Wordcamp Nigeria has been rescheduled

One of the most anticipated tech events in Nigeria, Wordcamp Nigeria has been rescheduled to September 25th. The Organizers said in a bid to make the event successful, they had to effect the change of date. One of the leading light from WordPress global was schedule top facilitate at the event but unfortunately things change.

From the message I got:

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DrupalCamp now October 2nd 2010

Recently, we wrote about upcoming events in Nigeria, DrupalCamp was among. The date has now been moved to 2nd of October 2010. This the organizers says it will help make the preparation a better one!

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Highlights and pictures of MobiFest 2010 event

We covered MobiFest 2010 extensively via live tweets here and here. You can view the pictures of the event as it happened here! We are glad we partnered to make this event a successful one!

Thorough recap tomorrow! Enjoy!

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MobiFest 2010 is tomorrow

First Nigerian Mobile application development event will be holding tomorrow at University of Lagos Main Auditorium.

We have covered this event extensively here. At 10am tomorrow all road will be leading to Unilag, where Nigeria’s brightest minds will chat the course for mobile development in the country.

Download the event outline here.

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Upcoming Tech Events in Nigeria, 3 this August

We have highlighted below, tech events that are coming up in Nigeria. Tick your calendar to attend any of these events, they surely will have impact on your professional career.

MobiFest 2010

It’s a two-day event targeted at mobile application development and innovations. The event will bring together thought-leaders in mobile technology industry. The event aligns with our continuous effort to seek and showcase development and innovation in the Nigerian technology space, hence our interest in supporting this event.

Theme: Reaching the M-Generation.

Date: August 17^th- 18^th 2010

Venue: Main Auditorium, University of Lagos.

Gate Fee: Registration required

DrupalCamp 2010

DrupalCamp to the folks in Nigeria is beyond just a gathering. DrupalCamp Lagos is geared towards use of open source tools & technology for the economic development of Nigeria.

Why DrupalCamp?

• To improve technology awareness.
• To help increase self employment opportunities.
• To improve IT skills through hands-on training & Dev contests among students, individuals, professionals & the entire society.
• To help our youths compete with the international community towards use of technology for economic development.
• To encourage collaboration among IT professionals including individuals & corporate organizations.

In this regard, we want to seek the indulgence of the general public, individuals, corporate organization & government parastatals for their participation, sponsorships, support and encouragement towards the success of this project.

Date: August 22^nd 2010

Venue: University of Lagos

Time: 3:30am – 3pm

Site: drupalnigeria.org

Gate Fee: Registration required

WordCamp 2010

What is Wordcamp?

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamps are open to WordPress.com and WordPress.org users alike.

The Nigerian blogosphere is alive and if you want to learn more about wordpress while not tick the date on your calendar.

Date: August 28^th 2010

Venue: Finicky Restaurant (By Yabatech), Yaba Lagos.

Time: 4pm

Site: wordcampnigeria.org

Gate Fee: Registration required

The Renaissance

Digital Art designs seminar with Top Nigerian and foreign wave making designers. The seminar is surely going to be awesome. Imagine being tutored by world class and award designers… you can kickstart your career from this seminar;

Facilitators: Fabio Sasso FOUNDER OF Abduzeedo, Pete Harrison, Kern Saunders, Cretique Page, David Osagie, Daniel Emeka, Opabisi Oluwaseun, Dudutoonz and many more.

Date: 7-9^th October 2010

Fee: N10,000 for student and N20,000 standard

Contact: danizconcept@gmail.com

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VIP invitation to MobiFest 2010

We partnered with MobileMoneyAfrica.com to bring MobiFest2010 to the mobile technology industry in Nigeria. Today, you can register for the event through us to get a pass!

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Lovebase.com a top Nigerian Dating site becomes profitable

Lovebase.com is formally alarena.com a top Nigerian dating site with over 60,000 members and growing, turned positive. We got this tip-off from the founder Simdul Shagaya in our recent interview we conducted with him.

How it works

You sign up on the site with the basic information you wish to be recognized on the site, and activate via your email.

To get people of interest, you can use its search function which allows you to specify whether you need male or female and the age grade, location and users with picture.

A New Deal?

