David Hanson: Machine Versus Human

I had a chance to talk to David Hanson of Hanson Robotics in-depth at the Singularity Summit in San Francisco on August 14. He holds the view that humans do want robots to look, feel and sound human - after all, asking humans to think otherwise would be asking humans to re-wire the way they think.

The conversation that unfortunately didn't make it into the video was around robot(ic) behavior - robots versus humans, more specifically robots versus actors. We were talking about some of the best actors actually ARE the character, they don't go INTO character. My example specifically are both women: Meryl Streep and Glenn Close. both of them have a way of drawing you into their character and make you believe nothing else exists. They ARE that character and nothing else; the character is in fact their DNA not who they are in their off-stage life.

I could imagine a world where you could actually buy a 'program' that is set to a particular character. In the future, I'd love an 'open source' robot like the PR2s that Willow Garage is building, and I'd like to separately buy a program, just like I buy a DVD movie today. I insert it into the robot and he/she becomes the character he/she has just been programmed until I change the program. Something you can imagine in our lifetime? What about other human aspects? Listen to David thinks about these topics.

David Hanson: Machine Versus Human

What Works for the Worker, Works for the Customer

Yesterday, I wrote about our roundtable discussion on internal communications. I mentioned staff communications and it's effect on customer/client needs.

This was the golden nugget we uncovered during our chat - at the end of the day, proper internal comms drive more value from your customer and client relationships. And not just monetary value: loyalty, recognition, association, recommendations, on and on and on. An excited, informed staff member is better equipped to provide a greater service experience to your audience (Zappos being the most obvious of examples…)

Internal communication, then, cannot be an afterthought. Communication affects service. Communication is service; A service to your employees which improves service for your customer.

It’s not a new concept but it is one that, in our world of increasing content and decreasing time for it all, can be easily forgotten on the back burner.

We've started a few growing group discussions on LinkedIn around these ideas - would be great to hear your thoughts either here on the blog or over in the discussion groups.

LinkedIn Discussions:

Is it useful to think of Communications as a Service?

What's working internal comms among PR and Communications professionals and within corporate social media?

What Works for the Worker, Works for the Customer

Communication is a Service, Not a Cost

Looking through the Marketing Society’s 50th Anniversary book ‘The Future of Marketing’, sponsored by Accenture. These words stood out particularly, from Ian Livingstone, CEO of BT: ‘From a customer point of view, irrelevant advertising is an imposition. Truly relevant advertising is a service.’ Too true Ian.

But I’d go one stage further than that. I’d actually say: Truly Relevant Service is Advertising, or at least ‘publicité’ as the French would have it. Businesses have always understood that the experience of the brand is as much to do with the people and the service as it is to do with the promotion. More so in many cases as B2B marketing budgets have always been smaller than desirable.

So, I’d like to see the Future of Marketing in B2B as one in which marketers get involved in service delivery, not just comms delivery. Oh, and I’d also like to see a major B2B brand talking about business audiences in the next edition of the Marketing Society book. But suspect I’ll have to wait 50 years for that.

Communication is a Service, Not a Cost

Have You Seen the Muffin Man?

Earlier this year, I attended a CBI Council meeting.  As always, it’s fascinating to listen to how a wide variety of companies are dealing with the world as we know it.  Service businesses in the main come out well – perhaps because they are more agile and able to adapt their services to what’s needed in the current marketplace.  So law and accountancy firms are seeing a reduction in contract briefs but an increase in resolution or winding up orders.  All sounds a bit ‘ambulance-chasing’ but it means that they’re still in business, still employing people and still keeping the economy turning.

What was agreed overall is that companies have reacted differently to this recession.  Rather than laying people off they’ve changed their working conditions (a la Honda).  Rather than closing, they’ve sought to diversify.

Which brings me to the Muffin Man. Recently, I bought some muffins off a stall in Cambridge market.   They were about 4 times as expensive as the ones you can buy in Sainsbury’s.  But they were handmade by the stall holder, who was charming and we had a long discussion about how hungry kids are when they come out of school and how muffins were just right.  Trouble is, the children hated his muffins.  But, I reflected, as I threw them in the bin, at least I’m keeping the economy going by buying them in the first place.  Although perhaps I should suggest he diversifies  – into aggregates.

Have You Seen the Muffin Man?

Time to Start Thinking Differently About Digital Marketing

The obsessive focus by marketers on acquisition makes less sense in the current climate.

