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Nominations Open for New Book Dedicated to Cape Town's Startup Scene

Published: 15 August 2018

Startup Guide is bringing its popular entrepreneurial guidebook series to Cape Town in partnership with Silicon Cape and with support from SAP Next-Gen.   

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA - 6 AUGUST 2018 Entrepreneurs, accelerators, coworking spaces and experts can now be nominated to be featured in Startup Guide Cape Town, the first-ever entrepreneurial handbook dedicated to Cape Town’s startup scene. Based on traditional guidebooks that can be carried around everywhere, Startup Guide books help entrepreneurs navigate different startup hubs across the globe and are now in 17 different cities across Europe, the US and the Middle East, including London, New York, Berlin, Tel Aviv and Stockholm. 

Packed with city essentials, practical information, in-depth interviews and insightful tips, Startup Guide Cape Town will guide, empower and inspire entrepreneurs in the coastal South African city to transform their startup ideas into reality. To ensure an accurate and trustworthy guide, the book is co-created with the local startup community, from 6 - 20 August, 2018, and anyone in the community can contribute by nominating candidates they’d like to see in the book at capetown.startupguide.world 

“One of the most active hubs for startup investment on the continent, Cape Town is attracting more and more entrepreneurs with its diverse pool of talent and growing ecosystem of investors, accelerators, incubators and coworking spaces ready to support early stage entrepreneurs,” said Sissel Hansen, founder and CEO of Startup Guide, “We’re excited to be stepping into South Africa’s startup scene for the first time and highlighting the people and places shaping Cape Town’s growing entrepreneurial community.”  

Founded in 2014, Startup Guide is a creative content and publishing company that produces guidebooks and tools to help people turn their startup ideas into reality. The idea behind the Startup Guide books originally came to Hansen when she moved from Copenhagen to Berlin to start a business and discovered how difficult it was to find useful information and local advice about that process. Despite being rejected by multiple investors, she bootstrapped the project and launched the first Startup Guide book in Berlin in 2014 – and it sold out in less than 48 hours. 

For Startup Guide Cape Town, Startup Guide has partnered with Silicon Cape, who will be the main project facilitator and supporter, while the main sponsor for the project is SAP Next-Gen. 

“Silicon Cape is thrilled to be partnering with Startup Guide to produce the first ever Southern Hemisphere guide for Cape Town,” says Kerry Petrie, General Manager at Silicon Cape, “We are always looking for ways to tell the story of our local ecosystem, its innovative stakeholders and its strong network connections. Startup Guide allows us to tell this story to a wider, international audience. We are excited for Cape Town to join the network of cities such as London, Hamburg, Tel Aviv and Paris.” 

After the nominations period, the list of candidates will be narrowed down to the top fifty companies and individuals based on the results. Afterward, the local advisory board – which is selected by Silicon Cape and consists of key players in the local startup community – votes for the final selection so there’s a balanced representation of industries in the book.

Startup Guide Cape Town is set to be released in April 2019. To save 20% on the book before the launch date, pre-order it now. 

Media contact
Sissel Hansen
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
+45 52178545
startupguide.world 

About Startup Guide
Founded in 2014 by Sissel Hansen, Startup Guide is a creative content and publishing company that produces guidebooks and tools to help entrepreneurs navigate and connect with different startup scenes across the globe. As the world of work changes, our mission is to guide, empower and inspire people to start their own business anywhere. Today, Startup Guide books are in 18 different cities in Europe and the Middle East, including Berlin, London, Tel Aviv, Stockholm, Copenhagen, Vienna, Lisbon and Paris. It also has two physical stores in Berlin and Lisbon to promote and sell products by startups. Startup Guide is a 20-person team based in Berlin and Lisbon.  

About Silicon Cape
Silicon Cape is a non-profit, community-driven initiative that supports and catalyzes the creation of a vibrant, sustainable tech and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the Cape. Founded in 2009, Silicon Cape is the most established entrepreneurial network in Africa.

