What we learnt about creating powerful and intimate online engagements
Over 10 years ago, we started the Anzisha Prize from recognising that Africa’s future will be shaped by young people who commit each day to think differently, break boundaries and choose to do hard things. Every year, the Anzisha Prize conducts an extensive search across the continent for young people between the ages of 15–22 that are running businesses with the potential to be job generative. We select only 20 young people from a pool of over 1000 applications to join the Anzisha Prize Fellowship. The fellowship is a 3-year venture-building program that delivers business development support to help entrepreneurs introduce or strengthen processes and systems in their businesses and thus enable long term sustainability.
It has been tradition for the newest Anzisha Prize cohort to gather at African Leadership Academy (ALA) campus in Johannesburg, South Africa for the official orientation and introduction to our pan African community of young leaders who are students at ALA.This marks a significant time on their journey as it is usually the first time the majority of the entrepreneurs travel outside of their home countries and have the opportunity to network with their peers from across the continent.
For the first time in 10 years, we were forced to break this tradition due to Covid 19 travel restrictions and our team had to take on the daunting task of recreating this experience online.
Here are some of the choices we made that we believe were crucial in creating an intimate and powerful online engagement:
- Remote learning and access to resources: Instead of spending money on flight tickets for the entrepreneurs to fly to South Africa we redirected that investment to purchase good quality devices pre-installed with software they would need for an immersive online engagement. We didn’t leave anything to chance. We supplied internet modems and data to minimize connectivity challenges for entrepreneurs.
- Activities that involve connectedness: We intentionally began every session with physical, emotional and mental health exercises delivered by African Leadership Academy’s Wellness team. We appreciated the importance of creating a sense of connectedness so we scheduled check ins as a way for entrepreneurs to give the community a glimpse into their personal journeys and the choices that led them to this moment. We also believed that this would prime the group for quality engagements even beyond the orientation program. These two examples may seem very simple but were a key contributor as we saw the virtual learning space bloom and it was clear it wasn’t because of the tech but because of the mutual care and enthusiasm for the community connection.
- Everyone has a role: As an institution that values experiential learning, we are clear on our ethos that everyone matters, and that everyone can contribute to creating and developing a meaningful learning space. Our approach to learning is informed by the understanding that young people are not “empty vessels to be filled with knowledge” but should be given the space to be active builders of their own knowledge. Some of my most memorable sessions were those that were owned and led by the entrepreneurs. Reminiscing about the online talent evenings and virtual parties that they hosted still leaves me yearning for more.
- Combat Zoom Fatigue: We were very worried about ‘zoom fatigue’ as we know personally how video engagements can be so draining. We relied on gamification to deliver some of the content and were also intentional about the timing and delivery of particular content. For example, we hosted a virtual amazing race to deliver content focused on leadership, problem solving, communication and teamwork. Entrepreneurs teamed up with peers (in a different country) to complete the activities. We used the debriefing process to serve as self and group reflection tool and that enabled us to turn the ‘game’ into a learning experience.
- Creating a sense of occasion: Making it into the top 20 from a pool of over a 1000 applications received from across the continent is is a massive achievement and one that the Anzisha Prize is deliberate about celebrating. It has been our tradition over the last decade to end the orientation program with entrepreneurs pitching to a panel of judges for the chance to be crowned the Anzisha Prize grand prize winner. This is followed up by the Anzisha Forum (previously known as the Anzisha Gala), a very grand occasion where the community gets dressed in their Sunday best to honour the entrepreneurs. At the Anzisha Forum we hand out over USD $100,00 in grant funding to the entrepreneurs and announce the grand prize winners. In an effort to create a similar sense of occasion during the pandemic, we opted to book the entrepreneurs into hotels in the closest major city for an opportunity to be in quiet surroundings and be well looked after. To spice it up a little bit, we had camera crews film the big pitch day.
The thought of preparing and hosting a 10-day virtual orientation program was daunting to say the least, but the team has gained valuable knowledge and we are now in a position to pilot more interesting ideas that may happen virtually. The opportunity to engage online isn’t a panacea for programs like ours but we have personally observed its impact on our ability to scale aspects of our business development support.
