Category Archives: ideaexchange

Idea Exchange: TED, Tullow, Diageo, Kenyan Design Opportunities

Designer Opportunities (From the local newspapers)
– Design a logo for the Kenya Salaries & Remuneration Commission. First prize is Kshs. 150,000 (~$1,830) and D/L is March 30.
– Architects & artists are invited to design a new Kenyan courthouse. First prize Kshs 500k ($6,097) and deadline is March 16.
– Help design new Kenya banknotes & coins, with themes of Kenya reborn/ Kenya prosperity. The deadline April 13.

Diageo Africa Business Reporting AwardsThe 2012 edition of the DABRA business journalism awards is now open. Categories this year include ICT, finance, infrastructure, agribusiness, tourism, newcomer, media journalist and other awards, with March 23 as the deadline for entries.

Hewani: Get your mobile apps published for free at Hewani.co.ke – including all android, nokia, WAP, Web & USSD versions (via @johnwaibochi)

Hitachi Foundation: Did you start your business before the age of 30? Is it 1-5 years old, and are you interested in lifting people out of poverty? If so, you’re eligible to apply for $40,000 from the Foundation’s Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneurs Program by March 30. (via The Unreasonable Institute)

TED: Worldwide auditions for speakers take place in 14 cities including Nairobi and anyone can apply as long as they have not spoken at a TED conference before. Inventors, teachers, artists, performers, change agents, story tellers and others are all invited to apply – details are here, and the Nairobi deadline is March 17.

Tullow scholarship: In partnership with the British Council Tullow invites applications for post-graduate training in oil & gas – drilling & well management, reservoir evaluation & management, energy studies with specialization in oil & gas, environmental science, oil & gas law. Details are here and the deadline is April 6.

Edit: Advance Africa is a useful resource of funding with a constantly updated list of scholarships & fellowships for African students.

Carnegie Mellon Rwanda: The Carnegie Mellon University’s college of engineering will have a Rwanda campus and from August 2012, they will offer a Master of Science in Information Technology. There are 50% scholarships offered to East African citizens who apply by the April 21 deadline.

The East Africa Association of Grantmakers has organized the East African Philanthropy Awards. Categories include family, faith, corporate, youth, reporting, and individual awards and the deadline to submit nominations is April 13.

Kenya Blog Awards: The Bloggers Association of Kenya (BAKE) announces BAKE Blog Awards with 14 categories including technology photography, creative writing, business, food, agriculture, sports, fashion, corporate, new blog, Tweep (best individual and corporate on twitter) and even politics! Entries are open till March 29 for entries to be submitted.

The 2012 Kenya ICT Board Connected Kenya awards have just been announced; they are thirteen categories, and the deadline for entries is 26 March.

Idea Exchange: Pivot, MobileWeb, TEDx

All Africa Business Leaders Awards from CNBC Africa is open for nominations in the following categories; business leader of the year, young business leader of the year, businesswoman of the year, entrepreneur of the year, and lifetime achievement award.

Cartier Women’s Initiative award targets female entrepreneurs engaged in creative for profit initiatives and prizes may be up to $20,000 per year.

The IDS Knowledge Services Open Application Programming Interface has technical grants of up to £3,000 in two categories – plug-ins and innovations. Details here.

Mobile East Africa: returns to Nairobi on February 22 and 23. When the event was last here two years ago, it was an eye opener on the presence mobile advertising, mobile learning, smart phones sales, social media potential, gaming, and software standards.

Persephone Miel Fellowship from the Pulitzer Center & Internews, is designed to help media professionals (journalists, writers, photographers, radio producers, filmmakers; as well as free-lancers and media professionals) outside of the United States do the kind of reporting they’ve always wanted to do, and comes with a travel grant, payments and distribution arrangment.

Pivot East: Entries are open for this year’s edition of Pivot East (previously known as Pivot25) scheduled for June in Nairobi. Categories this year include financial services, business & resource management, entertainment , mobile society and utilities and the competition is open to companies and individuals in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and Somalia.

The Poptech social innovation fellowship is now open.

The Stanford Africa Forum forum on February 25 (source Ken Opalo)

TEDxPreparations are also on for the next edition of TEDxNairobi.

Here’s a favourite video from the last TEDxNairobi with students from the Bishop Lawi Imathiu Secondary School in Meru performing a classical music selection in September 2010.

2011 Africa Awards

The award ceremony for the Awards took place in Nairobi on December 8. Sponsored by Legatum and Omidyar, this is the fifth year, and they received 3,300 entries from around Africa. Kenya has had numerous winners (AAR, Bio Deal, Colour Creations, Craft Silicon, Virtual City) , so it was not surprising that of the ten finalists, only one was Kenyan outsider (in financial services). Also it was nice to see and read about small and growing companies from other African countries that are not necessarily in the technology space

Criteria for eligibility consideration was the companies had to have a turnover of $1 – 15 million, a profitable track record of 2 years, at least 10 employees, not be subsidiaries of other companies, among other rules.

