Dinokeng Business Expo is coming back again on its 5th year in Mathubudukwane under the theme, ‘Advancing Entrepreneurship Tapping in to Basics of the Theory and Practice across the Globe’ from the 29th- 30th June 2018.
The Expo which is now becoming popular each year was conceived more than five years ago by Anthony Rasetshwane. In 2018, the expo is expected to be held on June 5.
Although Rasetshwane is the Founder and chairperson of the initiative, the 37 year old Mathubudukwane native says he works with a team of 15 other members to make this expo a success.
The expo came about as they were discussing ways of how as young people in businesses, from the River villages in Kgatleng, could assist each other to network and do business among them. This was so because a number of businesses, especially those youth owned were collapsing at an early stage.
With this year’s theme, Rasetshwane explains to The Telegraph that, “we want exhibitors to think outside the box and use the expo to gauge their readiness to compete globally. Most businesses are competing globally as we can see that the local market is squeezed and that there is need to tap into the global market. Botswana has signed a number of trade treaties and Small businesses needs to be informed about these to know they can compete globally.” It is against this background that, this year’s theme, was informed by foreign businesses that bought stalls at the previous expo, which proved that locally owned businesses can indeed compete globally and should explore it.
In the past, the one day event was a Youth Expo and all exhibitors were restricted to young people only. This year, some alterations were made open doors to all businesses, regardless of either owned by young people or not and held for two days.
The two days will allow businesses even outside Kgatleng to establish links in with local ones. In the past, those from outside the district had expressed concern that having the event on a single day was not enough, because they were not making enough profits and this was positively received by the organizers and made changes in this years’ edition.
Rasetshwane says they do not have any confirmed sponsored as yet and are appealing to potential sponsors to come on board. Currently, the committee uses their personal resources, such as time and finance to ensure the day is a success. He adds that, “we have had the Ministry of Youth in the past supporting us, and some few other companies, some with merchandise in the form of printed T-Shirts. We could not sell them to generate revenue. Even funds generated from stalls are not enough to ensure we implement this event with no hurdles. Mascom was also key last year.”
According to Rasetshwane, the show has been getting an increasing number each year from the inaugural event with 500 people attending to 2000 in the 2017 show. This years’ target is to have at least 3000 and even more because this will be a two day event with lots of activities planned. Street vendors also benefit a lot, especially as by lunch time, all their food would have sold out.
The key speaker will be Gobusamang Jezer Rampa who is the founder Agrisales Hyper Stores, as well as its Managing Director. The event has in the past attracted speakers such as Botswana Stock Exchange CEO, Thapelo Tsheole who is also the Patron and former Acting CEO of BITC, Meshack Tshekedi.
Rasetshwane has further appealed to the government and the private sector to support this initiative.