Nedbank brings Silicon Valley's Plug and Play to Africa in Disruption First for the Continent

Published: 14 August 2018

Nedbank launches The Disruption Agenda to connect the best technology startups to major corporations and business leaders

South Africa, 13 August 2018 – Nedbank announced today the expansion of their US partnership with Plug and Play, the world’s largest innovation platform, to include South Africa for the first time.Together, the entities will connect 10 visionary entrepreneurs from around the world to business leaders at The Disruption Agenda to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in September.These startups are at the leading edge of digital transformation. They have been accelerated via the Plug and Play platform and identified as relevant disruptors to solving cross-sector business challenges at a corporate level within the local market.

“Nedbank recognises that building an innovation strategy at a corporate level can present a number of significant challenges. To help corporate leaders, we have structured The Disruption Agenda, a first of its kind event on the continent, to simplify how corporates connect to world-class startups,” shares Stuart van der Veen, Head of Disruption and Innovation at Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking (CIB). “The problem is that innovative thinking is too often limited to finding new ways of doing old things, when what businesses really need to set themselves apart is to find completely new things to do. And that’s where the successful integration of disruptive technology can be an unparalleled source of comprehensive transformation for any business.”

Nedbank’s participation in Plug and Play's FinTech accelerator program abroad supports its commitment to source innovative digital enhancements to meet the changing needs of its clients. Nedbank has sponsored Play and Play’s Fintech initiative for close on two years and for each of the four batches that Nedbank has been involved in, the bank’s teams actively engaged with the startups to source new ideas and partnerships with the aim of delivering delightful client experiences and disruptive client value propositions.

“Our partnership with Nedbank has given our startups a successful route to expand their business to South Africa,” said Max Koenig, Director of Plug and Play FinTech, Silicon Valley. “The CIB group, responsible for innovation within Nedbank, has been instrumental in sourcing startups to digitally transform their company.” 

The Disruption Agenda is a closed event structured for Nedbank’s clients, while a public event for broader access to Plug and Play is envisioned to take place later in the year. The success of these engagements will form the basis of Plug and Play’s decision to accelerate plans to establish a permanent presence in Africa.

“The opportunity in Africa as a whole is endless and we view this event in September as an integral first step for opening and developing an Innovation Hub in South Africa in 2019” noted Saeed Amidi, Founder & CEO of Plug and Play.

“We believe that successful disruptors are those organisations that are able to see through their traditional functions and create new realities for their clients and businesses. In the process of transforming innovation thinkers to disruption leaders, these organisations have real potential to transform the economic reality of entire communities,” shares Van der Veen

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For more information about this press release please contact:

Mika Stanvliet - The This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. | 081 534 6237 

About Nedbank Group

Nedbank Group is a bank holding company listed on JSE Limited (JSE) with a market capitalisation of R125 billion as at 30 June 2018. Nedbank Group is one of Africa’s largest banking groups.Its principal banking subsidiary is Nedbank Limited, and the group is 54% majority owned by Old Mutual Limited (OML), which has a primary listing on the JSE with secondary listings in London, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Namibia. Nedbank Group owns subsidiaries and banks in Namibia, Swaziland, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, and offshore in the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey. It also has representative offices in other Southern Africa countries, including Angola and Kenya, and has key global financial centres to provide international banking services for SA-based multinational and high-net-worth clients in London, Toronto and Dubai (UAE).We are a diversified financial services provider, offering a wide range of wholesale and retail banking services, as well as insurance, asset management and wealth management solutions.

For more information, visit https://www.nedbank.co.za/ 

About Plug and Play:

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 20 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 6,000 startups and 220 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries.We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club, PayPal, SoundHound, and Zoosk.