Yea! We asked the founder of the reason for the change of name and he said; “The name change happened for several reasons. One was to have the brand appeal to a greater population of Nigerians in terms of ethnicity and age. As you know, Alarena means matchmaker in Yoruba. The brand now addresses an ethnically wider and younger crowd that may be looking for casual relationships in addition to those seeking marriage”.

The design is sleek and aesthetic, a world-class and web 2.0 compatible website. It’s really one of the top Nigerian sites with powerful user-experience.

The site also has a dedicated line 080-66-33-22-99 for customer support.

The Real Deal

The site has two options; premium and free membership. With premium membership, user get message from serious people and reduces spam. You can actually upload your picture to increase relevance. On the other hand, the free membership allows people to use the site for free!

Business Model

The site has seen considerable number of people making payment for the premium service. With this, the site has been able to sustain itself, innovate and reach broader audience. The model adopted by this site is Subscription model under Web Business Model structure.

Downside

The site can leverage the power of social media to reach far more audience as we now have more than 1.6 million Nigerians on Facebook.  Integration with Facebook will do the site good and help users find match faster and better.

Also understanding that mobile has more penetration than computer, a mobile site and SMS alert will help users get result faster and make them stick to the site, eventually increasing word-of-mouth.

Have you used this site before? How was it?

visit: Lovebase.com

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Interview with Emmanuel Okoegwale – Organizer MobiFest2010

Emmanuel is the Principal Consultant at MobileMoneyAfrica and a leading mobile commerce on the Africa space. We asked couple of questions regarding the upcoming event MobiFest2010 of which we are partner; these question can shed light on some of the questions you might want to ask, go through and endeavor to ask more in the comment section below.

WTN: What is mobiFest2010 About?

Emmanuel: MobiFEST  is Nigeria’s first mobile apps, contents and devices
conference and exhibition. It will hold in the heart of the Nigerian
youth market in the Yaba axis of Lagos, targeting  students from
about five higher institutions. MobiFEST was conceived to accelerate
mobile apps development focusing on areas of strong compelling need
across all areas of human endeavors  in Nigeria.It will be hosted at
the University of Lagos.

WTN: How will it impact Nigerian mobile market?

Emmanuel: Immediately what we are looking at is a Nation wide buzz on mobile apps and how it can be leveraged to address some developmental challenges
in Nigeria.When this has been achieved,the next stage is to commence
development efforts in making this a reality.

WTN: From the developer’s perspective… what should we expect?

Emmanuel: Basically, we want the event to be a launch pad for Nigerian
developers to gain a share of the market. Nigerians are very
intelligent people. However, it is important to note that  abilities
are limited where there are no opportunities. My expectation is that
the mobile network operators and device manufacturers active in the
mobile landscape in Nigeria will consider setting up an innovation lab
in Nigeria where Young mobiprenuers can develop their ideas. Such a
lab can be housed in one of our universities to create a hub for a
thriving mobile apps developer community.

WTN: What should we expect from the business perspective too?

Emmanuel: If new innovative services are successfully launched and it becomes
commercial success, then those players will reap the benefit of such
efforts. If we have More Nigerians striving to become the likes of
Alexandre Amosu, Chika Nwobi, Goke Akinboro in their own
communities,then we are on our way to launching a Nigerian Renaissance
via the mobile technology.

WTN: Looking at the speakers they are such movers in the industry, is there going to be a kind of synergy between budding technopreneurs and the established players?

Emmanuel: The essence of bringing the established players like you rightly
noted,is to bridge the gap and learn from them.The disconnection
between these two groups is the reason for the limited growth in that
sector. We need to come together,share experiences and forge a way
forward.

WTN: In the mail we got, top mobile brands are coming to look at innovations  worth investing in, what’s your advice to our mobile developers?

Emmanuel: Apart from top Brands, some enterprenuers are actively seeking out
young developers to explore outsourcing developmental jobs from EU /
North America.While it will be great to attract these scouts,my advice
is,present or showcase what you have and where you are. Dont  hurry  to
complete your developments only to get it wrong. Be proud of your
efforts and show is as it is,even if it is still at conceptual
stage. You may not just know who will be interested at that stage.

WTN: Looking forward, what chapter will this event open, will it be an annual event?

