The other time, I flagged on how tech events have lower attendance compared to other “unproductive” events, which is a cause for concern considering how tech is pivotal at both the individual and country level economically. Anyway, I won’t dwell much on that since the issue was already articulated in that article. So instead, I have made it my personal business to inform the general public of any tech related seminar, workshop etc. taking place in Zimbabwe, paying particular attention to Bulawayo for obvious reasons. So here goes…
The Computer Society of Zimbabwe (CSZ) is hosting the Bulawayo Chapter Business Conference on the 27th of April 2017 under the theme “App development and programming in business for sustainable development – ICT as an enabling tool”. The Conference is being held at the Bulawayo Rainbow Hotel and will be running from 0830hrs to 1600hrs. A total of 8 speakers from different but collaborating fields will be present for the event to deliberate on the stipulated topics.
The registration fee, inclusive of meals and conference materials is US$50 which is an okay price for those who are already established in business but no so much for the newly established startups – especially for a one day conference. Unless of course, everyone is not as broke or better still, it proves to be a worthy investment.
Topics to be discussed vary from programming, image branding to revenue generation through the use of the different technologies under discussion. A particular topic that caught my attention was the one on Assistive Technologies in the education of those with learning disabilities.
Quite often, to the best of my knowledge that is, tech discussions or provisions for people with learning disabilities are limited to the groups with the learning disabilities themselves, which in my opinion sends out a wrong signal. People with learning disabilities are not a stand-alone group, therefore, their challenges should also be addressed on these general seminars or conferences and as such, I commend the CSZ for acknowledging that.
To get more information on the event, please visit www.csz.org.zw/events otherwise, below is just a rundown of the topics to be discussed:
- Financial viability of App and mobile development. Turning your App into revenue
- Marketing your App and getting noticed the right way
- Social inclusion and Assistive Technologies
- CSZ-SDC – Presentation of a Programming Tool for beginners
- Panel discussion on personal branding
- Assistive Technologies in the education of those with learning disabilities
3 comments
Let’s face it. Seminars of this nature are ok for networking. They do very little for being sources where you can find stuff to takeaway and give your app a bump. The workshop also touches at least 3 topics (marketing/revenue generations, assistive technologies and programming tools for beginners) further making it very difficult to come out with practical and focused tactics and mixing targeted groups (i.e. beginners who are unlikely to fork-out $50 and executives, who never seem need to have information that improves performance immediately you come out of a workshop, prefaring networking and chilling instead). For this reason, I support your view that $50 is rather too much.
Would have really liked to be there but for now $50 is a bit too much for me
This is a great initiative but I have concerns:
1. Who are the speakers and what experience do they have?
2. They should narrow down to a specific audience, either techies or managers
3. WIth so many topics covered, what value can one get from this event?
So for my $50, I would really be tempted to buy 25 quarts of Castle Lager than to attend this event