Marketers have transitioned their activities from offline advertising to online advertising,seeking ways in which to use social media to, well, advertise – despite the fact that that’s not how the medium seems to work.

For a start, markets are retracting, making the retention of customers an essential exercise. Secondly, customers are more likely to be influenced by what peers say about product or service on a social networking site than by an ad, and never more so than in B2B decision making where advertising has always hovered around a mere 15% of marketing spend.

I'd love to hear your thoughts - has your business grabbed digital marketing by the horns?

What are you doing that's engaging?

Time to Start Thinking Differently About Digital Marketing

Stickybits: The Newest Addition to the Business Social Media Toolkit?

This year’s SXSWi-ers were the first user group to be introduced to the world of Stickybits, a new user-gen content-and-location app. It’s been making pretty big waves across social and news media so we decided it was time to have a go with it in the office.

Essentially, it is a barcode to which you can upload content with your smartphone and stick to real-life objects. You can attach any sort of content to it (pictures, images, copy, audio, etc...) including the location, if you want. Other people can then discover and scan the barcode to see what you’ve uploaded (the content that ‘owns’ the bar code) and can add content to it (a bit like commenting on a blog - so everyone who scans/views the code after you will be able to view the content you've added).

Try scanning the barcode above (you will have to download the app, but it's free) to see how it works.

Official barcodes can be bought or downloaded from the Stickybits site but, in an interesting twist, you can apparently also ‘tag’ (add) your content to existing barcodes as well (yep, even the one on that can of cola on your desk).

I’m not entirely convinced it’s eternally practical, especially in a broad scope of accessibility as it's a smartphone app and not a web based app. Part of the appeal of Twitter, Facebook, et al. is that they are web-based with mobile capacity, meaning they are more accessible to more people, in more ways, in wider demos. Stickybits is for smartphone users only (and not even all smartphone users - though Adam, our resident Googlevangelist, is happy they’ve included Android).

I also imagine there’s a huge amount of trust needed to make this work in a family-friendly, legit way for any sort of long term stability. I don’t think anyone wants to see streets lined with Stickybits or stumble across disturbing content (though apparently there is a ToS to abide by) while they're innocently scanning away.

Still, it’s intriguing. It opens up the door for brands (and not just the consumer ones, either!) to add another layer of interactive messaging to a physical product; a new layer of contact for building relationships.

It's a great step in the direction of on and offline integration and there’s huge potential to get really creative with it. Brands can incorporate reviews, best practice guides, user manuals, product notes,  inventory, tracking, feedback forms, viral contesting , maps, business information, networking details… the barcode is your oyster.

So now I put it to you – have you tried it out? Come up with some good ideas? Have any thoughts on its practicality, longevity or even relevancy?

Stickybits: The Newest Addition to the Business Social Media Toolkit?

Biz Tech Day Hits Seattle, New York & San Francisco This Fall

For those of you who are not aware of Biz Tech Day, it's a one day event that brings together 1,500+ influential and passionate entrepreneurs under one roof in three cities across the U.S. in the fall: Seattle, New York and San Francisco.

The goal for Attendees? To strengthen their business and ventures by learning about the most practical business ideas and technology strategies to accelerate your company's growth.

What I love about their events is the focus on practical solutions. You have an opportunity to listen to 10 practical business talks, watch 10 innovative technology demos and meet people who will change how your business work and turn your dreams into a reality.

Registration for the BizTechDay 2010 is now live. August early bird discount available until August 31st.

_____________________________________________

Discount code for Down the Avenue and We Blog the World readers:

August 1 – 31st - 30% Off

Discount Code: WeblogtheworldEarly

September 1 till BizTechDay - 20% Off

Discount Code: Weblogtheworld

Biz Tech Day Hits Seattle, New York & San Francisco This Fall

Who's In Your Audience?

Earlier this year, I attended a seminar in Branding & Communications Today. 

It was a morning of examining brand strategies and key demographics. The phrase of the day was definitely 'Gen Y', after a presentation focused purely on exploring the behaviours (on and offline) of the social media generation (those born '81 to '01) who were also affectionately referred to as Young Fogey's, for their tendancies to behave older than their years, despite their depictions in the media).

At the end of the morning, we broke into groups and discussed the morning's presentations. When the topic of Gen Y inevitably came up, one of the members in our group posed an interesting question:

Do you consider your audience based on age/gender/routine or do you consider your audience in terms of their lifestyle and behaviour?