Emmanuel: It will give us the ability to measure what is out there. Measure the efforts,understand the short falls in terms of resources and what is
needed to move forward.It is my sincere believe that this humble
efforts will open a new vista for Nigeria developers as we celebrate
the 9th year of GSM in Nigeria and hopefully, we may get our version
of mobile Monday and maybe, an innovation lab to make all these dreams
a reality. It will be an annual event and we hope to replicate it
across the geo-political zones in Nigeria.

Thank you.

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Web Trends Nigeria partners Mobile Money Africa for Mobifest2010

Tagged: Reaching the M-Generation. It’s a two-day event targeted at mobile application development and innovations. The event will bring together thought-leaders in mobile technology industry. The event aligns with our continuous effort to seek and showcase development and innovation in the Nigerian technology space, hence our interest in supporting this event.

The focus of the event;

• Independent mobile application developers / vendors.
• Device manufacturers.
• Content providers.
• Integrators and Aggregators.
• SMS services providers.
• Location based services.

Speakers

• Idaresit Abasiama: FaceBook local partner -WildFusion Nig Ltd.
• Akin Naptal – MobileWorld
• Tim Akinbo – Timobjects Nigeria.
• Paulette Erijo – Letche tech Ltd
• Yomi Adegboye – Mobility Nigeria.
• Bimbo Adewole – MobileCV Nigeria.
• Onanuga Tosin – Mobilexectera
• Goke Akinboro – Cellullant Nigeria.
• Jide Akindele – MMIT
• Dayo Adefila – Insight communications Ltd
• Femi Adeagbo – SaveMy Contacts
• Chika Nwobi – MTECH
• Samuel Legunsen – Sony digital EU.
• Kofi Oroh – Mobitronics Nigeria Ltd

Other Event line up is;

Developers Hub

Developers’ hub is an “event within an event” at Mobifest 2010 that will present a unique opportunity to tap into local resources that is available in Nigeria and connect with young innovative players that are striving to enter the mobile applications market.
The developers’ hub Showcase at Mobifest is an area on the show floor dedicated to young innovators demonstrating and displaying their innovative mobile applications.

Who should attend?

Marketing and communication agencies that needs to understand the growing importance of mobile applications to their industry.
Financial, Insurance Institutions and Micro finance Banks seeking for cost effective mobile Banking and financial solutions.
Religious,NGO and Government agencies seeking new innovative channels to engage the citizens.
Application developers interested in staying current on the latest developments from the largest platforms.
Content providers seeking new, directed networking opportunities.
Operators who want to find that next cutting edge app that will help attract and retain customers.
Device makers and platform owners trying to recruit the best app developers.

Mobifest 2010, will be the largest event focused exclusively on the mobile applications ecosystem and will attracts thousands of mobile product enthusiasts looking to discover the latest developments and hottest products for different industry segments.

If you have an innovation you are currently working on, try to package it better as Nokia and Samsung will be available on ground to demo your products for possible investment/sponsorship.

Date: 17^th – 18^th August 2010
Venue: University of Lagos Auditorium, Akoka Yaba, Lagos.

So what are you waiting for, thick your calendar and get ready for the day!

Read more here

Join the Facebook page here.

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Nigeria Internetworld Conference and Exhibition (NICE2010)

Nigeria Internetworld Conference and Exhibition (NICE2010) is a internet for business focus conference to be held next week in Unilag.

Nigeria Internetworld Conference and Exhibition (NICE) is an annual event which provides education, empowerment, networking, business opportunities for Nigerians. It is a gathering of Internet based businesses, service providers, e-Commerce providers and experts that are involved in online marketing, e-commerce technology, web technology and development, content development and management.

Focus
-Internet access and Connectivity
-E-commerce and Digital marketing
-Web technology and development
-Internet security
-Social media
-Content development
-Internet and its application in different fields like media, medicine, governance, security
-Internet Trends and Business opportunities like domain name business, web hosting etc.
-Legislation

The theme: Internet for Business (I4b); Empowering Nigerians through the Internet.
Date: July 20, 2010
Venue: Afe Babalola Hall, University of Lagos.

The conference will feature discussion and internet product exhibition. If you have a product and willing to let the word out, Register here. Room is also available for sponsorship.

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