SME South Africa, in partnership with The Hookup Dinner, will be hosting a panel discussion at GEW’s Festival of Entrepreneurship in Maboneng Precinct on 20 November 2014.
SME South Africa has brought together respected thought leaders and successful entrepreneurs to serve as panelists. They will unpack the state of South African entrepreneurship, discuss what needs to be done to encourage a culture of entrepreneurship, and how to support budding entrepreneurs, so that they grow from potential, to becoming ‘real’ entrepreneurs.
The discussion will look at the following topics in particular:
- What needs to be done to create more entrepreneurs? What do South African entrepreneurs really need to become successful? Is access to funding the be-all-and-end-all of entrepreneurship? We unpack the tools needed, and how entrepreneurs themselves can take responsibility for their success.
- What is success? With all the media attention on successful entrepreneurs and high profile competitions, the question is then: Are we focusing on the wrong definition of success? What definition of success should we be encouraging among prospective entrepreneurs?
- Redefining failureRepeat entrepreneurs who have failed before have been shown to have higher rates of success than first-time entrepreneurs. How can we take away the stigma of failure and for entrepreneurs to see failure as part of the start-up process?
- Opening the door for excluded talent Ways to include often under-represented groups like: Women, young people and immigrants in the entrepreneurial community.
Meet our panelists:Karabo Songo, MD and founder of Olive Communications; Specialising in branding.
Antoinette Prophy, MD and founder of Afrofusion Advertising and Marketing; Specialising in personal development.
Stephen Read, MD and founder of incubation programme Field; Specialising in grassroot-level entrepreneurship education.
Gareth Jane, Startup Technical Strategy Advisor at Microsoft BizSpark South Africa; Specialising in technical guidance for startups.
#MyBizIdea competition winner announcement
We will also be announcing the winning tech idea of our Microsoft #MyBizIdea competition. Each of the top three finalists will receive a Microsoft BizSpark sponsored Launch Weekend worth R15,000, where they will be equipped with skills to effectively grow their idea into a viable business.
The entrepreneur with the overall winning idea will also walk away with R50,000 worth of marketing and advertising exposure on the SME South Africa website.
RSVP to info@smesouthafrica.co.za to get your name on the list!
