Later this year, South Africa’s city of Cape Town will be hosting what is regarded as Africa’s first Artificial Intelligence Expo with Intel Corporation as a premier sponsor.
The expo is expected to drive regional skills development in Artificial Intelligence by supporting the training of 200 young African engineers in partnership with event organisers AI Media and local Ecosystem Enabler Silicon Cape.
“With technology breakthroughs across all sectors of industry now going mainstream, understanding the business opportunity from both a supplier and client perspective has never been more paramount.” said Roy Bannister, Event Chairman. “AI ExpoAfrica 2018 has at its core a focus on real-world applications and trends driving the AI Economy in Africa and seeks to build an AI Business-focused community across the continent,” Bannister concluded.
AI ExpoAfrica 2018 is aimed at the C-Suite decision makers, senior executives, investors and innovators focusing on the disruptive nature of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Deep learning, Data Analytics, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), AI cloud platforms, hardware, devices and Internet of Things (IoT).
“With the signing of Intel Corporation as a premier sponsor, we are now able to deliver on one of the key themes and goals of the event, namely skills development and education”, said Nick Bradshaw Event Director of AI Expo Africa. “When we launched the show at the end of January 2018, we conducted a very high level survey on the challenges we face in deploying AI Technology in Africa. It was clear that skills availability was the No. 1 challenge closely followed by education as the two biggest challenges facing companies seeking to grow competency in AI and related disciplines. So in response to this, and in partnership with Intel Corporation, we are offering the opportunity to train up 200 young engineers during the event by a series of AI workshops we have named the “AI Talent Tank”. This new aspect to the event will be unique and FREE for young engineers to take part in and it is sure to be popular. Tickets for participation in the AI Talent Tank workshops will be made available shortly,” concluded Bradshaw.
Intel Corporation joins a growing list of sponsors and supporters of AI Expo Africa. Roy Allela, Intel Corporation Program manager for the Intel Innovator Program in EMEA and Royal Academy of Engineering LIF Fellow 2018, commented, “We are proud to be helping facilitate much needed AI skills development and education. It is incumbent on us all to foster collaboration with events like this to ensure young engineers gain an opportunity to not only learn new skills but interact with Expo sponsors and delegates to create new relationships, swap ideas and even secure job opportunities.” Allela concluded, “The AI Expo Africa Event Team at AI Media were only too happy to configure a sponsorship package to meet our mutual goals and the AI Talent Tank will truly be a win-win for all concerned, we can’t wait to share this with the community and leverage the local skills development partners they are working with to make this happen”.
Tumi Menyatswe, Ecosystem Manager at the The Silicon Cape Initiative commented, “Silicon Cape is committed to building and catalysing the Technology Ecosystem in the Western Cape and beyond. We are proud to be a partner of AI Expo Africa and the team has been very proactive with us in achieving our mutual goals. We support ideas such as the AI Talent Tank at AI Expo Africa as it aligns with our vision to work with entrepreneurs, regulators, governments and corporate businesses to create an environment where startups and skills can thrive”. Menyatswe concluded, “We need to grow the technology talent pool on the Continent and foster the creation and growth of World-class solutions, services and companies in Africa. We will be helping AI Media and Intel Corporation reach into our community to find and train the new, young AI talent of tomorrow, we can’t wait to get started.”
