A first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence expo, AI Expo Africa, will take place in Cape Town from 9-11 September 2018.
AI Expo Africa 2018 is focusing on real-world applications and trends driving the AI economy in Africa and seeking to build an AI business-focused community across the continent.
Roy Bannister, veteran media and publishing consultant and expo chairman, comments, “This event is aimed at the CxO /c-suite decision-makers who are grappling to understand how AI applications can add value or impact their business today. Allied to the inclusion of AI cloud platform providers, Tier 1 and 2 deployment and service providers, AI startups, investors, educators, government and AI ecosystem community builders, this event will give those attending a real feel for what’s available now or in the near future.
“With six themes and three tracks the event is focused on real enterprise AI case studies and the application of AI in business, AI deployment challenges, ethics and skills plus the business innovation driving current deployment trends across all industry sectors.”
Brett StClair, CEO Siatik, Google’s leading cloud partner in Africa says, “We specialise in cloud, AI, ML, IoT and big data, so this event gives us a great opportunity to explain the current and future AI business opportunity enterprise execs. AI is going to be one of the biggest positive impacts on business over the next decade and AI Expo will be a great learning opportunity, we look forward to being part of this pioneering business-focused community”.
Nick Bradshaw, event director says, “We have created this event so that startups and the big ICT / Cloud / AI players can all be in the same room, something that is often overlooked by event organisers who exclude SMEs, so this event is uniquely inclusive in that regard. We also have dedicated tracks for innovation, vendors and case studies so delegates will see ‘real world’ AI business applications they can adopt now.”
Key pillars
Education and awareness form a key pillar of this event, allied to the AI skills gap this rapidly expanding technology frontier is creating in Africa.
Ryan Falkenberg, co-founder and CEO at CLEVVA, a growing SME working with Virtual Adviser Apps states, “We are delighted to be part of an event that moves beyond the AI hype, and seeks to answer the question most business execs are currently asking – how do we make AI practical in our business and able to deliver meaningful and measurable benefits within the next 6-12 months?”
Zachariah George, partner and chief investment officer of Startupbootcamp Africa, the leading multi-corporate backed venture accelerator in Africa focused on high-growth startups in tech-enabled industries including blockchain and AI, says, “We are excited to be joining this event and will be exploring how big business can de-risk investment in AI and foster innovation that helps B2B enterprises. It is clear that this event is about real, tangible AI business opportunities and how clients can leverage these new technologies today”.
