Reflections on Tech in Senegal
Hiedberg hit the road in May!
Although we officially launched at the end of March, the past two months have been a roller coaster! We are adding amazing, diverse talent to our team as we scale our operations.
In the midst of all our internal growth, we had an opportunity to attend two conferences in Dakar where we engaged with the African francophone tech community. It was a time of learning, networking and fellowship with the movers and shakers in this space.
The first conference we attended was AfricArena’s Dakar FinTech, Mobility & Logistics Summit.
AfricArena
AfricArena is an African tech accelerator that runs Corporate Open Innovation challenges throughout the African continent.
Going into its fifth year, AfricArena has the privilege of operating in three key spheres that underpin Africa’s economic landscape. These being: tech startups, corporations, and investors (i.e. angel investors, VCs, CVCs and other institutional investors).
Through open innovation challenges, in partnership with corporations, we aim to bring together these 3 spheres, to foster co-investment and collaboration that can move the economies and people of the continent forward.
Major highlights from the conference included dynamic panels and keynotes ranging from ‘The State of Fintech in West Africa’ to ‘How I Scaled my Startup Across Africa and the World’ to ‘Scaling a more resilient Women in Tech Pipeline’.
Our very own CEO & Founder, Miriam MacCarthy, moderated a panel titled ‘Building Bridges of Innovation Between Europe and Africa’ which featured diverse group of founders, accelerators and investors. This panel offered a candid conversation on intercontinental collaboration to further uplift the African startup community.
We were also invited to pitch Hiedberg to a panel of esteemed investors and attendees. Pitching Hiedberg was an exciting milestone for our team since we got to share our work and vision with a broader community which received us positively.
The second conference we attended was eLearning Africa.
eLearning Africa
eLearning Africa is a global network of professionals working in the field of ICT supported education and training. It includes educators, trainers, technology specialists, policy makers, and investors. Since 2005, we have been sharing our knowledge and experience of technology enhanced learning, ensuring that our network is now the largest professional community promoting African expertise and talent in education to the rest of the world, and a leading resource for the transfer of knowledge about eLearning within and to Africa.
This conference was filled with educators, government officials, and ed-tech founders with the common goal of facilitating education best practices across the continent. We particularly enjoyed the ‘Shaping The Future of Education: EdTech at The Heart of The Transformation of The Education Sector in Africa’ and ‘Digital Learning in Low-Tech Environments: Challenges and Solutions’ sessions.
Hiedberg enjoyed participating and attending these conferences! It was a breath of fresh air to be among peers in the tech community growing and scaling their respective organizations. We can’t wait for what the future holds for everyone we met (and how Hiedberg can be part of your journey).
If you attended the conference and want to reconnect, feel free to reach out to us! We’d love to hear your thoughts, collaborate or even reminice over a wonderful time in beautiful Dakar.
