Developing myself and women in Technology has been my passion lately, so I never miss an opportunity to attend these events. I was selected among the top 60 female engineering students across all universities in South Africa to attend the
Womeng Fellowship in Cape Town South Africa. Once again I got to network with incredible women and men across South Africa from 6th to 10 July.It has been a very exciting week, hence making it impossible to cover everything, here is a little summary.
Day One:
We were first introduced to the competiton that we were to work on for the whole week. The challenge was to create a business plan that would further green economy and technology, We then had to pitch our ideas on Thursday to a panel of judges ranging all the way from entrepreneurs to engineers. This was a hard one, we had a couple of speakers to ease the transition starting from Phumlani Masilela , who came up with the abstract for the competition. We had amazing presenters from Duncan Luke the founder of the
social collective ,
Guillaume De Smedt the director of startup grind who led us through the process of creating startups,
Zachariah George, a Stanford graduate who knows a ton about investment and
Gracia Munganga from Green Cape who gave us insights into green economy research. We were also introduced to business coaches with a wealth of experience on business ideas and green economy , to assist us with the competition. Mind you this was just day one, speaking of information overload. We winded the day at an Indian restaurant in the city of CapeTown.
Day Two:
We had a panel discussion from well accomplished people to also guide us through the project. We had 2 lecturers from my department,
Amy de Castro who sells bumble watches and
Baratang Miya, one of our business coaches who taught herself how to code. Given the caliber of these speakers , the bar for the projects was already set high.
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| Panel discussion |
We then had an interesting talk on the art of networking where
Arifa Parkar ( a networking guru herself) taught us all the skills and dos and donts of networking, we had an interesting
conversation about introverts and networking. Being an introvert myself I really needed this questions answered. Later, we had a very captivating talk from
Lauren Wallett who taught us everything about confidence , business pitching and more importantly shared her philosophy on passion driven life. We then later put those skills to test at the networking event with business women that happened at Double Tree by Hilton hotel, there are very interesting and inspirational women.
Day Three:
Wednesday was mentorship day , we meet our mentors all the way , young working women many of whom were Fellowship alumni. We heard inspiring stories from
Tshiamo Motaung who is building satellites at Denel Spaceteq , amazing chemical engineers from Unilever and
Bessie Malila ,a UCT PhD student who is defying all the odds.I learnt from them that its okay to take one step at a time.
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| Mentors panel discussion |
We closed the day with a dinner with the Unilever team, I learnt a great deal about supply chain(from scratch) through a competition of which my team was a winner of.
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| Winning team of supply chain challenge . |
Presentations were due the next morning, there was no way we could sleep early.
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All-nighter for final presentation
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Shout out to all innovators out there, its really had to come up with a completely new idea let alone it be feasible, economical and supporting the environment.
Day Four:
Thursday was the ultimate big day, the day when we would pitch our ideas and winners announced at the @network event. After discussing 2 other ideas our group came up with a project that reduces the water you waste while waiting for your shower to get hot ( I came up with this ..:)).
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Our business concept
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Presenting was never wracking but we did it anyway. We thereafter had a flash mentoring with MBA students from Rotterdam, I got two mentors and had to speak with them for 15 minutes. (Speaking of networking) and it turned out to be really fruitful. Thereafter w e had a presentation from Barlo World Equipment , the giants in making mining equipment. Thereafter , the long awaited for Art Network event. We had an interesting conversation about renewable energy with experts in the business and the Silicon Cape initiative. As planned, the winners of the competition were announced and their idea was about making a grid independent gym which would power itself from people's workout- go girls!
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| The winning team. |
Day Five:
We build air plane launchers after an interesting presentation from Denel Dynamics. The best t
hing about these presentations is that they change your whole perspective about things you have never done before, (I now have an idea of supply chain and aeronautics).
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| Paper plane launchers |
Last but not least, a huge round of applause to the amazing women who made all this possible,
Naadiya Moosajee and
Hema Vallab(pictured above), the founders of womeng. These ladies are the role models edwe have always wanted, we have such huge footsteps to fit into. These women are engineers yet they have gone over and above themselves to be advocates of change and great leaders, they have all the awards and on top of the busy lifestyle they dedicated this week for us. The best part is Womeng is going global, from be sawomeng only for South Africa, it has already launched in Kenya and going all the way to Tanzania, Turkey, Ghana and more. I'm inspired.
Conferences never get old, every person I meet is as interesting as the next. I have learnt a lot just from breakfast conversations. The internet might have all the information but talking to people guide you what to look for. I'm glad to be part of the womeng family.
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| Networking |
PS:A lot went on, if you want to keep up with the conversation , please follow
me and
womeng on twitter. Until next time.
