Press release.
For the second year in a row, 50 of South Africa’s geekiest entrepreneurs, developers, marketers and journalists came together for a weekend filled with brainstorming, planning and general discussion centred on solving some of the most pressing issues facing the South African Internet.
The theme for this year’s ‘GeekRetreat’ was education and as such, attendees were tasked with the challenge of discussing the plight of the education sector in South Africa and more importantly, how technology and the Internet can assist in improving the learning ability of students, the reach of various initiatives and the effectiveness with which educators can improve their learners’ lives.
“The list of attendees we had participating in the retreat was far larger and more diverse than last year and in line with the educational theme this year’s event followed, we chose to invite a number of education focused geeks to interact and share ideas with veterans of the technology industry,” explains Heather Ford, GeekRetreat founder and a student herself, albeit at the University of California, Berkeley in the U.S.
“The discussions were engaging, with attendees passionately putting forward their points of view and making innovative suggestions as to how the challenges facing the education sector can be overcome,” she adds.
“It was also extremely rewarding to see new partnerships and working relationships develop as attendees from different backgrounds, with different competencies came together to solve problems and flesh out high-tech business ideas,” she says.
“By far the most rewarding element of the weekend,” Ford continues, “was the final sessions of the last day, where attendees came together to short-list the projects the South African geek community will take forward in the coming year and more importantly put tangible milestones, deliverables and responsibilities in place to ensure these projects progress in the coming months.”
Projects include the formation of a 'Geek School', a course on how to create and sell successful web startups; a 'Social media for social good' skills transfer programme, with local geeks giving talks to social benefit organisations; and a 'Geek Mentorship Network' to connect mentors and mentees across the industry.
Other projects South African Geeks will take forward over the coming months include building games for use in local schools, a 'South African Geeks Overseas' project to connect local geeks with those living internationally; and an 'African Binary Wiki' to connect players in the digital media, content creation and development markets together.
“Overall, we’re humbled by the level of participation received from the event this year and proud to see so many attendees taking their enthusiasm forward into making a real difference,” she adds.
“With the collection of minds we’ve managed to get around the table for this event, we’re convinced that we will start to see a more diverse, more meaningful connection by the local tech industry to South African society,” she concludes.
For more information visit www.geekretreat.co.za