For more information, visit www.plugandplaytechcenter.com

South Africa’s customer service levels at an all time high

Published: 08 August 2018

Cape Town, August 8, 2018:  Africa’s customer experience leaders gathered in Cape Town last week for the 2 day Customer experience Management Africa Summit. The delegation of over 600 customer experience professionals discussed pressing issues such as generating a return on investment in cx, practical application of data and driving emotion to create exceptional experiences.  

South Africa’s customer experience professionals are slowly emerging as some of the best in the world, and the data is there to back this up.  

Sarina de Beer, Managing Director of Ask Afrika stated in her keynote “As mentioned right up-front it is a celebration year. Service levels are at its best ever…with satisfaction ratings of 91%, delight ratings of 54% and very low dissatisfaction scores of 5%. This is largely driven by technological advances and progress, with systems, and technological solutions, self help channels and chat bots in place to deliver bigger, better, faster.”  

Looking into how these results have been achieved, much of it can be contributed to the work customer experience professionals are doing in designing deliberate customer journeys. Diane Magers, CEO of the world’s largest and foremost association for CX professionals, the CXPA, elaborated; “Designing these deliberate customer experience is like building a bridge. Just like any team sport, it takes coordination and a clear understanding of the goals and it requires collaboration and contribution by all team members to ensure the bridge across the support structures is solid and consistent.  Building in silos or vacuums creates an inconsistent experience for our customers. Inconsistent experiences are one of the key factors commonly identified as a factor of dissatisfaction by many other organizations, particularly B2B, as a key opportunity to improve CX.” 

“The results presented by Ask Afrika were for me a great reward and justification for what we do, but great customer experience is a double-edged sword. The better you get, the higher the customers’ expectation and that baseline sets a new bar. You have to keep improving, keep evolving and stay moving when it comes to delivering exceptional customer experience. Finding and nurturing talent in the CX profession will be the next great challenge businesses face within in this industry” Juan Mouton, Portfolio Director for the Customer Experience Management Africa Summit.  

Grace Sikapokoo, the Chief Customer Office for AIG, South Africa spoke on this topic in both her keynote and as part of a panel discussion on customer centricity. The AIG CCO shared five steps to remain relevant and continually skilled; understand your organisation, understand you customers, understand customer experience management, understand technology and most importantly understand your purpose.  

The future for Customer Experience in South Africa is bright and there is much to be positive about, but the challenge will continue to grow harder, and the search for CX talent will be a driving competitive advantage for businesses serious about customer experience through 2018 and beyond.  

Follow @CEMAfricaSummit on Twitter and join the conversation using the #CEMSummit18 hash tag.

ABOUT CEM AFRICA CEM Africa is a meeting place for CX professionals and innovative CX solution providers. The show took place on the 1-2 August 2018 at the CTICC in Cape Town, where like-minded customer experience experts and the top CX solution providers gathered for an informative and educational summit with the common goal of improving customer experience across Africa. The event provides a platform for like-minded CX professionals to showcase their industry knowledge as well as solutions to better the customer’s perception of the brand.

ABOUT KINETIC Kinetic is an international business-to-business conference and exhibitions producer based in Cape Town. Our mission is to equip senior management executives with knowledge, market intelligence and viable commercial opportunities. Kinetic are leaders in providing business facilitation platforms throughout Africa.

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Released by:  KINETIC SA
Juan Mouton:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Africa’s customer experience experts descend on Cape Town

Published: 27 July 2018

Africa’s top customer experience experts are gathering Cape Town for the 7th annual Customer Experience Management Africa Summit, held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on the 1st and 2nd of August. The African leaders from companies such as AIG, MTN, Naspers, Old Mutual and Comair, will be joined by global customer experience experts such as Diane Magers the CEO of the CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association).

The Summit will be addressing three of the most pressing customer experience issues facing corporations in Africa; driving customer emotions, establishing a return on investment from customer experience and putting insights from data to practical use.

Diane Magers will open the Summit with a keynote on guiding executives who are looking for a financial return on investment. Magers, CEO of the world’s largest CX association will show how value creation requires CX professionals to change their language and their value story.

