September 2011 Events

September 24th 2011: The Botswana Amateur Arts Festival (BAAF)
Venue: Maitisong Gaborone starting at 08:00

The Botswana Amateur Arts Festival (BAAF) is a unique festival dedicated to providing a strong platform for young performers and generate increased exposure for the arts.
The BAAF aims to be a world class performing arts festival that is noticeable in Botswana and internationally.

This is a unique festival that awards amateur artists an opportunity to write, direct, and manage there own production and present it to fellow participants and a panel of judges. The festival also awards the participants a chance to learn from established artists and scholars of the arts in Botswana including Artists and University lectures in small group workshops. Winners in the different categories are awarded at the end, these awards include best actor, best actress, best director, best script etc.

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September 26th – 30th 2011: Tunza International Children & Youth Conference on the Environment
Venue: Bandung, Indonesia
Theme: Reshaping Our future through a Green Economy and Sustainable Lifestyle

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in collaboration with the Government of Indonesia will be organizing its Tunza International Children & Youth Conference on the Environment , from 26th to 30th September 2011. Read more »»

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September 26th – October 1st 2011: 4th IMC World Forum on Music
Venue: Tallinn

The IMC World Forum on Music is a global knowledge-building platform on music and society in the 21st century. During the forum a variety of topics will be explored from diverse perspectives: cultural, political and economical. The IMC World Forum on Music is considered one of IMC’s main contributions to setting the stage for the free celebration of music in the world. For more information, visit www.imc-cim.org

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September 26th – October 7th 2011: Creative Enterprise Business Skills Training
Venue: Mombasa
Time: 8.30AM – 4.30PM, Monday to Friday
Fees: Kshs. 10, 000 per person

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September 26th to October 7th 2011: Entrepreneurship Training Workshops for Dynamic Entrepreneurs (ETWs)
Venue: Eldoret, Kenya

The ETWs equip business leaders with the tools, perspectives and frameworks needed to strengthen their enterprises while engaging multiple competencies for success. Read more »»

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September 28th – 30th 2011: ICT Women Empowerment Africa Summit
Venue: Gallagher Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa

The theme of the second annual ICT summit will be “Recognising and Empowering Women in the ICT Sector” Key Discussion Topics will include: An overview of women, gender & ICTs in a globalised economy; Initiatives & practices aimed at attracting more women into the ICT sector; keeping talented women on the road to success within the ICT industry; Empowering women in Africa to use ICT’s for personal advancement; Empowering rural women in Africa through ICT; Male control over women’s use of ICT’s; Career progression of women in the ICT industry; The role played by support systems for women in ICT; and Positioning women as key role players in the ICT market.

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September 29th – 30th 2011: Tanzania Youth Entrepreneurship Summit
Venue: Ubungo Plaza, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania

The objective of the Tanzania Youth Entrepreneurship Summit will be to create and initiate discussions about the promotion and facilitation of small and medium enterprises growth as a solution to the escalating problem of youth unemployment in the country.

12 Questions to ask when developing your consultancy business plan

With the number of jobs dwindling in the formal sector, and the emergence of outsourcing, many professionals are finding that using their expertise as a consultant is the way to go. Being a consultant offers several benefits: you are your own boss, you can set your hours as well as the clients you offer your services to.

However, when developing a business plan for your consulting enterprise, its also vital to ask yourself a few questions to ensure that your business gets off the ground in the most successful way.

Read the 12 Questions for a consultantsbusiness plan

2011 Ink Fellows Program

THE INK CONFERENCE, in associated with TED, is an annual conference that aims to fuel innovation and foster knowledge by bringing together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers from a range of disciplines such as art, design, science, social entrepreneurship, sports and technology.

INK 2010 featured Speakers such as science educator and innovator Arvind Gupta, filmmaker James Cameron, founder of Wired magazine Kevin Kelly, design guru Philippe Starck, and anti-trafficking activist Sunitha Krishnan.

THE INK FELLOWS PROGRAM will recruit 20 young innovators to attend the INK 2011 Conference in Jaipur, India, December 8th – 11th, 2011.

For further information, visit http://bit.ly/pNVpwK

ONE Africa Award

The ONE Africa Award celebrates progress toward achievement of the Millennium Development Goals.

ONE will recognize the Africa- driven, African led advocacy efforts that have demonstrated success at a community, national, or regional level. The $100,000 award will bring recognition to innovative African efforts to fight poverty and will incentivize more of such efforts (The award may be split into two prizes in order to award two smaller organizations better able to absorb a smaller monetary award.)

For further information, visit http://bit.ly/pBqvkW  

Doing Business in the East African Community 2011 Report

The East African Community is deepening and widening cooperation among its 5 member states. Spurred by the need to expand markets, boost competitiveness and attract investment, East African countries have continued to take steps to make it easier for local firms to start up and operate.

The main findings of the report are:

• Doing business has become easier in East Africa since 2005.
• Sharing good practices could bring East Africa closer to global top performers.
• If each East African country were to adopt the region’s best practice in each of the Doing Business indicators, the region’s average ranking on the ease of doing business would be 18 rather than 117.
• If the best of East African regulations and procedures were implemented across the board, the business regulatory environment in East Africa, as measured by Doing Business, would be comparable to that in Japan.
• EAC members are already seeking to learn from one another’s good reform practices through the World Bank Group-sponsored Network of Reformers initiative.

Read the  Doing Business in the East African Community 2011 Report here

KopiBure - An Innovative Student Advertising Business

KopiBure (the name is swahili for free copies) is an advertising company that deals with advertising in Universities, Colleges and other tertiary institutions of learning.


Kopibure manages photocopy machines on educational campuses. The business model works by using blank sides of paper that is left after students do their printing or photocopy on ordinary photocopy paper. Kopibure place adverts and messages that are relevant to this target market, at the back of those papers and the students use the front to do their printing and photocopy work.


Kopibure liaise with the many photocopy outlets in schools and come to an agreement where Kopibure can place a photocopy machine in their premises.

Read our interview with Kopibure’s founder Peter Nduru here: http://bit.ly/r0HPxo

Nature Challenge Africa

This is a business plan competition targeting entrepreneurs supporting green businesses in Kenya.

It is an initiative of WWF Kenya Country Office in collaboration with the National Environment Trust Fund. The goal of this challenge is to:

• Identify business models that have a positive and large impact on natural resources and nature conservation and
• Ensure access to (inter) national markets, technology and finance for the most viable business cases.

For more information, visit http://bit.ly/poCpVd