TL;DR: A summary of our first Tech/Entrepreneur/Makers meetup event for Nigerians in London. The idea blossomed from a Radar discussion to an offline event in Central London.
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It all started on Radar. I raised a question:
“Are there any meetups in London for people building things for Nigeria?”
I asked because I wanted to meet up with Nigerians in London passionate about building things. I felt meeting like-minded people on this subject will boost efforts and collaboration and hopefully have some positive impact on our future and maybe our country.
I have sort of nicknamed this new wave of Nigeria (Industry/Technology/Space) as “Nigeria 2.0" but some of my friends don’t think it will catch on. *Sigh*
Some of the users on Radar suggested I create the event myself using Eventbrite and see what happens. So I did, but to be frank I was not expecting anything significant to happen. A few half commitments here and there and maybe about 7 people show up.
To my surprise 30 people signed up (well because I randomly capped the event at 30 people) and more emailed me to know if they could still come. All of a sudden I had to take this a bit more seriously, booked the venue and coordinated all other efforts.
The theme was a laid back informal vibe. A few drinks at the bar, no scheduled talks, no presentations, no limitations. Just wing it.
It was a success. People asked if there will be another one (*Khaled’s voice*) and I have already started receiving suggestions on making the next series of events better.
From the conversations on that night, here are 5 of the few interesting things people are doing:
- Playbrush- Combines daily toothbrushing with the enjoyment of mobile games
- Lawpadi.com- Free Legal Advice for Nigerians
- CodeSwift- Teaching Kids to code using LED cubes
- Page Nanny-Hosting for Nigerian wordpress Sites
- Birthday Bingo- Win N10k on your birthday
Special thank you to all that came out on Friday!
If you could not make the first one and would like to come for the next one, send me a PM here.
Also, if you have any suggestions for the name, please let me know. I kind of like “NG 2.0 — London” (#NG2.0 must catch on! 💪). We can also stick with “People building things for NG”.
See you all next time.
Tolu (or ADT) loves building things and currently creates awesome designs at Eclectic Source.