An example he gave of this was a 40 year old divorcee regressing into juvenile behaviour compared against an 'Young Fogey' behaving wise beyond his (or her) year's.

While the process of considering demographics is clearly not as clean cut as A or B, it's still an interesting thought, don't you think?

Who's In Your Audience?

More Than an MP3......

A bit of horn-tooting for one of Omobono's (former) own, Andy, who has used his digital mastery for an exciting new project of his own, called 3DiCD.

It is a digital experience for online music, providing interactive packaging along with the music files. As they have said: “With a 3DiCD, listeners get the whole packaging experience; engagement and immersion all within the online environment.

Last week, Andy and the 3DiCD team launched with a digital version of Imogen Heap’s Grammy award winning album, Ellipse. You can check it out here.

We wish Andy and the team the best of luck.

More Than an MP3......

Cell Phones Are Alive and Well in Ecuador

Cell phone culture is alive and well in Ecuador. Whether you are walking through a traditional market in a small village or a town like Cuenca in the center of the country where expats and retirees are buying up property (population 50,000), there's a cell phone in hand.

It's not uncommon for older women (mid-forties to early fifties since they tend to marry early here) in traditional costumes to be carrying their grandchildren on their backs and be talking on a cell phone in the middle of a market or on the back of a pick-up truck.

Cell Phones Are Alive and Well in Ecuador

Does Marketing Need to be 'Official'?

So it’s official.  Relationship building websites work. At least that is the finding of a study on P&G’s customer experience website in Greece (the equivalent of www.supersavvyme.com).

This was one of the papers presented at the Academy of Marketing Conference, a convention of academics who study and research what we practitioners do for a living.   The paper showed that broadening the customer-company relationship via the website increased positive word of mouth towards the website, and intentions to increase purchase of the company’s products.

So far, so good.  Except they haven’t compared it to other relationship building websites.  Or outside Greece.  And the statistical differences are so miniscule you’d need a microscope to see them.

A second paper looked at whether loyalty cards increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Answer?  Not really.  The reason being that all stores have loyalty cards so it’s a must, not a differentiator.

What was interesting about both these papers is that the research process (which is incredibly robust, uses lots of very complex terminology and some graphs that make you glad you’re no longer at school) revealed what I would argue most marketers know by gut – that making an effort to broaden your customer’s interaction with your brand or company (as long as it’s relevant and useful) is going to make them more likely to want to do business with you.  And that marketing’s job is to keep ahead of the game constantly.  Once you have a good idea (like storecards) your competitors will catch up – meaning you have to move ahead of the pack again.  That’s what makes our jobs so stimulating.

However, wile the academic community is pontificating about whether 0.03 is a meaningful statistical difference we are judged by whether it actually made any difference to the success of our client’s companies.  So it’s left me wondering why we marketers are so desperate to have our ‘gut instincts’ validated by research?

Would welcome anyone’s views.

Does Marketing Need to be 'Official'?

Media Post's Social Media Insider Summit

Media Post is holding a Social Media Insider Summit in Lake Tahoe from August 29 to September 1, 2010.

They're calling it a social summer camp. The Social Media Insider Summit will be previewing a combination of stimulating panels, speakers, roundtable discussions, and face-to-face networking activities with marketers, ad agency execs, social media experts, and other interactive industry practitioners all seeking to learn how the social media revolution can impact their businesses.

Media Post's Social Media Insider Summit

Room for Foursquares?

A few weeks ago, Shane Richmond published a post on The Telegraph's blog questioning the point of Foursquare. Having previously been searching for similar answers, I had suggested to him a presentation by US agency JESS3, on where location-based tools might change for the better. Shane very kindly credited us with the suggestion in his post as he searched for his answers (thanks, Shane!).

I have been playing around with location-based networks to further understand them and their relevance in business (if you stop by Omobono HQ, check in on both Foursquare and Gowalla!). There is a clear application for consumer facing brands but is it the same for business-to-business?

So, I  put this question to you: what is the point of Foursquare, etc. and is there space for location-based networks in B2B's growing portfolio of digital tools?

Room for Foursquares?

2010 Singularity Summit - A Meeting of the Minds

The 2010 Singularity Summit, held this past weekend in San Francisco, was, quite literally a meeting of the minds.  Not just because the assembled group consisted of a fair number of the brainiest people on the planet, and not just because the general consensus was that a meshing of silicon hardware with our carbon wetware appears to be a future inevitability, but also because of the discussion about animal intelligence and how it is similar to yet different from our own.

