Nollywood Day at the Wennovation Hub: Powering Nollywood using Technology

In a bid to highlight the interconnectivity of Wennovation Hub’s recent content distribution technology and mobile application initiatives with top content creators in Nollywood and to achieve synergy with key actors, we are pleased to present to you the 1st Nollywood Day at the Wennovation Hub with the theme: Powering Nollywood using Technology (a panel discussion)


Venue: EDC Large Auditorium, Plot C Obasa Road, Off Oba Akran Rd Ikeja Lagos (road beside AP Petrol Station)

Date: Wednesday, November 30 @ 12.00pm


Panelists:


Nse Ikpe Etim, Nollywood Star & Best of Nollywood Awards 2011 Winner (Actress)

Nse Ikpe-Etim has been in the entertainment industry since age 18 when she anchored a show on NTA. Her first movie role was in Venom of justice 2 after which she has acted in various movies including the Nollywood big hit movies, Reloaded and Guilty Pleasures, where she acted as Ramsey Nouah's wife.


Chude Jideonwo, Founder – RedStrat/The Future Project, Y!Naija

A lawyer and award-winning journalist, Chude has, for almost a decade, garnered key experience in all forms of traditional and new media, and has translated that practical experience into successful media campaigns. He also works as an expert in youth development across the country and beyond.

Chude is founder and Creative Director of RedSTRAT/The Future Project, a full service public engagement/communications company. He is primarily in charge of Strategy, Planning, Content and Communication.
Chude also founded EnoughisEnough Nigeria, the largest coalition of youth and youth-led organizations in the country. It is now one of the country’s foremost civic participation groups as well as the premium voice for young people in politics. He chairs the Public Relations & Communications Committee, and has in that position secured buy-in from national and international media including CNN (International), BBC, Radio France, Reuters, the Associated Press, amongst others,
In May 2010, he was selected for the Nigeria Leadership Initiative’s (NLI) Future Leaders Fellowship.

Other panelists include Mukhtar Oyewo and Modupe Ajibola

Program:
• 12:00 – Introduction of Guests & Participants
• 12:20-­‐ Wennovation Overview
• 12:40 – Questions & Answers
• 1:00 -­‐ Panel Discussion: What ongoing technology developments are going to drive Nollywood 
2.0 and how can this be jumpstarted?

• 2:00 – Meet our Wennopreneurs
• 2:30 – Vote of thanks


Mr. Femi Babajide, Marketing Development Manager at Intel Corporation (West Africa), will moderate the event


Send in your questions via twitter to @wennovation using the hashtag #nollytech , or on Facebook

This event will be live on Twitter (#nollytech), Facebook & we will make arrangements to telecast live.
This is the first in a series of sector partnering events for the ecosystem. Feel free to invite a friend.

Contact : Ayokunle Akinrotimi (ideaslab@loftyincltd.biz +234 805 951 7814)

Wennovation Camp 1.0...1 dream, 2 Companies, 3 Products, 4 Mentors, 5 Consultants, 6 Weeks , 7 Entrepreneurs & 49 days from ideas to funding!

LoftyInc Inks Strategic Partnership with De La Rue African Innovation Prize

LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited is pleased to announce a strategic partnership with United Kingdom based De La Rue African Innovation Prize (DLRAIP), a not-for-profit organization that organizes business plan competitions in African countries and awards prizes to ideas emerging thereof. At the signing ceremony, which took place at the University of Cambridge, UK, on November 15, Wennovation Hub Program Director, Idris Bello, represented LoftyInc Allied Partners Limited while De La Rue African Innovation Prize was represented by its Trustees; Julia Fan Li, Sarah Teacher, and Alexander Handy.

Wennovation Hub Program Director (Idris Bello) and De La Rue African Innovation Prize Trustees at the formal signing of the MOU between the two organizations to support university entrepreneurship in Nigeria.  Date: November 15, 2011.

The De La Rue African Innovation Prize was first inspired by a public policy lecture given by President Paul Kagame at the University of Cambridge in December 2008. In 2009, DLRAIP established a partnership to run the first DLRAIP Business Plan Competition at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST). DLRAIP itself started with a grant from Cambridge University Entrepreneurs (CUE) Business Plan competition and believes in the catalytic power of business competitions for both economic and social development.

