1 Week, 4 Events, 4 Countries, 7 amazing days
As usual, Diwala’s been running at full speed. October was a busy month for us with various engagements all over the world, and the last week of October (22nd-28th) was no exception!
On Monday,
Our CEO, Thea, was in Stavanger for SIKT 2018. This special invite event held by Norway’s crown prince Haakon hosts young talent and leaders from various backgrounds in business, the public sector, culture, sports, media and academia. Derived from the Norwegian word for “visibility”, the aim of SIKT is to cultivate new perspectives and discussions across different sectors. “Sikt is the event where you get the time to share experiences, and have the in-depth kind of conversations that adds perspective & inspiration to how you work. “You get time to get to know people! I was so grateful to be a part of this event as Im working to learn every day! But it's easy to get stuck in “execution mode”, so having a full day to only focus on learning with brilliant people was amazing. Thank you to HRH Haakon & the Sikt team for such an inspiring day!”
The following Tuesday,
Thea flew across the country to Stockholm the next morning, where she took part in the Mastercard Innovation Forum 2018. This was an event hosted by MasterCard, who have taken part in innovative programs to empower individuals in today’s digital economy. This included the exploration of innovations in payment security, A.I. and much more. Thea was a panelist on “inclusive innovation through responsible technology”, alongside other invited guests. “Its so important that we have the human aspect conversations with big corporations, to dig into the ethics of how we build products. Its amazing to see Mastercard continuous work & focus on this aspect, that they want to enable real impact on a grasroot level with their own projects, labs and funding of relevant projects”
On Wednesday,
Thea and along with our CDO, Marina, flew to San Francisco for this year's Social Capital Markets (SOCAP) annual conference in San Francisco, California. This year’s conference discussed a wide range of themes including impact investing, Blockchain for impact, refugees and entrepreneurship in Africa.
On Thursday,
our CTO, Snorre, flew to Paris to take part in the annual Techfugees Global Summit. This yearly summit brings the best and brightest in the tech industry together in order to address the challenges that refugees encounter in the world and how technology can be used to combat against this. Snorre was a panelist on a demo pertaining to algorithm- and blockchain-powered solutions and how they could potentially affect registration and resettlement processes for refugees. He also discussed Diwala’s viability in this sector.
“I introduced Diwala in general as well and discussed more about what decentralized trust means for the refugees and what value does it give in the long term,” Snorre explains, and adds that;
“The workshop discussed how blockchain can help refugees, what does that need from the technology and how can it be deployed”
Meanwhile, on Friday — in San Fransisco
Thea and Marina was hanging out with some pretty awesome people, among them were co-CEO super duo Samir and Abbey from Esusu. They have developed a digital platform that builds individual credit-scores , in order to increase financial opportunities and make finances easier than ever. Go check out their app at https://www.esusu.org/!
Due to Samir’s previous work experience, the ladies got to visit the LinkedIn Office, where they had a very productive work day. According to the girls, there was free snacks, food, ice-cream, coffee, and an amazing office space and view!
On Saturday,
The ladies got to do some exploring, and were super exited to meet up with our Front End interns, who we have been training remotely to code. They have done such a good job on our web page, — and it was so nice to finally meet the people that we’ve been face-timing with for the last 6 months 😊
And the rest of the week.. was fun and sun in San Francisco!
We at Diwala try to make sure we’re at the important events around the world that discuss relevant topics. We experience the pleasure of meeting so many individuals who are experts in their field, as well as potential clients and partners. Most importantly, we make some really good friends. 💜
What’s Next?
Now we are back to the grind, prepping and organising ourselves for our upcoming Uganda trip — which will happen at the end of November.
We are very exited and will update you on what we are doing while we are down there.
Until Then —
Bye San Francisco !
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