The overall prize of $100,000 went to Securico a woman founded security company that has thrived (edit) in inflation wracked Zimbabwe. It is an ISO certified company, with a turnover of $13 million and engage in diverse fields of security a workforce of 3,400 employees

There were six winners of $50,000:
– Chocolate City group which has a record company
– Expand Technology makers of smart card solutions from Mauritius. Their Kenya projects include Kenol cards and KWS Smart cards
– Pepperoni Foods from Nigeria
– SoleRebels from Ethiopia makes shoes, and are now available through Amazon.com
– Unique Solutions of Gambia which has grown from a cyber café to an ISP with reach in rural Gambia
– Victoria Seeds which grows seeds and has developed and trained a network of farmers in Uganda

Other finalists were:
– Cellular Systems of Senegal
– First Atlantic semiconductors from Nigeria
– Investeq Capital Kenya
The Africa Awards website has more info on the finalists.

Celebrating the Cocktail Napkin

In Nairobi, there are thousands of conversations that happen at restaurant lunches or over evening drinks in bars. Most are mundane, sports related, money driven, contemplation of sex, and sometimes they are about business.

A lot of conversations don’t go anywhere beyond the bar. But out of a few of these, some will – through a chat, watching TV, or other exchange of idea – experience a moment of clarity (Think Pulp Fiction) – a realization of logic, or a plan or an urgent action to be taken.

However, by having one more drink or a new conversation, the idea is forgotten, or shot down or entrepreneurial innovation is mentally discarded as being unfeasible

One way to transform the moment of clarity into action is by using a cocktail napkin – i.e. sketch out ideas, plans, or action points to be taken after the bar session. Some great ideas initiatives around here, are the products of cocktail napkins like Praekelt and SwiftRiver.

So how can we celebrate the cocktail napkin? Kengeles Pub used to have a bell that they would ring, when a bar VIP walked in – perhaps the person who has had the million dollar idea can use it to signal that (i) he is not to be disturbed or distracted (ii) he has to dash out to start working on his life-changing plan (iii) he will settle the bill on his next visit!

Also bars can avail pens & classy note pads for aspiring people to jot down their ideas. This will help when (the next morning) the entrepreneur empties his pockets to find a crumpled, soggy napkin with illegible writing Also the note pad paper will look important enough that the spouse or maid about to do the house washing, will not throw it into the trash.

Idea Exchange: TED Global, Richard Branson, Student Opportunities

The 2011 Africa Awards ceremony take place in Nairobi on December 8 and reward entreprenual excellence & efforts. This year the odds are strong that the winners of the total $400,000 of funding prizes won’t be Kenyans as the nominees shortlisted are soleRebels, – Ethiopia, Unique Solutions – Gambia, Expand Technology – Mauritius, Chocolate City Group , FASMicro, and Pepperoni Foods (3 from Nigeria) Cellular Systems International – Senegal, Victoria Seeds – Uganda, Securico – Zimbabwe and InvesteQ – Kenya.

The Awards are held in conjunction with Convergence Africa also in Nairobi on the same day and which features Richard Branson among other speakers and leaders.

Africa Leadership Academy: The world famous school in South Africa is taking on the next crop of students leaders. Application details are online and the Deadline is 12 December 2011.

Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund: Has a new round of financing for renewable energy and climate adaptation technologies. It is aimed at for-profit companies with eligible projects in the East Africa region and Funding will be in the form of grants and repayable grants of between US$ 250,000 to US$ 1.5 million. Details here.

Google Photography Prize: Google + is seeking photographs submitted in ten categories (main ly by university students). More details.

NetFund: Identify individuals, educational or community institutions with project, initiatives or campaigns that contributes towards environmental management and are worthy of an award. Details here and deadline is January 30 2012.

Reuters Business News Workshop Fellowships: This is a five-day course in London next year, that is open to as journalists or regular contributors to print, broadcast or online media organizations. D/L November 25 (Found at Yipe)

TEDGlobal 2012 takes place in Edinburgh, Scotland in June 2012 with 50-plus speakers and performers from all over the world. See registration details.

Edit

Australia Awards: The Government of Australia has scholarships to Kenyans in priority development sectors. They include masters levels (D/L Feb 28) and short term professional development (D/L 16 December). More details here.

Chevening Scholarships: The Chevening Scholarship Programme for Kenya 2012-13 is now open for applications. It facilitates post graduate study program in the UK available for up to 12 months or for short courses or research. details here and the deadline is Jan. 23, 2012.

CNBC Africa: Top Trader is a new reality television show that will in 2012 follow the trials and tribulations of Africa’s top amateur traders> The competition is now open to public; there are more details on CNBC Top Trader and the D/L is Jan 21.

FiveByTwenty program of the Coca Cola company to create five million women entrepreneurs in the coca cola ecosystem by 2020. The pilot had 100 young women trained in Nairobi in financial & distribution training and become sales partners and more are invited to apply to coca cola 5 BY 20 technoserve as producers, suppliers, farmers (project nurture) etc. if they meet some criteria.

Google Africa Internships: This is a continuation of their summer internship program, now open for new applicants, and more Google Internship details can be found at the Africa blog.

Pasha: Latest round of funding from the Kenya ICT Board. Details here and D/L is Dec 3.

CNNMultiChoice African Journalist 2012 Awards. Details here and D/L is Jan 26.