CSW Summit Johannesburg on 24 June 2016 was Crowdsourcing Week’s first event in Africa. It was held on Day Two of the InnoLive 2016 conference presented by Innocentrix.
The day’s presentations can be accessed here, and here is a brief recap on some of the event’s outstanding highlights.
Taryn Morris of Uber explained it is growing exponentially in Africa. Today’s power of the crowd comes from technology enabling two billion people
During the two days of InnoLive and the CSW Summit, Geekulcha hosted an “Internet of Things Hackathon” for 25 young innovators. They were a mixture of hardware and software developers and their aim was to resolve real challenges put to them with IoT solutions using open source tools to visualise data generated by physical sensors through human and machine interaction.
- Micro sensors attached to artwork with real time data visualisation would enable art galleries to record the number of people viewing each display at any time. A real time display on a public monitor system would allow crowds to manage themselves to ease congestion at busy times, and ultimately enable optimum distribution of popular displays within a gallery.
- School children provided with smart wrist monitors would enable an automatic record of their attendance rates, help with implementation of safety measures and improve resource allocation. The most frequent attendees could also earn extra credit.
- An Internet-enabled system was devised for a Moringa tree farmer to save on water and better maintain the quality of his soil.
All three were put forward to the Geekulcha Annual Hackathon held immediately after CSW Summit Johannesburg and the tree farming solution won first prize.
Going back to some of the presentations, Mandla Maseko, who easily admits he had previously been a rather aimless young man in a township, won a competition in 2013 that received over half a million entries to be selected as an astronaut. This
Willie Ackerman of the IT outsourcing company Business Connexion explained using crowdsourcing as a sales tool under “Using crowdsourcing and
After 8 weeks Business Connexion had gained R12.5m of business. The Power of X programme also improved their employee’s knowledge of their own products, improved their overall business knowledge, and supported the long-term development of a customer-centric culture within the company. After 18 months it had generated over 500 leads representing a potential business growth of R330m.
In her presentation, Kanchana Moodlier, Business Humanizer and Partner at Innate Motion, talked about the power of branding and how to make it work hard. Becoming a brand raises a company above commoditised competitors, and telling a story about a brand enables stakeholders to engage with higher intensity at a human level rather than a strategic one. To make this process
For some conspicuous examples, think of how Ben & Jerry’s ice cream champions the cause of social justice and Coca Cola positions itself as an icon for happiness.
To do the same for their own brands, entrepreneurs need to make a journey, a journey to move from talking about what they do to who they are. Move from explaining functional benefits to values and purposes, move from “customers and clients” to the “people they serve”. It’s about being able to be recognised by people who share the same values and concerns, who are then happy to engage and build a relationship. After all, that’s how we make friends isn’t it?
The crowd economy is a dynamic, global force that continues to evolve. We look forward to our future collaboration for CSW Summit Africa 2017.
0 Comments