Mike Joubert, a South African marketing rainmaker and Sean Drummond, screenwriter for the acclaimed Five Fingers for Marseilles will deliver a one hour workshop on the art of storytelling and how brands can use it to create emotional relevance within their customer journeys.

Clint Payne from Multichoice will be delivering a case study on how the right data and measurement tools can inform service design. This Multichoice experience team has won multiple CX awards around the world, including three of the five awards at last year’s African Customer Experience Awards.

“This Summit will showcase a powerful combination of customer experience leaders sharing best practice and debating on the future of the African customer experience. Whilst this is an African gathering, customer experience has no boarders and expectations are set on a global level. The content we have lined up is most certainly at the level of what is happening in Europe and the United States. What is discussed this week will resonate across the African consumer landscape over the next 12 months. It is a very exciting event to be a part of, the change initiated from the summit is lightning fast and a testament to how seriously these companies take customer experience” states Juan Mouton, Portfolio Director for the summit.

Follow @CEMAfricaSummit on Twitter and join the conversation using the #CEMSummit18 hash tag.

ABOUT CEM AFRICA
CEM Africa is a meeting place for CX professionals and innovative CX solution providers. The show takes place on the 1-2 August 2018 at the CTICC in Cape Town, where like-minded customer experience experts and the top CX solution providers gather for an informative and educational summit with the common goal of improving customer experience across Africa. The event will provide a platform for like-minded CX professionals to showcase their industry knowledge as well as solutions to better the customer’s perception of the brand. 

ABOUT KINETIC
Kinetic is an international business-to-business conference and exhibitions producer based in Cape Town. Our mission is to equip senior management executives with knowledge, market intelligence and viable commercial opportunities. Kinetic are leaders in providing business facilitation platforms throughout Africa. 

The Real Power Behind Successful Addiction Recovery

Published: 18 July 2018

Recovery Direct is one of the most exclusive psychological and addiction treatment centres in South Africa. Nestling in a quiet Constantia road, flanked by rolling vineyards, ancient oaks and the breath-taking grandeur of the Constantiaberg mountains, the centre offers a perfect and tranquil environment for recovery. Stunning multi-functional suites, each decked out in Victorian colonial style with en-suite bathrooms, balconies and panoramic views, offer outstanding accommodation for guests who want an upmarket and comfortable rehab experience.

Recovery Direct was founded by Vaughan Pankhurst, who recognised the need for a novel approach to addiction treatment after he had successfully completed his own nine-year own journey into long-term recovery. Vaughan realised early on that trauma lies at the heart of addiction, and his centre is unique in that it consciously addresses the underlying traumatic issues on which addiction feeds. As such, it challenges the stigmas surrounding addiction and substance use by focusing its treatment approach around the belief that the effects of trauma lead people to become addicts.

This approach contrasts with other rehabilitation centres in that Recovery Direct does not follow a 12-step programme in its treatment methodology. This non-punitive approach is intentional – it enables the centre and its healthcare workers to focus on resolving clients ‘problems by addressing the trauma and pain that drove them to addiction. It also carefully dismantles the destructive forces driving their addictions. Patients are required to see their counsellors every day, as opposed to once or twice a week. This regularity fast-tracks the healing process and enables recovery goals to be achieved sooner.

The centre is eco-friendly and environmentally conscious – electricity is produced by energy-efficient solar panels, and water is provided by a natural spring.

The exclusive rehab treats a wide spectrum of conditions, from alcoholism, drug addiction, anxiety and mood disorders to depression, gambling and food related addictions. It also helps clients who have eating disorders, issues related to sexual addiction, codependency, narcissistic abuse, trauma and PTSD. Its programs also cover panic disorder, pain management, obsessive-compulsive disorders, phobias, grief, personality disorders, relationship issues, stress and burnout.

