THE FUTURE SPEAKS : THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE YOUTH CONFERENCE 20132013-05-16
This is the third year that IgniteSA. com has been tasked with running the African Renaissance Youth Conference. In 2011 we did not know what we were in for but managed to pull together a world class
group of speakers including David Lake from Rothschilds, Kim Reid from Takealot. com, Karl Socikwa of Transnet and Thabang Skwambane from Kaelo Health. We combined their keynote speeches with
panel discussions with a number of young, dynamic and successful South Africans, culminating in a day full of great insights and content. Our themes were broad and were within the overall theme of the African Renaissance - Connecting Africa. We brought up issues of Technology and its effect on business, Banking and the financial situation in South Africa highlighting the interesting Walmart, Massmart Joint Venture, Social Responsibility and the need for more focus from companies on CSR initiative and Infrastructure development from the inside perspective on what Transet was up to at the time in South Africa. The day was a success but we wished we could have had more people attending.
Last year was a phenomenal success due to the interactive and engaged audience that attended and due to us applying all we had learned in 2011 to the running of the African Renaissance Youth Conference in 2012. Understanding that the majority of our audience was between the ages of 19 and 25 we ensured that our speakers were more or less of the same age. An approach that served us well. We flew in the cream of the crop of young, dynamic and influential leaders and role models across industry to address our diverse audience. In attempting to ensure that all who attended found value in being there we briefed our speakers to expose opportunities for further education, employment and entrepreneurship within their specific industries. The speakers themselves brought elements of motivation, inspiration and leadership through explaining their individual paths to success. We heard extremely interesting success stories from all of our speakers and all related well to our audience. We received a number of excellent reviews from a diverse group of attendees and conducted a survey on the day to help us refine our content for 2013. Entering our third year of running the African Renaissance Youth Conference in partnership with the African Renaissance, IgniteSA.com is extremely excited about what is in store for our audience this year.
We are making changes and have decided to change the name of the conference to the IgniteSA.com - The Future Speaks Conference brought to you by the African Renaissance. Our tagline is Think. Speak. Lead. And the theme for this years conference is,"Developing Knowledge, Opportunities and
Sustainable Leadership Today.
Taking into consideration what our 2012 audience had to say about who they wanted to hear from in 2013 we are bringing back two of our star speakers from last year. Ryan McFadyen and his entertaining take on new marketing methods and finger-onthe-pulse of whats hot in advertising is flying up from Cape Town to attend again this year. We are fortunate to have our stalwart, Vusi Thembekwayo, back again this year. The self-proclaimed Rock Star of Public Speaking has been very supportive of IgniteSA.com over the years and is a major hit amongst our audience with his direct approach to personal development methods and his hard hitting truths of how we all carry ourselves in public. In addition to these two gentlemen we couldnt be happier to welcome Eleanor Potter, General Manager for MTNs Branded Channel to our speaker panel in 2013. Eleanor is the driving force behind MTNs
Qhubeka sponsorship and is as passionate about South Africa and its people as one could find. Her focus on leadership and responsibility will be refreshing and inspiring. Without wanting to let on too much too early we wont profile anymore of our speakers only to say that they are all top class South African Role Models with great content to share and stories to tell.
The conference will once again be held at the prestigious Southern Sun Elangeni Hotel on Durbans beachfront and in order to keep online interaction and the twitterverse" ticking we will be handing out
some Samsung sponsored smart phones and a tablet to one lucky participant this year.
We invite all young South Africans who are driven, motivated, aspirant and focussed on a better future, wherever they are in their career cycle, to attend the most remarkable Youth conference in the province. We look forward to hosting you for a day of inspiration, motivation and stimulation.
Who We Are
IgniteSA.com is a value-based movement and mass digital and mobile media platform that aims to mobilise young and established leadership within South Africa towards active citizenry through networking and collective dialogue on socioeconomic matters, business, leadership, educational and development issues, share relevant and topical information, create empowering initiatives and avail access to key personalities and thought leaders in various industries and organisations.
IgniteSA.com started over a conversation at a boardroom table five years ago. We wanted to walk our talk and more importantly, we wanted to make a difference through proactively taking on the challenges
and opportunities facing our country and its people.
Our vision is to carve a future orientated pipeline of empowered, informed young leaders, aged between 16 and 30 now, who will rise to create opportunities for themselves and for the communities they will
come to influence. We want to ignite the imagination, aspirations and the collective energy of the people of South Africa across the colour, age and socio-economic divide and blaze a bright trail into the future.
