Douala through borrowed lenses
I haven’t written in a while and I keep postponing to do this, which is not a good sign. So, call this an-in-between-too-many-things-but-has-to-happen post. Well that’s how I convinced myself to finally pen down a few highlights from the recently completed Universites Afrique Diaspora conference in Douala where a team of digital experts from France, Kenya, Nigeria, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Italy and everywhere in between came together to interact with the startup community in Doula.
From intimate office hours, with Startup founders to intense round tables, the Universites Afrique Diaspora was everything Ferdinand Nana Payong, the conference manager promised it would be.
To preserve, some pretty cool inside jokes (ask me about them when you see me, won’t you? I have titled my section headlines with subtitles which won’t make much sense, because what’s a me post without a hint of thrill?
- Pre-Game
During the conference first three days, we met with over 30 startup founders and teams running small and medium sized businesses in Cameroon with the conversations during this first sessions ranging from one-on-one office hours with the mentor’s network, panel sessions on digital and social media, mobile money and big data.
2. Napa2
This is nothing but an Internet appreciation section. May the Napa force always be with you. You have no idea, just how fidgety humans can get without internet.
3. Douala by Night
False alarm, you can breathe. This is not about Sansea or discovering that Doula by night, is actually more of Doula by morning, because happy hour is after 1am.(Inside joke, last one I promise)
During our last night in Douala, we had the pleasure of meeting with the Activspaces community. ActivSpaces is a tech hub that runs centers which provide resources to technology startups through incubation and an accelerator programs. Through this space, startups have access to really cool office space, internet connection, business coaching, and a community of likeminded individuals and experts.
This interesting conversation on innovation, invention, fundraising and creating the ideal teams was led by a rockstar panel with Kathleen Siminyu, Data Scientist At Africa’s Talking, Lanre Oyedotun, CEO & Cofounder at Delivery Science , Ore Omolaja, VP Distribution at Delivery Science, Kenneth M Kinyanjui, Chief of Product at Infinity Space and Steve Tchoumba, ActivSpaces.
It was such an honor to be in the midst of such brilliant minds and to listen to how passionate they were about building their companies and changing the world one innovation at a time.
4. On borrowed lenses
During this year’s African Women in Tech conference, when I picked up borrowed lenses to capture, some really fun moments, I had no idea, just how much I would fall in love with being behind the lenses. Thanks to Anie Akpe & Kandia’s encouragement during AWIT, several months later, I was out in the Wild,Wild west, snapping away. Here’s a few highlights from my photography series, titles #OnBorrowedLenses
Learning is not easy, and boy did I learn that the hard way. I had quite the epic fails at moments that had no chance for redos. Think, I’m lying, how about this for epic fail: We had just completed a TV interview and just before the commercial break, everyone got ready for that one, “ I was on TV shot” that clearly never was.
But it wasn’t all epic fails and disasters, I’m a pretty ok intern, if you ask me…so scroll away to my favourite moments from Douala. Can’t wait to do this again next year!!
A huge S/o to all those lovely humans, who no dey taya, while I kept snapping in their faces, till the smile was in the right angle. A bigger S/o to those who didn’t punch me in the face, when I cursed out loud while they walked passed my borrowed lenses while, I did my thing..you my friends are the real MVPs. Till next time… Happy people everywhere, #OnBorrowedLenses
Need an event’s moment’s captured in the funkiest possible ways, you know where to go, right?