The centre also directs its efforts at ensuring sustainable recovery and life outside of rehab, which is why the aftercare and the outpatient programme are particularly strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zayVrudcKHI

 

10 African Innovators Selected for Global Accelerator Startupbootcamp AfriTech

Published: 18 July 2018

Startupbootcamp AfriTech empowers the top innovative African tech startups, linking them to the fastest-moving corporates on the continent.

Cape Town, 12 July 2018 – Startupbootcamp (SBC) AfriTech today announced the Top 10 African Innovators selected to participate in the globally renowned, multi-corporate backed accelerator programme for 2018. Post an intensive 3-month global scouting tour, across 15 countries, and inclusive of 19 FastTrack events and 220 face-to-face startup engagements, the SBC AfriTech team received 1,004 applications from 73 countries in total, attracting double the applications from its inaugural launch in 2017. The applications were shortlisted to the top 22 startup teams that were flown down to pitch their businesses over 2-days to some of the most progressive leaders in the innovation space in Africa, including corporate sponsors, mentors and investors.

The SBC AfriTech programme (previously SBC Africa) ended on a record high in 2017 with 32 corporate agreements in pilots and proof-of-concepts signed by close of the accelerator. “Our inaugural year was big, it was bold,” comments Zachariah George, co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of SBC AfriTech, “Our phenomenal success of last year has made us the only truly global accelerator for tech ventures in partnership with dynamic corporates on the African continent – we are accelerating the next wave of innovation in Africa.”

The top 10 African Innovators selected are:

Akiba Digital, South Africa: A financial savings platform and personal savings coach that leverages A.I., machine learning and gamification to democratize wealth in Africa.

Bankly Technologies, Nigeria: A goal-based savings product that digitizes cash and enables in-country, peer-to-peer transfer services through the use of vouchers available nationwide.

Brandbook Analytics, South Africa: A mobile application providing users free gift-card coupons for completed purchases with the ability to harvest vast amounts of consumer data and improved forecasting and analytics.

CredPal, Nigeria: An innovative solution using deep data that provides individuals with instant access to credit at the point of checkout for various online and offline merchants.

Digitech Group, Ivory Coast: Provides incumbent insurance companies an omni-channel and cloud-based digital platform to sell insurance products through mobile and web.

Inclusive Financial Technologies, Ghana: Inclusive FT’s API helps digital financial services reach the most remote customers across Africa by enabling them to onboard, verify and monitor them via digital channels.

Kudimoney Bank, Nigeria: A no-charge, full-service, online-only bank making banking services more affordable and more accessible by offering an interest-earning spending account with zero charges, a savings account with above-average interest rates and access to low interest instant loans.

Lüla, South Africa: A mobility-as-a-service platform that connects stakeholders to improve mobility by providing transport that is convenient, accessible and safe and enabling operators, cities and passengers to have easy access and understanding of transport.

MPost, Kenya: A patented solution providing legally recognized physical addresses for the 95% of the African population that do not have a postal address.

Prospa, South Africa: A micro-savings solution for low-income earning South Africans, allowing users to purchase savings vouchers at traders that entitle the user to a set amount of savings which are deposited into a mobi-savings account.

The 10 selected tech startups have a month to ready themselves for the 3-month accelerator that will kick off on August 13th in Cape Town and culminate with the Demo Day on November 8th when they will pitch to the world.

To the Top 10, Philip Kiracofe says: “You are here because your solution is market-ready and the sponsors want to work with you starting from today. The next 3 months are going to be absolutely exhilarating. We are going to be here side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, pushing you, cajoling you, encouraging you, nurturing you, mentoring you and helping you achieve 12 – 18 months’ worth of growth in a 3-month span. On Demo Day you’re not going to believe that just 3 months ago you were standing where you are today. Congratulations and good luck.”

