Round up from HBS Africa Business Conference
Welcome to the latest instalment of your Movemeback Newsletter – bringing you exciting African opportunities, and the latest from the Movemeback Community.
We’re back in London, having kicked off our 2016 conference season in style! Last weekend we were in Boston, for Harvard Business School’s Africa Business Conference (HBS ABC). With over 1500 talented individuals present, congregating to passionately discuss all things Africa, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to bet against the continent. This year’s conference provided something for everyone:
A personal highlight was moderating a lively and sell-out panel titled ‘The Art of the Side Hustle’. Given the humble beginnings of Movemeback, and the pertinence of this topic to many Movemeback members, this theme was particularly close to our hearts. Charles’ one regret was publicly challenging one of the panellists – Sarkodie – to a rap battle. Thankfully he has not taken him up on that! Read more about our thoughts on the panel in our blog.
We were amazed by the number of Movememback members we had the pleasure of meeting face to face for the first time (including on the plane journey out). The running joke amongst the team is ‘best behaviour at all times’, you never know where a MMB member is lurking. We were also able to meet our next cohort of prospective members at a fantastic careers fair hosted by the Harvard ABC committee. Movemeback badges disappeared in their drones as word got out that wearing the garment leads to copious deposits of street credibility and free access to the City.
The entrepreneurs among you will be excited to hear, the world is embracing the notion of building solutions for Africa from anywhere on the globe. African innovation was celebrated through HBS ABC’s 3rd New Ventures Competition. Congratulations to this year’s winners of the $10,000 grand prize – Crossfrontier International – a company using biotechnology to increase crop yields and improve food security in East and Central Africa.
Never has the term ‘the calm before the storm’ been so apt as President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, rounded off pre-after party proceedings with a characteristic calming address (shortly followed by a presidential selfie stampede). It was an unforgettable moment to be in the presence of a modern day African legend, who in light of his opportunity to stay on as President for at least another term, highlighted the difference between a leader claiming that his/her people want him/her to stay for a longer term, versus the people making their voice heard democratically and writing their own story and rule-book.
The locomotive shows no sign of slowing and this weekend it’s Oxford’s Business Forum Africa conference for the Movemeback Team. If you will be attending, join us for our Africa careers session or for a live video interview, and as always look out for our blue Movemeback badges, and come to say hi!
Finally, if you have any thoughts, suggestions or comments on what more we can be doing to better support you, please do get in touch. And again, thank you to all of you who continue to help us shape the Movemeback community – please do continue to refer other greats to join us!
Warm regards,
The Movemeback team