How?
Through education, leadership development, employment creation, entrepreneurship, the power of digital media platforms and through ACCESS . to information, opportunity and to each other across our
various divides.
Our Mission
IGNITESA aims to:
I am an African. I owe my being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the glades, the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the flowers, the seas and the ever-changing seasons that define the face of our native land. My body has frozen in our frosts and in our latter day snows. It has thawed in the warmth of our sunshine and melted in the heat of the midday sun. The crack and the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed
by startling lightning, have been a cause both of trembling and of hope. . .A human presence among all these, a feature on the face of our native land thus defined, I know that none dare challenge me when I say . I am an African! Former President of the Republic of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki
About Us
The Original Fire Starters (Lynette Ntuli; Lyle Krause; Dax Barker and Marc Rosenberg) are a collective of young entrepreneurial South Africans, who have worked and become leaders in various industries
and their own ventures, but are united in their common love and belief in their country . South Africa.
Five years ago, we were 25. We had decisions to make, careers to grow, ideas and opinions to deliver, networks we needed to grow, and educational aspirations . mostly, we wanted to take over the world! It dawned on us then, that there had to be millions of young South Africans with the same needs without a platform, without a meeting place, without a collective centre of empowerment, learning and opportunity and with no vehicle to unleash their potential on South Africa. This is our collective spark, developing into a small fire and light we want to spread to you too. Today, IgniteSA.com is in its second brand lifecycle and re-inventing itself into a commercial venture offering content, development, and event and media services to private and public sector sponsors and
participants, institutions, organisations and most importantly, the Fire Starters!
Core Focus Areas
Through six key focus areas it is our goal to inspire aspiration, create dialogue and healthy debate on key issues, curate thought leadership, act as an educational gateway and deliver content that counts.
Stakeholder Engagement and Membership
Without a keen following of members (individual and corporate) IgniteSA.com would cease to exist.
Members can look forward to services geared at ensuring their information is updated, content is relevant to them and they remain informed. Corporate clients can look forward to the derived value of access to a smart, savvy audience, the opportunity to showcase their brands and products at large forums pitched at a high quality, while actively participating in programmes to ensure skills development, enterprise development and
youth development.
In the future, loyalty will be rewarded through a specialised programme aimed at ensuring members enjoy value from the products and services they have become loyal to in turn. IgniteSA.com exists and grows through continued collaboration with partners who focus on the delivery of interventions aligned to our focus on Leadership, Education, Personal and Career Development, Entrepreneurship, Media, African and Global Connectivity and Dialogue platforms. Our growth is further propelled by the value proposition we offer from a brand exposure, enterprise development and skills development to corporate, brands and public sector organisations that support our movement and initiatives. Technology and Communications
IgniteSA.com was created to leverage the long term, rapid growth of the mass digital and mobile media sector in Africa to provide content and connectivity to its users and members.
Key platforms for the delivery of our content and services will remain via the web and mobile. Technology is the pivot upon which the business facilitates, delivers and monitors member movement, usage, interactions and feedback. However, our communication platforms take on a far more interactive, personalised nature through alternative mediums such as television, radio, print media and physical engagement platforms.
Content, Media and Services
IgniteSA.com is a movement of ideas, like and unlike minds, movers and shakers, of information, of change...
Every interaction with our members and stakeholders provides us with the unique opportunity to share new content, fresh angles on existing content and stimulate actions, programmes and initiatives within
our offering of services.
Touching lives and effecting development and change at grassroots levels in our society, remains at the core of our mandate to effectively combine the catalytic impact of business, leadership, education and knowledge working together If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language; that goes to his heart. We understand that we cannot always reach those who need the information we gather most, in traditional media and digital formats. Corporate Social Responsibility
Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. WBY
IgniteSA.com is a business with a big heart for the challenges faced by South Africa, but a firm believer in solutions and that business can be used as a tool for effective change in our communities, circles of influence, and in the perspectives and outlook of those previously unaffected by the role they can play in the countrys progress. To this end, it is our belief that education stands at the helm of the development of the future and we are proudly affiliated to a number of organisations that serve this very purpose. Why IgniteSA.com?
The cure for HIV/AIDS may be locked in a mind that cannot access education...or the internet, a laboratory, a library, a mentor, a bursary...
The growth and impact of social and digital media in South Africa and in Africa over the last 5 years has changed the way we consume knowledge, news, opinions, and products and take in the world around us. And whilst this phenomenon is expected to continue as access to the internet and data spreads across the continent, we remain cognisant that a large population of the Next Billion across South Africa and Africa do not have access to the internet, computers or even mobile phones. No one will be left behind as we discover, empower and support transformational young leaders in South Africa and Africa
through our initiatives.
