Following the opening ceremony, breakaway sessions included panel discussions with business leaders, creative master classes, hackathons, inventors demonstrating their prototypes at the Inventors Garage, and startups pitching to a panel of potential investors. Startups and business leaders connected to share advice on how to take an idea to market successfully.
“Innovation happens when you ask ‘why?’,” said Rob Stokes, chairperson at Red&Yellow and speaker at the Summit. During his talk 'Why creative thinking is the most important skill of the 21st Century', he addressed how we access our inner creative genius to stay ahead of automation and even artificial intelligence.
During a CEO panel discussion, Kieno Kammies posed the question: “What toolkit does one require to start a business?”
“One thing that struck me to be essential is to conquer fear, not just conquer it, banish it so that it does not exist; in this way you are just completely focused on your vision,” was founder of Fundamo, supplier of mobile banking and payment solutions, Hannes van Rensburg's answer.
The event ended off with the announcement of winners of the various competitions at the event:
Speakers at this year’s event committed to a change that they will enact and give feedback on over the course of a year, helping to create a greater impact on the economic ecosystem.
“The commitment varied from general collaboration in strengthening the innovation and start-up eco system in South Africa to specific commitments like that of delegate Hamilton Mphidi that committed to creating startup schools in communities to teach future skills,” explains Audrey Verhaeghe, chairperson of the Summit.
In his presentation, Pieter de Villiers reminded people that "you do not have to be a billionaire to give back: offer your time and effort. Commitments touched on creation, implementation and enablement of new ideas, capacity building, riding the wave of big data and disrupting industries. Thinking big and scaling of businesses from Africa to the World was a golden thread at the Summit.”
“We are incredibly excited about what the year ahead will bring in terms of measurable societal impact,” Verhaeghe concluded. “It is events like these that act as an important source of inspiration for many to take a great idea and turn it into something that will change the world.”