP in the region.

We are pleased to be offering this webinar at two separate times:

Dec 3 2013 – 12 midday SA/10am GMT/6pm UTC + 8 hours. Register here:

Dec 3 2013 – 11am EST/8am PST/4pm/6pm SA GMT. Register here.

OMC Power – an Indian company. Mixing it up!

At TelecomsPR Africa we specialise in helping vendors raise their profile with operators, enterprises and governments throughout Africa as well as consumers. However, that doesn’t mean to say we can’t turn our hand to other continents…

For example, OMC Power is an Indian company which has built solar-powered micropower plants in rural areas in India where the electricity grid will never reach.boy with lantern

It is the first power company to transform the provision of electricity in rural India into a commercially viable, sustainable and scalable business.

We have been working for OMC for almost two years from pre-launch to present day.

Here are some of our highlights:

Huffington Post, November 2012 – Solar in India story.

Forbes India, May 2013 – Four page feature about OMC. 

The Economist, July 2013 – Lighting up rural India.

The Times of India, August 2013 – OMC named as technology pioneer by World Economic Forum.

New York Times, September 2013 – overview of the OMC story.

 

micropower plant  An OMC micropower plant in Uttar Pradesh.

 

I survived AfricaCom 2013!

What a show!  My favourite images….

My client WTL picking up an award. My client Liquid Telecom picking up an award.

photo of wellington

WTL photo

 

Award season

Picking up a couple of gongs…

award photoSo here’s a photo of me at last week’s Global Telecoms Business magazine’s Annual Innovation Awards.

These prestigious awards, organised by the much-respected GTB magazine, celebrate the joint work of vendors and operators in innovative projects that better serve the telecom industry’s end customers.

I had two clients up on stage celebrating.

OMC Power and Bharti Infratel picked up an award in the most innovative consumer technology category for building micropower plants in rural India.  These power plants provide electricity as an OPEX to Bharti Infratel’s off-grid towers.

And Liquid Telecom with its partner Ekinops were named as “Best Fixed Network Infrastructure Innovation” for building Africa’s longest single span fibre links.

Congrats to all the winners – but especially those I work for!!

EastAfricaCom 2013

eacomTerrific show this week.  Here’s a summary from Informa – and if you’re not already in the linkedin group then you should join! It’s called East Africa Com: Telecoms, ICT & Media Group.
Dear East Africa Com Group Member,

After two days of engaging discussions and networking, the 9th annual East Africa Com conference and exhibition closed in Nairobi, Kenya on the 22nd of May 2013.

The sessions covered the services that are most likely to impact data growth in the region: content, mobile money, e-health, TV, mobile marketing and apps. Some keywords were repeatedly mentioned when discussing how to make services successful: affordability, user-friendliness and simplicity. Betty Mwangi-Thuo from Safaricom (who gave an update on the ever successful mpesa) also highlighted the importance of partnerships to ensure the success of services.

The topic of e-health was covered by a presentation from a representative of Ogra Foundation, the event’s charity partner, which works with and for vulnerable communities in Kenya to improve and promote health.

The event ended with the AppGig, a new session dedicated to developing, promoting and monetising apps for East Africa. A lively panel discussion covered both technical and commercial issues. The audience had a chance to share their favourite apps for the region, ranging from traffic news to education and health.

————————————————–
Thanks for tweeting and using the hash tag #EastAfricaCom @allaboutcom
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The East Africa Com team received a record breaking 500+ tweets over the course of the two days, which surpassed last year’s tweet record by 68%.

We look forward to reading your tweets next year!

You can still tweet about your experience this year using #EastAfricaCom @allaboutcom on twitter!

——————
See You Next Year!
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To get involved early for the 2014 show,
please visit our website: http://eaafrica.comworldseries.com/

East Africa Com 2014
20-21 May 2014
Safari Park Hotel
Nairobi, Kenya

Communications Africa/Afrique magazine – Mobile Money Focus in upcoming issue

commsafrica

 

Mobile Money is certainly a hot topic at the moment.  Not surprising really as the total value of mobile money transfers in Africa is expected to exceed US$200bn by 2015  representing 18% of the continent’s GDP.

Communications Africa-Afrique’s Issue 3 2013 will publish an editorial feature on Mobile Money to reflect interest.  This will cover

  • Key trends and issues in the African mobile money industry.
  • Review of successful mobile money solution providers in Africa.

There will also be a preview of the East Africa Com exhibition. Communication Africa-Afrique has been chosen to be the Official Pan African Media Partner for the event. Issue 3 will feature an exhibition preview and extra copies will distribute there.

Comms Afrique is a tier 1 print magazine, website and email newsletter read by everyone who is anyone in the African telco market.

It is the only bilingual ICT/ Telecoms publication in English and French and has a print circulation of 8,971 with the digital edition  sent to 12,000 subscribed professionals which will include live web links on your advertisements.

Check out its website for more details and you can see the latest digital edition here.