Now that the event is a week in the past there have been a number of very interesting posts written on what happened there and what people think of it.  I've taken the time to pull together a detailed listing of the event itself as well as the press the Summit received and I've organized it into the Pearltree below.

Some of the interesting content you'll find in the links below include:

• Steven Mann on H2Organ at Singularity Summit 2010
• Singularity Summit | Summit 2010 > A Sample of the Singularity Summit -Includes full videos to the 2009 Singularity Summit Talks
• Patrick Takahashi of Huffington Post on The Singularity Summit 2010 - 
• ZDNet's CHris Jablonski on: Singularity Summit 2010: No place for human values in a 'posthuman' future?
• A collection of the links and tweets from the 2010 Singularity Summit: Accelerating Future » Singularity Summit 2010 Tweets and Links
• Additional Collected Press Coverage of the Summit: A Selection of Singularity Summit 2010 Coverage
• Mathilde Berchon covers the more physical aspects: Singularity Summit 2010- Human Health and Body Improvements Innovation Round-Up
• Summit Volunteer, Kevin Fischer provides his thoughts on the event before the fact.
• A comprehensive list of abstracts, bios and deep links on presenters.

2010 Singularity Summit - A Meeting of the Minds

Radio Silence: To 'Err' or Not to 'Err'...

The thing about talking on radio, and if you’ve ever done it you know, is that you spend the next 24 hours thinking about what you might have said.

For example, I was recently on BBC Radio 4's 'You and Yours' discussing the use of World Cup association with seemingly irrelevant marketing campaigns (you can read the whole story here). This is how it went, and how it should have played out.

Julian Worricker (presenter) – “You’ve said marketers are ‘a carbuncle on the sidecar of reality’, is that what you really think?”

Fran Brosan (yours truly) – “Err”

Fran Brosan (should have said) – “I don’t believe that specious connections to the World Cup help our industry build a professional image.”  Or even ‘Yes, that was a bit poetic wasn’t it.” Anything but “Err”.

Julian Worricker (paraphrase) – “Do you think it’s a good thing to be doing Press Releases about the World Cup if you’re not associated with it?”

Fran Brosan – “It depends on what you’re trying to achieve – waffle, waffle – so it depends on what they are trying to achieve.”

Fran Brosan (should have delivered on brand message to emphasise Omobono’s expertise) –“Identifying what you are trying to achieve is really important.  All good communications start with good planning which is a really important part of what we do for our clients at Omobono.”

Also completely forgot to tell them we were Marketing Agency of the Year (although they probably wouldn’t have said it).

At least I managed to get out a reasonable definition of marketing when he asked (phew).

Then just as you are beginning to get into your stride the interview ends.

So if you agree (or don’t) - especially with the carbuncle bit -  let me have your comments.  "Err" is fine.

Radio Silence: To 'Err' or Not to 'Err'...

Words Work

A while ago, I was reading Management Today and was struck by their article ‘Crash Course in Communicating in Clear English’. Somehow something than enjoins you to ‘have a look at all your written communications’ seems a bit quaint in these days of digital communication and blogging your heart out.

Like most things MT, the tips stand up to scrutiny. One thing is missing however. In order to communicate something clearly you actually have to have something to say. Perhaps it’s worth remembering Jeremy Bullmore’s great adage 'The only time it’s worth advertising is when you’ve done something worth advertising’.

Far too many of us spend a lot of time rearranging words without thinking of what it is we are actually trying to communicate. Advertising was actually really good at this. You had to get your message out extremely succinctly. Since more and more forms of communication (PR, online) now allow you more and more space we’ve stopped valuing the finely honed word which actually carries a message.

Maybe we’re in good company though. Even TS Eliot had problems making words work. See Burnt Norton Verse V.

Words Work

A Rose By Any Other...Logo

A few weeks ago, Communicate Magazine asked us of any visual identities we thought missed a mark. Our Creative Director, Chris, stepped forward and shared his thoughts on the London 2012 logo:

“It isn’t clear what the identity represents. That’s a big trick missed when the purpose of creating a visual identity is to represent a brand by evoking emotions.”

What do you think – how much weight does a logo hold in brand perception?

A Rose By Any Other...Logo

Smart New Uses for Old Technology

If you want to know what's going to happen next with a technology perhaps the smartest way to predict the future is to ask your kids - or someone else's... It's amazing what you might learn.

The other night, for example, I was having a meeting with Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher.  His son, Matt, also happened to be present.  I needed to log into their WiFi to go over a few things and as I did so I noted a number of funny networks in the area - phuckphace, for example.

