Innovation Week 2011 - Marketing Innovation

From March 28th to April 1st, the Ghana-India KOFI Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT organised the second Innovation Week under the theme 'Marketing Innovation'. This program sought to bring to the attention of the general public the various 'Facebook Entrepreneurs' who were in one way or the other making a difference in technology in Ghana.

The event gave many start-ups the platform to expose their innovations and inspired the other attendees who needed some motivation to start something on their own. I was privileged to represent my company, Nandimobile at the conference where I introduced Gripeline. Other entrepreneurs who spiced up the week included Esi Cleland of Afrochic, Nana Kwadwo Duah of Oxygen, Nana Kofi Acquah a pro photographer, Sefakor Gbewonyo of Sepha Designs, Nnenna of Nnenna.org and blogger MacJordan Degadjor. For me this event offered me the opportunity to learn a lot more from fellow entrepreneurs as well as share my views on various topics discussed.

I took much interest in the “father of the ring tone”, Ralph Simon's presentation. He inspired all attendees to look beyond the borders of Ghana and aim at achieving what is being achieved in more technologically advanced nations. According to him, the regional barriers we create an needless since technology knows no physical boundaries. Western markets can be accessed just as they accessed ours and those of other regions. I must congratulate Dorothy Gordon, Linda Kosi and the rest of the organizing team for putting together such an event. I hope more other stakeholders in Ghana's ICT development will learn from such initiative and provide more of these platforms for Ghana-made start-ups.