Dreamers of a Digital Society
A digital transformation on a greenfield, closer to people’s needs. – What we can learn from Africa.
Rwanda, the land of a thousand hills. Rebuilt after the destructive genocide 25 years ago. Today, it is a pioneer and the scene of a unique digital transformation.
A Learning Journey with many direct encounters and meetups, discussions, also on controversial political topics, and emerging economic opportunities.
What to expect?
We explore the digital foundation of Rwanda and the start-up scene of the capital Kigali. Networking and co-creation is our focus.
Together with our local partners, Africa-management-expert Hans Stoisser and management-geographer Karin Krobath.
Program
Day 1 – APPROACHING:
After an introduction by the Rwanda Development Board, we will visit Ms Faith Keza, the young Lady running Irembo, the e-government platform. And we will visit an Energytech company, the startup “Code of Africa” and software developers. Ending then with a networking event in the backyard “garage” of a company.
Day 2 – DIGITAL AFRICA:
At Fred Swaneker‘s African Leadership University we will discuss Africa‘s contribution to the digital society. And we will visit the Startup House and get to know some of these young entrepreneurs. In the afternoon we will go out of town, to ZIPLINE, the world‘s first cargo drone line.
Day 3 – INNOVATION FOR THE BOTTOM OF THE PYRAMIDE:
Rwanda‘s e-health system, a company providing connectivity, a university engaged in artificial intelligence, that will be the morning program. In the afternoon we again go out of the city, to visit new forms of agricultural entrepreneurship ventures.
Day 4 – CO-CREATION:
At the Kigali‘s „Innovation City“ we will have talks with Volkswagen‘s „Moving Rwanda“ initiative and a new smartphone production facility. After visiting the pan-African IT education initiative „Andela“ we will finally recap and discuss possibilities for African-European co-creation .
What will you get from it?
- Insights into a different digital transformation
- Access to agile people and organizations
- Starting points for further contacts and cooperation
- Ideas and Concepts for access to new markets
- Indications of what the next market disruptions can be
- Understanding new approaches of collaborations
- New insights and understanding of Africa’s relevance
What makes this Learning Journey different?
Our Learning Exchange comes before you go on a classical business mission.
| LEARNING JOURNEY | Classical business mission |
|---|---|
| Objective: Explore local realities and develop ideas and business models | Objective: to find new markets for specific products (or to find new input resources) |
| Joint experiencing of local reality and gaining insights | Presenting and collecting information |
| Planned encounters and serendipity contacts | Planned meetings |
| Emerging of new business ideas, value propositions, business models, and partnerships | Role-out of certain products or services |
| “test-and-learn” | “plan-and-implement” |
Peer group – Changes need a fresh look to the outside and from the outside.
The group consists of entrepreneurial thinking people. Joint development of knowledge and ideas is important to us. Hans Stoisser and his local partners provide additional inputs.
Who is participating?
CEOs, CIOs, CDOs of big and small companies, Business Angels and political decision-makers
When?
Next date:
Monday to Thursday, May 12-15, 2025
Individual travel to Kigali on the Sunday before.
We start on Monday at 8 am and end on Thursday at 6 pm.
What are the costs?
Booking before December 31, 2024: EUR 2.100,– plus 20% VAT
Booking before March 31, 2025: EUR 2.400,– plus 20% VAT
Booking from April 1, 2025: EUR 2.900,– plus 20% VAT
The fee includes a program of lectures, company and field visits, four lunches, coffee and tea catering and one dinner. Hotel stay and travel to and from Kigali are not included.
What people who participated say
Who is behind the journey?
Hans Stoisser (author of “The Black Tiger – what we can learn from Africa“) and Karin Krobath have joined forces to create this program. They have two things in common: They are both management consultants and both are passionate about African countries. Hans brings his expertise as a Malik-Associate and extensive experience in African countries. Karin brings her passion for brand positioning, innovation culture and empowerment together with honorary board functions for Light for the World.
Organizer:
NextAfrica – We bring together purpose-driven organizations from Africa and Europe to collaborate and co-create.
NextAfrica is powered by:
ECOTEC makes collaboration in Emerging Countries work.
– We bring together many years of entrepreneurial experiences with companies and organizations at the interface between Europe and Africa.
IDENTIFIRE specializes on Employer Branding and Corporate Culture. Clarity on brands and strategy and focus on innovations are essential.
Circle Innovation is an innovation think tank based in Nairobi working at the intersection of human-centred design, innovation and startup support.
NextAfrica’s partners are:
Stephan Grabmeier is Purpose Innovation Contributor for sustainable business transformation, New Work and innovation.
Code of Africa – Our heart beats for building a business bridge between tech talents in East Africa and the demand for IT services in Europe.
For further information please contact us:
Hans Stoisser, hans.stoisser@ecotec.at, +43 676 9200200
Karin Krobath, karin.krobath@identifire.at, +43 699 1077 6611