Thursday September 17, 2009

My View: Revival

Welcome to the first edition of CITI and the Bandwidth Barn's newsletter. We'll once again publish this on a monthly basis and would like to call on you to submit news on happenings and events in your companies and/or organisations for inclusion. We have a very vibrant ICT community and I'm looking forward to your participation to make this revived newsletter a platform for sharing information.

I would like to thank all the companies who offered assistance with the job shadowing placement of Joshua Kotlowitz, a Grade 11 learner from Herzlia High School. Joshua has chosen to spend two days with Solid Pictures later in September.

back to top

The Search Is On

The Cape IT Initiative will be appointing a new executive director soon, and the search is on to find the right candidate. After almost 11 months under guidance of Chris Vermeulen, the CITI Board has approved the appointment of a new, full-time executive director to steer the organisation into the future. The incumbent will work closely with the Board in developing strategies and overseeing action plans to achieve CITI’s mission and will focus primarily on building and facilitating interaction, linkages and synergies between the ICT community in the Western Cape and other industry stakeholders. Advertisements for the position have already been placed, and interviews were being conducted at the time of writing. It is hoped that an appointment can be made by 1 October or soon thereafter. 

back to top

eLearning Update

The Bureau for Advanced Social Expertise (BASE) and Epi-Use learning presented a highly successful "eLearning Update" at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology on 3 and 4 September 2009.

The event was attended by more than 70 people - from as far afield as Gauteng, and even Angola.

The purpose of the update was to stimulate the use of elearning to provide high quality teaching and learning in the current economic climate.

Subjects ranged from philosophical considerations such as Heidegger's influence on elearning, to a humorous comparison between elearning and a GPS. A highlight of the event was a four-platform playoff in which presenters defended their choice of Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai or Chisimba as learning management systems.

An interesting innovation of the workshop was that a "tweetscreen" was on throughout the two days so that delegates could use "twitter" to comment on the proceedings in real time. This enabled people to ask questions and obtain definitions, etc. without disturbing the presenter, while it also enabled some presenters to interact with the audience in real time.

A blog dedicated to the update can be found at http://updateonelearningupdate.blogspot.com/

While a full programme, with links to some of the PowerPoint presentations can be found at http://sites.google.com/site/elearningatbase/
 

back to top

In the News: Technology Incubators - how successful are they really?

Incubators supporting start-ups with infrastructure and networking rather than cash are claiming success at every turn. But how much success are they really having?

A couple of years ago, Andrea Boehmert, now co-managing partner of Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa, asked tenants at the Bandwidth Barn what they needed most: start-up capital or business support? Almost all of them said that they needed business support. “If you gave them money, most of them wouldn’t know what to do with it,” she says. “Particularly in the IT industry where very few understand business.”

Published by ITWeb Brainstorm - read full article here
 

back to top

Accel Enterprise Development Programme: Call for Applications

We are currently inviting applications from ICT entrepreneurs in the Western Cape for participation in the 2009/2010 round of the Accel Enterprise Development Programme - (My Business Group/Women in ICT)

Accel is aimed at providing ongoing business training and support to help entrepreneurs overcome the entry barriers to employment, start-up, survival and growing their businesses and thus accelerate their development.

We are looking for 16 SMMEs to join our programme to start early in October. The programme will cover training and workshops on general business management skills; developing a world-class strategic plan; a peer-to-peer platform to share and discuss experiences as well as a mentoring component which will allow particpants access to some of today's top business minds.

The City of Cape Town is the main sponsor of this year's programme.

All enquiries can be directed to Ansi Gilfillan - ansi@bwb.org.za or 021 409 7000

Closing date: 24 September 2009
 

back to top

Events: Global Entrepreneurship Week 16-22 November

From 16 - 22 November 2009, Global Entrepreneurship Week will connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators. Students, educators, entrepreneurs, business leaders, employees, non-profit leaders, government officials and many others will participate in a range of activities, from online to face-to-face, and from large-scale competitions and events to intimate networking gatherings.

Through this initiative, the next generation of entrepreneurs will be inspired and can emerge. In doing so, they will begin to acquire the knowledge, skills and networks needed to grow innovative, sustainable enterprises that have a positive impact on their lives, their families and communities.

Seven days, four goals

• Inspire. We introduce entrepreneurship to young people under the age of thirty who otherwise might not have considered it as a career path.
• Connect. We network young people and organisations across national boundaries to discover new ideas at the intersection of cultures and disciplines.
• Mentor. We enlist active and inspiring entrepreneurs around the world to coach and mentor the next generation of enterprise talent as they pursue their dreams.
• Engage. We demonstrate to opinion leaders and policymakers how entrepreneurship is central to a nation's economic health and culture, and give them the opportunity to learn about each other's entrepreneurial policies and practices.

For activities in your region go to: http://www.unleashingideas.org/southafrica

We'll keep you posted about the various activities that CITI and the BWB will be involved in during this week.
 

back to top

Impact Assessed

A recent impact analysis on the successes of the Bandwidth Barn’s Velocit and My Mentor programmes since 2006 has shown very positive results. Both these were aimed at assisting ICT SMMEs in the Western Cape during their startup and early growth years.

Velociti Overview (2006-2009)

• Of the 40 companies who participated in the programme, 33 are still in business.
• This equates to a survival rate of 82.5%.
• The annual turnover of these companies have increased from R9,15m per annum to R26,7m per annum.
• This is an increase of 191%.
• The number of full time employees has increased from 64 to 121.
• This is an increase of 89%.
• The number of part time employees has increased from 17 to 37.
• This is an increase of 118%.

My Mentor Overview (2006-2009)

• Of the 56 companies who participated in the programme, 55 are still in business.
• This equates to a survival rate of 98%.
• The annual turnover of these companies has increased from R130,9m per annum to R222,2m per annum.
• This is an increase of 41%.
• The number of full time employees has increased from 382 to 435.
• This is an increase of 14%.
• The number of part time employees has increased from 81 to 99.
• This is an increase of 22%.
   

back to top