Summit Program

This opening session will highlight current trends in African cities and showcase the positive role that disruptive, grass-root innovations play in transforming urban centers.

During this panel, space founders and curators will discuss methods to identify current trends, opportunities, and gaps in the value chains of their respective cities. Panelists will also discuss strategies and best practices for designing interventions that create sustainable value-added and contribute to their cities’ positive transformations.

Innovation districts have been called “this century’s productive geography.” By clustering businesses, research institutions, and education institutions together, innovation districts have the potential to transform a neighborhood and create waves of change in surrounding areas.

Collaborative spaces work to disrupt traditional business practices, in part by providing empowering spaces for women to build their own businesses and access the job market in new ways. During this session, panelists will discuss how collaborative spaces can play a deliberate, conscious role in creating empowering spaces for women within their respective communities.

To address Manila’s notorious traffic, a team of designers developed a human-centered research project which empathized with commuters to shift their behavior. This presentation offers a glimpse of the design process, “the a-ha moments,” and the out-of-the-box solutions which resulted from the study.

This workshop will give hub leaders the opportunity to share,​ ​learn​, and reflect​ ​on the shared challenges and opportunities of managing a collaborative hub or innovation space. Participants will also be invited to develop plans for future collborations across the Hivos network.

Welcome Address by the Associate Dean for the School of Business at the American University in Cairo, followed by a presentation on the rise of coworking and collaboration hubs across the African continent

Presentation on the rise of coworking and collaboration hubs across the African continent.

Can coworking spaces become incubators or operate acceleration programs? How can these types of programs collaborate together, or should they? Do VCs view coworking spaces as a hub for potential investments? This panel will explore the differences between these programs, means for collboration and/or fusion, and the opportunities for forward as well as backward integration.

During this interactive session, participants will identify the most pressing needs and opportunities for techhubs and where the Facebook suite of products, programs, and communities can be helpful.

Collaborative spaces often struggle financially, but it doesn’t have to be this way! During this session, an accomplished parallel entrepreneur will present the many successful financial models utilized by collaborative spaces and hubs to achieve their desired impacts in a financially sustainable manner. By presenting many different, and creative, financial approaches to coworking and collaboration, this session aims to inspire space managers to adopt creative business models which respond to their client and community needs.

With the potent blend of trail‐blazing technology and disruptive innovation, Fintech players have the ability to accelerate the digital transformation of financial services in Africa, and, in turn, further spur incumbent banks to ramp up their innovation initiatives to meet the financial needs of under‐served markets across the continent. This panel will discuss the progress made by the Fintech industry and how new banking services are transforming economies on the African continent, and helping to drive forward key strategic priorities such as financial inclusion.

While hubs and spaces are successfully transforming their communities, these effects can be difficult to measure. During this session, an impact measurement expert will discuss hubs’ impact in their society and communities, and present the outcomes of an extensive research study on hubs’ impact in the MENA region. Specific challenges and opportunities raised during this discussion will be further discussed during the following Impact Assessment Breakout Session.

FbStart provides year-round technical support from Facebook to an exclusive community of global startups. In this session, participants will dive into the FbStart program, learn from success stories, and explore how tech hubs can leverage this program and its offerings for their constituents.

While hubs and spaces are successfully transforming their communities, these effects can be difficult to measure. During this session, an impact measurement expert will discuss hubs’ impact in their society and communities, and present the outcomes of an extensive research study on hubs’ impact in the MENA region. Specific challenges and opportunities raised during this discussion will be further discussed during the following Impact Assessment Breakout Session.

Coming from over 50 hubs and 20 countries, AfriLabs constituents will gather for their annual network meeting.

During this visit, participants will have the opportunity to tour several heritage sites in downtown Cairo. Through this tour, participants will witness the adaptive reuse of the public space through art and innovation, and how these spaces can come to take on entirely new meanings.

During this visit, participants will experience how a local community has maintained a sustainable garbage collection and recycling operation over the years, including their interactions with the government.

Cairo Disrupt is a TEDx-style showcase dedicated to stories of influencers and entrepreneurs who are taking urban innovation in Cairo to a new level. Come meet the dreamers and innovators who dare to think outside of the box to make the city more liveable, resilient, and sustainable.

Collaborative spaces are often coined as “disrupting” the corporate status quo, but what about when the two work together? This panel will be discussing how collaborative spaces can engage effectively with corporate entities and strategies for mutually beneficial undertakings. In fact, coworking spaces often provide much-needed support for corporate business expansion, alternative office spaces, and hiring. What are the opportunities available to coworking spaces and how can collaborative spaces effectively capitalize on these partnerships?

Efficient and Smart Cities uses IOT devices such as connected sensors, lights, and meter to collect and analyze data, which can then be used to enhance cities’ services, utilities, and infrastructure. How can collaborative spaces and hubs respond to those needs? What are the new applications? What are the limitations and opportunities? How can the public and private sector collaborate to enhance a city’s efficiency?

Participants will continue developing collaboration projects within the Hivos network.

Come meet the AfriLabs board, evaluate the network’s performance, and help to strengthen future collaboration and business opportunities within the hubs.