What will inspire and continue to set us apart is our belief that Excellence resides in every corner of the country and through mass media, mobile, the web, word-of-mouth and our partners - it is our intention
to reach it!
We are shaped and supported by a community of stakeholders who have common goals for the future of our country and continent; and are ignited by our ability to inspire and aspire towards a vibrant, sustainable and successful society for all. Africa Today, Tomorrow The World
The IgniteSA.com movement is replicable in any community across the African continent where willing, dynamic and inspired young leaders can be supported by wisdom and experience and the power of mobile data and the creation of Ignite Hubs.
To leave behind a set of values, a set of keys to the future, ready and set leadership to take a community into the future, a set formula for the success of society, the economy and mankind. This is our dream.
Eleanor Potter
Currently General Manager, Branded Retail Channel for MTN South Africa, Eleanor started her career in the hotel industry, followed by management positions in banking before joining MTN as Regional Operations Manager in 1999.
From 2001-2004 Eleanor managed the programme for the franchised Branded Retail Store rollout across Nigeria and was a crucial member of the MTN start-up team in this country and a number of MTN other African operations. Following her return to South Africa, she started her own highly successful company, Carnelian Management Services, which consulted to the telecoms industry in South Africa, which led to a natural progression back into MTN in 2010. Today she heads up a team consisting of 1 700 people (directly) with another 1 500 (indirectly) working under her across 500 outlets and six call centres in South Africa. In 2008 Eleanor completely conceptualised and developed the MTN Branded strategy which changed the Branded Retail environment from a few service orientated stores to a fully functional retail channel. The crux of this change has seen a swing towards -Customer centricity - in a retail environment - which covers location, design, systems, people and processes. The most complex
being an ever-changing advanced telecommunications environment in a retail environment with young employees au fait with current technology and the challenge of transferring this information to the consumer.
Vusi Thembekwayo
www.vusi.co.za
Described by the convenors of Australia Top 16 as -The Worlds youngest and most impressive
public speaker. Vusis speaking achievements include delivering an international hit talk-The Black Sheep- for the Top 40 CEOs in Southern Africa, giving an address to the"Australian Houses of parliament and speaking at the British House of Commons. And to top it off, he speaks in 4 of the 7 continents to over 350 000 people each year. And in 2011 alone he delivered over 200 keynotes.
His public speaking started in high school where he would compete with the best young public
speakers from all over the world. This saw him getting awarded.The Audience Favourite
Speaker prize by the world-renowned English Speaking Union. By age 17, Vusi was already
ranked 1st in Africa for public speaking and he went on to receive a 3rd in the world at the
English Speaking Union International Competition a record he still holds today. At age 22,
he already ran his own successful consulting business. And at 25, he became the youngest
director of a multinational. Today at 27, hes the managing Director of MOTIV8", a specialist
consulting and service business that trades internationally. For his achievements, the global
premium business magazine>The Deal called himan entrepreneur extraordinaire while the
premium Sunday national newspaper, The City Press dubbed himyoung business genius.
His profile is such that he is frequently asked to comment in the media. Hes been interviewed
for business programmes on Summit TV and 702 Radio amongst many others. He has also
written articles about personal marketing and how to get ahead in your business or career.
Whether you are an event manager, sales & marketing director or HR, Vusi has the magic to
entertain, enthuse and inspire your team and guide them to new heights.
Ryan McFadyen
He has worked in a traditional marketing role managing a number of top local and
international brands gaining much success. Having studied at the University of Stellenbosch
followed by an Honours degree at the University of Cape Town, he started his career
at Adidas. Since then he has fulfilled various marketing roles at companies such as Vital
Health Foods and Johnson and Johnson.
His success can be attributed to his passion for innovative marketing strategies and sound
business principles. Having worked on the marketing management side he has a good understanding
of the needs of brands and companies to drive communication that is effective.
Ryan is a founding partner of HaveYouHeard marketing, South Africas first specialist wordof-
mouth marketing agency. Launched in November 2008, HaveYouHeard has grown from
strength to strength working with clients such as Vodacom, Brandhouse and Tiger Brands
amongst others.
Ryan is seen as a major innovator within the South African marketing landscape and will
continue to push the boundaries wherever possible.P
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THE FUTURE SPEAKS : THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE YOUTH CONFERENCE 2013
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