When I mentioned this Matt told me how he and his friends are using the SSID - and it's both clever and surprising:  they use it to broadcast general messages to their local area.  An example:  someone's SSID might be "shutyourdogup" (the intent being obvious).  Another might be "partyatmyplacenexthurs".

Sure, this is non-specific, but if you know who the network belongs to (or you know you've got a barking dog issue) this is a quick, dirty and free way to get the word to folks that are local to you.

Have you heard about another clever new way to use a technology you thought was fully exploited?  Did you learn about it from someone half your age?

I'm curating a Pearltree on this topic, so please include links with your comments and I'll add other cool tips to the Pearltree so that you can see what other folks have discovered.

Smart New Uses for Old Technology

What Works for the Workers...

We had a discussion in the office around internal communications and the role digital can play in helping build staff awareness, engagement, enthusiasm and loyalty.

A handful of key (and very useful) ideas came of it but perhaps the most interesting identified the challenge of internal communications in the need to become a habit without becoming stale. Inconsistent messaging is almost as damaging as no messaging at all and battling the two-headed monster of Shrinking-Time-and-Attention-Span doesn’t help.

Internal comms teams, then, must create relevant, succinct and engaging communications for staff that are often so busy working hard they forget to eat lunch. So how do you get their attention and how do you keep it?

A few interesting case studies across a spectrum of approaches arose in our discussion. From Deloitte’s engaging Film Fest competition to a College's mandatory internal landing page and all the intranets software and web apps in-between (Chatter, LinkedIn groups, MOSS, etc...). Some shared experiences with internal comms that didn’t work as result of information overload, irrelevance, disinterest and/or miscommunuciation (the most recent and public being Vodafone).

What Works for the Workers...

I'll Tell You What I Want, What I Really, Really Want...

At the beginning of the 'recession' I was interviewed by BBC Radio 4's 'The World This Weekend' about what we wanted the Chancellor to do in his first recession budget. I said nothing.

I don't mean that I didn't say anything, I mean that I said could he please leave us alone. Instead they increased NI to a laughable amount which penalises anyone like us who wants to hire people and put up taxes for high earners (great, thanks for that).

Before the last election, I asked my local MP (Jonathan Djanogly, Conservative) what they will be doing for business if we all vote for them. Answer? Reducing red tape for start ups, helping people in Social Housing start businesses and stopping the government foreclosing businesses because they owe small amounts of back tax.

All of which is good no doubt, but none of which helps our business as it's been going 10 years, we work in an office and (sadly) our tax bill is rather higher than 48p.

So what I want is this:

1. The cost of employing people to go down. NI is a shocker and I'd rather it went in the pockets of our employees.

2. The ability to move around the UK easily (particularly on public transport).

3. Uniformly high quality skills from graduates. Am fed up with interviewing so called graduates who can't spell.

4. An improved technology infrastructure. Annoying still to be in some areas of the UK and not be able to get a mobile signal.

5. A more level playing field for public sector contracts involving far less timewasting on the PQQ level.

Be interested to hear what other people in the business really really want.

I'll Tell You What I Want, What I Really, Really Want...

Social Media Japanese Style

There's an interesting piece in ClickZ on Social Media Marketing the Japanese Way.

The piece references Mixi, one of the most popular SNS sites in Japan, which launched in 2000, years before MySpace and Facebook. There's also GREE, another well known social media site that started in Japan. AS businesses are starting to adopt Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools for their social media marketing efforts, they point out that Japanese businesses have been monitoring and responding to these threads related to their business or products for more than 10 years. For example, 2channel holds the distinction of being the world's biggest BBS site with over 12 million users.

They list the various social media groups - see recap of their list below.

For PC and Mobile: Mixi and GREE, which provides display ads, text ads, and PPC and advertising opportunities.

Video and Photo Sharing Sites: According to comScore, the Japanese spend 187 minutes on average on YouTube. Nico Nico Douga is another popular video sharing site, with 17 million users, including over 770,000 premium account users.

Social Bookmarking Sites: Hatena and Livedoor are popular in Japan and are still growing their user base. Hatena bookmarks can also be shared via Twitter.

Blog Network Sites: Did you know that there are more blog posts in the Japanese language than any other language in the world. Popular blog network and service sites include Ameba and the Livedoor blog.

