Innovation in Tanzania

Last week, I attended the Bits & Bytes Technology Convention 2017 at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Center (JNICC) - a three day event, that brought innovators, students, thought leaders, executive officers and entrepreneurs from Tanzania, and from the rest of the world to come together and develop solutions for Tanzanian community, connect with each other and inspire Tanzanians to innovate for their community.

The event saw the first 2 days as Hackathons and Pitch Competition, before the main event on the last day, which had keynote speeches, panel discussions, and the final round of pitching. In the Hackathons, there was the Urban Challenge Hack - where students and other innovators had to come up with solutions that makes Dar es salaam city more resilient, safe and inclusive, in areas of Transportation, Waste Management and Informal Settlements. Another Hack Challenge was the one that focused on innovating a Feedback Mechanism for a government organization, that until now was using the traditional "Comments Box". And finally, there were the pitching competition, that saw incredible innovative products/services pitched against one another, and the final 5 pitched also in the last day for a cash prize and a chance to get funded.

I applaud the team that made this event possible: the organizers and the partners - because they took a step towards making innovation in Tanzania possible. There was training on Pitching and each Hack Challenge had some presentations made before they begun. The line-up for the final day was great, and it is was an incredible environment.

Events in the likes of these should be done more often, but even more important, the innovations created here, should be implemented in the society. Well done to Bits & Bytes team. You can learn more about the event from their website: https://bnbconference.co.tz/ or by the Twitter Hashtag #BNBTZ17