‘Future of African Cities’ – AfriLabs Annual Gathering x The CoWorking Summit

On October 18-20th, the annual gathering of AfriLabs was co-organized by AfriLabs, Hivos, District, Progrss, Wasabi, The French University and The American University in Cairo (AUC) and the Coworking Summit, in Cairo (Egypt). This annual gathering focused on trending tech hub practices, local innovators and creative solutions to relevant African issues with the conference being themed ‘Future of African Cities: Innovation, Spaces and Collaboration’.

In attendance were Egyptian government representatives, 80 technology and innovation hubs & collaborative spaces from 35 countries, and over 250 African entrepreneurs and creatives. Jenny was invited to intervene on the panel ‘Trend Watching in Cities And Value Creation’ along with art and tech spaces founders and curators such as Laila Hida (Le 18 Derb el Ferrane, Marrakesh), Mathias Antonsson (Plurrify, Ushahidi, Nairobi), and Nekesa Were (iHub, Nairobi) to discuss methods to identify current trends, opportunities, and gaps in the value chains of their respective African cities.

While panelists discussed strategies and best practices for designing interventions that create sustainable value-added and contribute to their cities’ positive transformations, Jenny reminded of the key part played by ‘creative transformers’ in co-designind a ‘civic people-centred city’, while being informed by their ‘spatial literacy’ of urban spaces for and by citizens.

More information on the event can be found here: http://afrilabs-gathering.com; http://www.afrilabs.com/afrilabs-partners-with-hivos-for-future-of-african-cities-conference-3/