Thousands of professionals, cut across diverse sectors including tech giants, c-level executives, policymakers, investors, SMES, start- ups and organizations making giant stride from across the continent, are set to take part in the largest work festival in Africa organized by HR Expo Africa (HREA), there is great promise that Africa’s next big global start-up will emerge.
The epoch making event HREA Work Festival 2021, billed to hold April 14 – 15, 2021, with the theme, ‘Borderless Africa’, will be availing participants a far reaching support on both individual and organizational levels. For startups, the startup innovation village represents a rare opportunity to find strategic support for accelerated growth for growing start-ups.
The 2-day work festival with the promise to birth Africa’s next global startup through its startup innovation village, masterclasses, keynotes, panel and breakout sessions, will feature high-level training sessions, pitching opportunity for investment and strategic partnerships, product demos, global networking, marketing and sales, among others.
Startups from Nigeria and beyond are expected to seize the opportunity to upskill, gather resource materials that will enable them to scale on a sustainable basis. The institutional investors expected at the festival will have a rich array of brilliant and innovative ideas to select from, as a diverse selection of future forward startups, especially in tech, are expected to actively participate.
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Overall, the HREA Work Festival 2021 is expected to attract over 5,000 participants from across all sectors that make up today’s global workforce —all seeking to build profitable connections and great businesses. A limited number of participants will attend the physical aspect of the event at the Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria under strict Covid-19 protocols, while the vast majority of participants will be treated to the best multi-platform technology experience in global conferencing through the HREA dedicated Ai-powered virtual conference hub which is a user-friendly application.
Globally recognized resource persons and thought leaders will assemble to showcase what the future of work in the global workplace looks like today and share deep insights backed by research in the bustling global market ecosystem, which will leave participants with a far greater knowledge base, expanded market share, and an extended global network of partners, clients and investors.
For the Festival, the focus is on work and the people doing the work; all of the sessions at the event are grouped under seven learning stages: future trends, HR, wellbeing, leadership, startup, technology and workforce upskilling.
Stage themes will include the importance of leadership that will show individuals how their career and life needs can be further enhanced, as well as create a more diverse, compelling and rewarding work environment. In addition, they will highlight the urgent need for borderless collaboration, leveraging talent within cross-border collaborations and how well people can work with others often virtually across internal and external borders to co-create something no individual could have created alone.
There’s something for everyone!
In a chat with Businessday Newspaper correspondent, founder of HREA and the convener HREA Work Festival 2021, Erefa Fynecontry-coker spoke on the prospects of the startup innovation village and in her words: “Nigeria, and Africa as a whole, is increasingly becoming the choice destination for strategic investment in technology and innovation. From Fintech to AI, there is a growing trend of investment inflow. But more needs to be done, both in terms of expanding the local innovation ecosystem, and building sustainable borderless collaboration. This is where our work festival comes in. We empower startups through tailored, relevant training, while also providing a platform where startups can meet investors. The startup innovation village is indeed a full-fledged support system”.
Speaking further about the theme of the festival and the rationale behind it, she noted that,” adopting ‘Borderless Work’ as the theme for Work Festival 2021, followed a careful assessment of the dominant trends in the world of work, including needs and influences. This thorough undertaking, commissioned annually, shapes the strategic direction of the festival”.
She added that, “The concept of Borderless Work has maintained a trajectory of growing prominence in recent times owing to rising disruption to the world of Work through digital transformation, on one hand, efforts to rethink work like the adoption
of remote working systems, for-work/life balance innovations, and easily manageable multi-tier collaboration systems. “Most of the recent rapid changes to work and the workplace are captured in the concept of Borderless Work, a key component of the muchtalked-about ‘Future of Work’.
“To understand the concept of Borderless Work, a hybrid (Virtual and In-person) viewpoint at the event is key. Borderless work can be understood from the perspective of work made possible without the physical bridges that connect people and work enabled by innovative work systems that make the inhibitions of time and space of little to no consequence”.
On the challenges in the workplace necessitated by the fast changing world of work in this Covid-19 era, Fynecontry-coker asserted that, “From technology and innovation to internal and external crises, our team at HR Expo Africa has carefully examined the positive and negative trends in the world of work that is contributing to the transformations seen in the workplace and we have put together some of the best minds in the tech space, talent and recruitment, organizational and systems management from across the globe to share their highly sought-after ideas.
