Sir Branson has been to Kenya a number of times but never have I had the opportunity to see him and listen to him speak. I find him quite fascinating because of his unconventional ways of thinking. Take his books as an example “Losing my virginity”, “Screw it, lets do it”, “Business stripped bare”, and “Screw business as usual”. That is a rather expansive reference to… I have digressed!
Back to the conference, we arrived quite early (I do not mean in African time) and after getting lost a time or two we finally found the site where the venue would take place. (I will write about signage for events in another blog). A fair had been laid out for breakfast but those who know the members of our team well know that we had satiated our appetites long before. As has been mentioned in many-a-Kuza Biashara-blog, we are legendary for our appetites.
We sat awaiting the conference to start and my colleagues and I made some interesting observations about how Africa has fallen captive to foreign investors whilst we have it in our power to invest in our own nations. The conference started in true Africa fashion- late! It was a very pleasant start, though as it kicked off with a key note session with Tony Elumelu, the group CEO of UBA bank.
The session took an unorthodox approach with the keynote speaker being interviewed in a live-studio set-up rather than the usual speech behind a lectern. This was made even made more interesting by the fact that the interviewer was our very own Jeff Koinange. I felt like witnessing Capital Talk ‘on the bench’ live! Tony spoke in the simplest and most candid ways I have ever seen from a successful CEO. A young man from a middle class family, in Nigeria, was a bank CEO before his 34th birthday! Listening to him I saw a man who could see beyond his years and his peers and pursued those visions with unmatched passion.
Sir Branson came on in the second round and was interviewed by Komla Dumor. I felt like I was on Hollywood boulevard with all these big names. Komla is a journalist for the BBC World and if you haven’t heard of Komla, you must be watching cartoon network.
I never in a million years would have anticipated meeting such renowned and influential people as I did at the conference. But I did and even had the utmost pleasure of shaking hands with some of these African greats. The thing that was most impressive to me was that there were quite a number of female entrepreneurs and professionals. At the risk of sounding feminist, this brought to mind the quote” if you want something done ask a woman” and these women are doing it big!
As the day wore on to my own surprise, the most impressive speaker was not Richard Branson but Fred Swaniker. Fred Swaniker is anentrepreneur with deep experience in education and leadership on the African continent. He is the Founder & CEO of African Leadership Academy, a world-class, pan-African school that aims to develop future generations of African leaders. His vision and passion for nurturing the leaders of tomorrow is exemplary to say the least.
Women entrepreneurs stole the show
The highlight of the day had to be the gala dinner that crowned the conference and this time it’s not about food (though it was quite good). The dinner included the Africa Awards 2011, recognising the most outstanding entrepreneurs in Africa. Why this was the icing on the cake is that there were three women nominated out of ten and all three won award. The overall winner was a lady from Zimbabwe who runs a security firm. I felt such inextricable joy watching her go on stage and late as I hugged and congratulated her. Such are true inspirations to young women of my generation.
We were treated to sumptuous meals (I have to stay true to the team), enlightening sessions from James Mwangi (CEO, Equity Bank), Isis Nyong’o (MD Africa, InMobi), Sir Richard Branson, Tony Elumelu, Fred Swaniker, and many more. I met people with great stories to tell and hopefully one day I shall tell them.
All in all I learnt a lot from this conference. The key points:
- Dignity is a carnal aspect of success ~ James Mwangi
- Above profit, ethics is very important in business ~ Sir Richard Branson
- African leadership needs to involve the youth in order to meet the challenges facing the continent. ~ Fred Swaniker
- We can do anything we decide to do if we have the right vision and passion ~ Tony Elumelu
- You don’t have to start with much to build big ~ Divine Ndhlukula, Grand Prize winner of Africa Awards 2011
- Unique ideas can come from conventional ones ~ Bethlehem Tilahun, winner of Africa awards for entrepreneurship, 2011