Mini-Blogging Sites: Twitter is growing in popularity and use. According to Nielsen's Report, Twitter Japan has a higher reach (16.3 percent) than Twitter U.S. (9.8 percent).

Micro SNS Sites: While micro SNS sites are not that popular in Japan yet, there are some steady services that let you create your own SNS site, some for free.

Social Media Japanese Style

PhoneTell Builds "Impossible-To-Find" Numbers into Your Phone

Yesterday, PhoneTell announced a new mobile app for Android phones that incorporates “IMPOSSIBLE-TO-FIND” phone numbers into the app so you can easily access that information instantly from your Android phone.

Convenience at your fingertips is the idea. We've all had the experience of searching for a hard-to-find phone number and coming up short, particularly at times when we need to put our hands on the number quickly. PhoneTell has added hundreds of the most difficult, hard-to-find, buried-five-layers-deep and at the bottom of a web page in mouse-type numbers into its mobile application for Android phones.

Essentially, anyone with an Android phone can download PhoneTell free from the Android market or GetJar starting today. Whether you’ve lost your luggage and need the 800# for the airline baggage claim or you’re trying to locate the customer service number for Amazon.com, Apple, Paypal, Toyota, MasterCard or Dell, PhoneTell instantly provides you the precise phone number to reach a real live person to solve your problem.

Continue reading "PhoneTell Builds "Impossible-To-Find" Numbers into Your Phone"

PhoneTell Builds "Impossible-To-Find" Numbers into Your Phone

Singularity Summit Promises to Stimulate Your Brain

The Singularity Summit, held in San Francisco this past weekend, is not new to me since I helped market the very first one, which was held at Stanford in 2006. The goal of the first Summit was to further the understanding and discussion about the Singularity concept and the future of human technological progress.

The idea over time is to improve people’s thinking about the future and increasing public awareness of radical technologies under development today and of the transformative implications of such technologies understood as part of a larger process.

It was founded as a venue for leading thinkers to explore the subject, whether that be as a scientist, enthusiast, or skeptic.

Speaking of skeptics, the last talk of the event was by James Randi, who some think of as a magician, but he is also known as a debunker.

I first learned of Randi's work at TED where he spoke several years ago. The title defunker equates to his strong and very vocal skepticism, which he writes and speaks about extensively. Fascinating as ever, Randi has the ability to draw you into his logic even if you don't necessarily agree with him.

Gregory Stock is a renown biophysicist who I had the pleasure of meeting at PopTech in Maine more than five years ago. What I love about Stock is his ability to move from academic, physicist and author to entrepreneur and philosopher all within a one hour window. He also has a very engaging curiosity about random things outside his world when you talk to him one-on-one that most experts lack. He wrote the book Redesigning Humans, which is considered a transhumanist classic, now eight years ago.

Continue reading "Singularity Summit Promises to Stimulate Your Brain"

Singularity Summit Promises to Stimulate Your Brain

A Smoky San Francisco

The fire trucks were flying and the sirens were going off in San Francisco yesterday as they were heading to a fire that hit somewhere in the city. A view of the smoke as we saw it in real-time from the southern part of the city on the afternoon of Saturday, August 14, 2010.

A Smoky San Francisco

Tech4Africa: Building for a Global Technology Market in Africa

If only Johannesburg were closer. Too many buds and too many interesting discussions were happening at the Tech4Africa Conference. Below is a recap taken from MemeBurn, which focuses on web and innovation technologies for the emerging market sector. 

The panel discussion was called: “Building for the Global Market. Lessons and Learnings From The Coalface.” Leila Janah of Saiasource, Sheraan Amod of Personera and Malcolm Hall of Open Box Software discussed the challenges of building tech companies from Africa. The discussion was facilitated by Toby Shapshak of Stuff magazine. MemeBurn's wrote-up below. 

  ON BREAKING INTO THE AMERICAN MARKET 

Leila Janah: The biggest challenge we face is that Africa has a damaged reputation in the service sector. And being a non-profit doesn’t exactly help us either. There is a perception that people in Africa can’t do this kind of work. Many educated people in the West don’t even know that there are PC’s in Kenya, let alone that there are over 2 million Kenyans on Facebook. 

You need to overcome bias at the start and the best way is to get results. We did many trial jobs for free to build a relationship and people were pleasantly surprised. You can’t compromise on quality when you’re a non-profit, especially when you’re from Africa.

Continue reading "Tech4Africa: Building for a Global Technology Market in Africa"

Tech4Africa: Building for a Global Technology Market in Africa