SBC AfriTech is anchored and endorsed by heavyweight corporate sponsors RCS, BNP Paribas Personal Finance, Old Mutual, Nedbank and PwC. The programme also has local service partners Brevity Law, Cloudworx, Inner City Ideas Cartel, and The Loudhailer and is globally supported by Cisco and Amazon Web Services.

FORBES International Business Coach Launches Southern Africa Tour for National Women’s Month

Published: 08 July 2018

Johannesburg, Gauteng – 9 July 2018 - American Founder of Pursue Your Purpose LLC and Forbes Coach, Tamiko Cuellar, will be launching a 4-city "Own Your Brilliance! Tour throughout South Africa and Namibia for aspiring and emerging women entrepreneurs from 11-20 August 2018 in honor of National Women's Month. The first-of-its-kind tour will be a series of Master Class workshops taught by Cuellar and are based on her 3rd book release, "Own Your Brilliance! - A Woman's Guide to Hiring Herself." Aspiring and emerging women are strongly encouraged to attend this event.

The tour will commence in Johannesburg on August 11th, then to Windhoek, Namibia on August 14th, to East London on August 18th, and end in Cape Town on August 20th. "South Africa and Namibia have some of the most talented and capable professional women who are seeking to be empowered to start or run their own businesses successfully. As an International Business Strategist, I am coming to help them get to their next level," says Cuellar. Attendees will leave inspired and equipped to own their brilliance and with ways they can prosper by using their gifts, talents, skills, and abilities on their own terms as entrepreneurs.

Notable sponsors including the University of South Africa (UNISA) and the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) have joined forces with this powerful event. East London-based firm Epitomely PRM, has also partnered with the event to market it in Eastern Cape and has brought on Cape Town based NGO Womandla as the official Corporate Social Initiative client so that a portion of the ticket proceeds can benefit the Womandla Foundation for women in Africa. Mamoyo Media House in Johannesburg is an official media partner of the event.

Details of the Master Class and registration can be found on the registration page.   A special opportunity for discounted coaching with Cuellar will be made available to a select number of women who register early. Spaces are limited.  During the Master Class, Cuellar will share her personal journey that inspired her to write the "Own Your Brilliance!" book and teach practical lessons and strategies from the book to equip women to run successful businesses.  A free copy of the e-book will be provided to every woman who registers for the event. Tamiko Cuellar is the CEO and Founder of Pursue Your Purpose LLC, a global coaching firm based in the U.S. for aspiring and emerging women entrepreneurs internationally. She is a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, a regular contributor to Forbes.com and a former Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship. A proven leader in the global marketplace,

Tamiko has been invited to speak at corporations, conferences, churches, on several radio and TV programs, and more. Cuellar coaches high performing, purpose driven women globally with strategies to transition into entrepreneurship and to grow their businesses. For more information on Cuellar and her company, visit the company website.

Africa’s CX Summit Tackles Return on Investment

Published: 06 July 2018

The 2018 edition of CEM Africa will focus on return on investment as the African CX market matures and investment increases.

Kinetic, the organizers of Customer Experience Management Africa, the largest gathering of CX professionals on the African continent, has announced that the primary focus for the 2018 event will be Return on Investment. The summit, held in Cape Town on the 1st and 2nd of August at the Cape Town International Convention Centre will once again see top level delegates in the marketing and CX profession meet to showcase and discuss best practice as well the latest in innovative technology. The event purpose is geared towards the objective of supplying their African customers with a world class customer experience.

Juan Mouton, Portfolio Director for the summit noted the following “The African retail, tourism and financial markets have taken huge leaps forward in customer experience over the last 6 years and as the market matures and investment in CX continues to grow, being able to show a quantifiable return on investment that is linked to business metrics is becoming a critical requirement.” He goes on to mention “Technology plays a huge role in being able to leverage actionable insights on the enormous amounts of data that is collected along the customer journey. The major stumbling point for most organizations is understanding how to extract value from that data, and redeploy those insights to inspire an emotional connection with the consumer that leads to real business results that reflect on the bottom line.” “That is what this year’s summit will aim to tackle and together with industry leaders and our partners we are sure that everyone attending the summit will leave with the ability to create a business led customer experience strategy.”

