The first episode of the ‘Fresh Thinking Series’ which was held this past Thursday has been hailed as a success and inspiration to budding entrepreneurs.
Aspiring entrepreneurs, who attended the series held at Avani Hotel, could not hide excitement about the opportunity that came about with the series. The Series is designed to be a platform that promotes intellectual capital sharing across the globe with particular interest in delivering engagement, partnerships and networking opportunities that are meant to catapult Africa’s development trajectory.
Leader of the organisers of the series, Larona Makgoeng said Thursday that the platform is intended to present opportunities by innovators/ pioneers and provide opportunities for those seeking to invest and lastly to provide solutions.
The model of the Series also seeks to create an ecosystem and a nexus that connects business persons, investors, innovators, governments, and the private sector across the spectrum of local, regional and global level. “The ultimate goal is to achieve legacy initiatives as a result of this nexus in different African countries,” says Makgoeng.
The inaugural panel of The Fresh Thinking series included among others, Bibop Gresta, Callistus Phologolo, Robbie Brozen, Themba Baloyi, Ludwick Marishane and Dr. Tiroyaone Mampane
One of the interesting concepts discussed is that of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies, an initiative that was started by Elon Musk (a South African-born Canadian-American business magnate, engineer, inventor and investor. He is the CEO and CTO of SpaceX, CEO and product architect of Tesla Motors, and chairman of SolarCity). Through Hyperloop Transportation Technologies this new model of transportation is built around disrupting transportation as we know it. The transportation system will be designed to travel at speeds that exceed 760m/h (1223Km/h) or the speed of sound. Hyperloop is scheduled to launch in the 3rd quarter of next year in the USA.
Meanwhile Robbie Brozin, founder of the eatery brand Nandos who is also well known for his strong views about how he thinks Africa needs to move also shared his entrepreneurial experience. Another entrepreneur, Ludwick Marishane, who is also regarded as a global innovator, with accolades from both Forbes and Time magazines shared his story with the audience.
Marishane is the founder and leader of Headboy Industries and they are the inventors of drybath solution. Currently the invention is being tested by United Nations for a global rollout i.e. for soldiers in peace keeping missions as well as a solution for hygiene where water access is a challenge.
A local entrepreneur, Dr Tiro Mampane who is the founder of Boitekanelo Group led the series on innovation within tertiary education services and health care sector from an African perspective. Mmampane is a pioneer in local health-care tertiary education having started the country’s first private health care institute 8years ago. Currently Boitekanelo College offers degree programmes and is in the process of acquiring university status. Lately Boitekanelo has added innovative Emergency Medical Services to its operations.
The Fresh Thinking is an initiative of Buzz Group supported by Standard Chartered Bank Botswana as the main partner. Other partners thus far include Yarona FM & Sunday Standard.
