Announcing Broadband Forum 2015, Now that the internet is here

Before we announce any event we now always ask ourselves “Would I be excited about attending this event? Would I feel it’s addressing the things that are important to me? Would I want to me the kind of people that come to such an event?” And we ask other people too? If the answer is no, or a so so, we know we need to go back and work some more. Sometimes even as the two biggest constraints, time and cost, are screaming No.

We’re excited to to announce this year’s edition of the Broadband Forum, and it’s an event we can’t wait to attend. It’s going to be a day of sharing insights, powerful networking with the front runners of Zimbabwe’s tech space, investors, tech entrepreneurs and representatives of policy.

Running with the theme “Making sense of Broadband” you will notice a deliberate shift from just connectivity issues to more a “now that the broadband is predictably here, what are are we going to do with it?” level of insights and engagement. This is why in addition to the power speakers on connectivity and policy on connectivity, this year has a strong presence of tech upstarts, OTT type of business leaders, investors and even traditional companies that are managing the transition of the disruption of their industries by the internet and mobile.

The following will be sharing their insights at the:

• James Wekesa from WIOCC, who have established themselves as Africa’s carriers’ carrier who operate the largest undersea fibre cable along the Africa’s east coast, EASSy
• Mark Essein from Hotels.ng, who operate Nigeria’s largest online hotel booking app
• Paul Soko, an Investment Manager and Millicom’s Think tech incubator in Rwanda
• James Gibson, Current Head of Countries, E-Commerce at Econet Wireless International and former Hello Food MD in Nigeria.
• Vusi Ndebele, A founding partner of Zimbabwe’s first official internet payment gateway to incorporate mobile money payments, Paynow.
• Rob Kuipers, the Chief Operating Officer of Unifreight Africa
• Emma Kaye, the founder and CEO of Bozza a digital marketplace for music and entertainment in Africa
• David Behr, currently Group Director of special operations at Liquid Telecom, founded ZOL & grew it into the largest ISP in Zimbabwe.
• Engineer Nicholas Muzhuzha, the Director Technical Services at PORTRAZ.

We’ll be announcing more and updating as we get confirmation of their participation in the coming days.

To register for the event, please go to the link: broadband.techzim.co.zw. The registration fee is $25 and you can use any payment method of your preference: Mobile Money, VISA, Master Card.