The 2018 CEM Africa Summit will once again partner with the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA), the global professional body overseeing the CX profession. CXPA CEO, Diane Magers will open this years’ conference and host a series of workshops at the event. Commenting on the theme of the conference and the importance of being able to extract value from data Diane said “It is definitely a challenging competency for organizations in general. But, CX professionals are in the unique position to bring together the data and understand the right problem to solve using design thinking and insight generation techniques.  It is teaching the organization what the data means and, not only what they can do with it (with a CX professionals guidance) but also why it is important to leverage the information. It’s incumbent on CX practitioners, analysts and business units to work closely to discover the right opportunities from across the enterprise based on the customer’s journey and present a credible and cohesive picture of insights, the holistic solution approach and the results.”

The CEM Africa Summit, which is regarded as a world class CX event that competes on a global scale will feature industry leaders from organizations such as AIG Insurance, Old Mutual, ABSA, Travel Start, Uber, Multichoice, Oracle and many more. The platform for sharing best practice in key note presentations and the open debate on key challenges in the panel discussions provide a diverse and rich source of information.

Where the summit truly sets itself apart is in the workshop sessions. With more than 40 workshops that are graded from beginner to advanced, CX practitioners across all levels of maturity are able to gain detailed insight and practical advice around technology, research and case study material from organizations that are leading the way within the customer experience industry.

The graded workshop structure and the focus on business led customer experience has seen registrations for the event explode with almost 70% of the seats already reserved. The final round of allocations will go on sale on this week and organizations are encouraged to book quickly to avoid the disappointment of missing out.

For sponsorship information please contact Juan Mouton, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For delegate information please contact Marcia Rossouw, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ABOUT CEM AFRICACEM Africa is a meeting place for CX professionals and innovative CX solution providers. The show takes place on the 1-2 August 2018 at the CTICC in Cape Town, where like-minded customer experience experts and the top CX solution providers gather for an informative and educational summit with the common goal of improving customer experience across Africa. The event will provide a platform for like-minded CX professionals to showcase their industry knowledge as well as solutions to better the customer’s perception of the brand.ABOUT KINETIC Kinetic is an international business-to-business conference and exhibitions producer based in Cape Town. Our mission is to equip senior management executives with knowledge, market intelligence and viable commercial opportunities. Kinetic are leaders in providing business facilitation platforms throughout Africa. 

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Released by:  KINETIC SA
Juan Mouton:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Fantastical family fun awaits Cape Town’s families at Children’s Magic Festival!

Published: 25 June 2018

The 2018 Traditional Children’s Magic Festival, presented by the world-famous College of Magic, invites Cape Town’s families to escape from the freezing cold into a fantastical world of magic at the College’s warm and mysterious Victorian Manor in Claremont from Wednesday 27 to Saturday 30 June 2018.

Magical hijinks are the order of the day as the cast take Festivalgoers on a whirlwind tour of the century-old Manor with incredible magic shows, hands-on interactive workshops, thrilling games, magical photo opportunities and more!The Festival, now in its 24th year, is family entertainment at its best with more than 50 talented College graduates and students performing an array of fantastical feats including juggling, escapology, stilt-walking, mime and clowning.

It’s magic galore and all just for you!

The College of Magic, the only organisation of its kind in the world, has been teaching the art of magic and its allied arts as well as vital life-skills to children and adults since 1980.

It is thrilled to once again host the Festival:

“Our Children’s Magic Festival is a popular indoor winter school holiday event in Cape Town and we’re always looking at ways it can be even more enchanting for our returning magic fanatics. In addition to the non-stop magical fun for the whole family, we’re challenging our Festivalgoers to dress up to this year’s theme, "Parade of Superstars", and dazzle the cast as your favourite movie or TV show star. Join us for a magical winter family experience unlike any other- we cannot wait to entertain you! “says Yolandi van Jaarsveldt, CEO of the College of Magic.