This strategic partnership will see the current DLRAIP business plan competition expanding into six to seven Nigerian universities in 2012 culminating in awards of varying cash prizes and ultimately grants for the most promising ideas to get incubated at the LoftyInc operated Wennovation Hub, located in Lagos, Nigeria. The competition will be known as the De La Rue African Innovation Prize (DLRAIP) Wennovation Hunt.

Furthermore, the De La Rue African Innovation Prize driven selection process will serve as the basis for the scale-up of the ongoing Wennovation Camp program currently in its first cycle. The DLRAIP will enable expansion of WennoCamp 2.0 and subsequent versions from technology into other sectors.

According to LoftyInc’s Managing Partner, Wole Odetayo – the partnership “will see us tripling the current number of companies incubated at the Hub in 2012 alone, and thereafter creating a sustainable pipeline of innovative companies in the Wennovation eco-system”. DLRAIP’s Julia Fan Li added that the “The De La Rue African Innovation Prize is excited about expanding our program into Nigeria, and looks forward to working with the Wennovation Hub team”.

The 2012 sponsor of the African Innovation Prize globally is prominent multinational: De La Rue Identity Systems, which is a world expert in the delivery and management of systems and solutions with over 100 projects implemented in 65 countries. A substantial fundraising drive is however planned to support the DLRAIP Nigeria program. Interested corporate and individual supporters of the may contact us at: africaninnovationprize@gmail.com and ideaslab@loftyincltd.biz

Our Wennopreneurs are Blogging...and Listening too..

Want to gain some insights into goings on at the Wennovation Hub? Well, you need not dial farther than the e-diaries of the two companies being incubated. Surf to their insightful recollections by clicking on the links below the screenshot images hereafter:

Link to Opacus Tech Blog...

Link to Valleybits Technologies Blog

We are incredibly excited about the possibilities and promise of these companies. Visit us today at www.wennovationhub.com to read more about what we do or write us at ideaslab@loftyincltd.biz

New Day(s) at the Wennovation Hub

Just as the first Wennovation Camp incubation cycle got underway starting on November 2nd,  we are glad to announce the launch of  a fresh website for our deserving followers. With better animations, more media, and hopefully more updates on the activities of our "Wennopreneurs" at the hub...Visit the new website @ www.wennovationhub.com 

The Wennovation Bootcamp was launched on Wednesday with the seven future "wennopreneurs" and various mentors coming together for one goal: launch two solid viable business built around the idea that high impact businesses need not obtain that million dollar contract to take off, but can be built on collaboration, network and efficient use of limited resources.

In attendance on Day One were the CEO of Bead Emporium- a fast growing jeweler & fashion retail outlet based in Nigeria & UK, Ms. Oyinda Osonowo sharing insights on what it takes to survive as entrepreneurs. Imploring the fresh minds in attendance to "fail as much as you like but never give up", she set a very high standard for subsequent would-be mentors for the program. Also in attendance on day one was tech social blogger and commentator, Jesse Oguntimehin. Attendees spent most of the day getting orientated to the unique cultures at the hub, while drawing fresh insights from the wellspring of wisdom offered by many in attendance.

Day Two held much promise, as a rapid WennoConsulting sessions were scheduled with top flight consultants from the ALF Entrepreneurship Development Center. This got up to a quick start, and got the teams started on a path to going from ideas to funding in six weeks with four separate consultants. The day was topped with a working session with Mr. Demola Idowu of Silveredge Projects -a medical technology and e-learning development company. The hands-on session was so transformative for the participants that the hub is still buzzing with the fresh insights offered by our invited Guests. Our thanks to everyone and especially our guests for making Day 1 & 2 of the Wennovation Camp 1.0 a resounding success.

For more information on the Wennovation Camp 1.0 focused on mobile application development and supported by Google Africa & MIT-AITI, email us at ideaslab@loftyincltd.biz 

www.wennovationhub.com