The Festival will be held at the College of Magic, 215 Imam Haron Road in Claremont, with the 90-minute show programme running daily at 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm.

Experience the impossible at the College of Magic this winter school holiday:

Tickets for the 2018 Traditional Children’s Magic Festival are R90 per person with discounts for family bookings. Book yours TODAY at www.collegeofmagic.com/tickets.For more information about the College of Magic, please visit www.collegeofmagic.com/tickets, call +27(0)21 683 5480 or follow them on Facebook

Conversica Signs South Africa’s Intele.Chat as Alliance Partner for its World Leading AI Driven Lead Engagement Software in the Region

Published: 23 May 2018

Cape Town, South Africa 23rd May 2018 - With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) now becoming more pervasive in the Enterprise, the way brands can engage with the market, clients, consumers or end users has dramatically changed.  Intele.Chat will join Conversica’s Alliance Partner Program to grow sales of their award winning AI powered technology to enhance the B2B & B2C sales and marketing interface, bringing improvements to key business operations and improved productivity for South African based Enterprise clients.   

“We are very excited to partner with Intele.Chat”, said Victor Belfor, SVP Business Development at Conversica. “Intele.Chat is the premier conversational AI consultancy and thought leader in the region.  Intele.Chat is uniquely suited to represent our Automated Sales Assistant which follows up on every sale lead and converts them to opportunities by using natural language conversations.  Because the messages appear to come from a real person, the engagement rate is very high.” 

“For me, Conversica is a technology that takes your sales and marketing operation to the next level”, said Nick Bradshaw, CEO Intele.Chat.  “I have been in business development for over 20 years and Conversica solves many of the age old problems we face as sales and marketing professionals, namely; keeping  leads engaged, relentless follow-up, post tradeshow engagement, re-engagement with old leads, cross selling, focus on higher quality leads, lead nurturing and keeping conversations going until timely hand-off to the sales rep is required”. 

Belfor concluded, “The Conversica AI virtual assistant can get the best phone number, the best time to call, and sales feedback without you lifting a finger 24/7 365 days a year. Used by more than 1,200 companies worldwide including SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, EPSON, Chrysler, Conversica’s sales assistants are built on a proven AI platform integrating natural language processing (NLP), natural language generation (NLG), and machine learning (ML) capabilities”.  Bradshaw concluded, “Conversica’s Artificial Intelligence sales and marketing AI technology is easy to configure and deploy using a subscription based model.  We look forward to taking this product to market in South Africa. 

About Intele.Chat

Intele.Chat is part of the Conversational Commerce Group and we help South African clients leverage conversational commerce technologies be they human powered, augmented or fully automated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance the B2B & B2C sales and marketing interface, bringing improvement and efficiency to your sales operations.  Conversica’s AI sales and service assistants are multi-award winning products and are used by hundreds of clients around the world to reach out and qualify sales and service leads 24×7, verify contact information, collect requirements, and set appointments. Intele.Chat serves Conversica’s clients in the Southern Africa region. To learn more and book an appointment / demo visit www.intele.chat

About Conversica

Conversica is the leader in AI-powered business conversations and the only provider of AI-driven lead engagement software for marketing and sales organizations. The flagship Conversica® AI Sales Assistant helps companies find and secure customers more quickly and efficiently by automatically contacting, engaging, qualifying, and following up with leads via natural, two-way conversations. Used by more than 1,000 companies worldwide, Conversica’s sales assistants are built on a proven AI platform integrating natural language processing (NLP), natural language generation (NLG), and machine learning (ML) capabilities and engage prospects over multiple communication channels and in multiple languages. Recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor, Conversica is a portfolio company of Providence Equity, Kennet Partners and Toba Capital and is headquartered in Foster City, Calif. 

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