East Africa Com: See you next year | 20-21 May 2014

*** Share your thoughts on #EastAfricaCom @allaboutcom ***    

East Africa Com 2013 Day 2: Affordable & relevant services are needed to drive growth in East Africa’s telecoms market!

After a first day where networks were at the centre of most discussions, the second day of East Africa Com looked in more details at services.

The day started with an interview of Jose Henriques, VP data and online at Airtel Africa, who highlighted the importance of affordability of data services, both in terms of data pricing and of devices. He was followed by John Naranka, who gave the point of view of an OTT player: Kenya-based social network Whive. 

The sessions covered the services that are most likely to impact data growth in the region: content, mobile money, e-health, TV, mobile marketing and apps. Some keywords were repeatedly mentioned when discussing how to make services successful: affordability, user-friendliness and simplicity. Betty Mwangi-Thuo from Safaricom (who gave an update on the ever successful mpesa) also highlighted the importance of partnerships to ensure the success of services.

The topic of e-health was covered by a presentation from a representative of Ogra Foundation, the event’s charity partner, which works with and for vulnerable communities in Kenya to improve and promote health. 

The event ended with the AppGig, a new session dedicated to developing, promoting and monetising apps for East Africa. A lively panel discussion covered both technical and commercial issues. The audience had a chance to share their favourite apps for the region, ranging from traffic news to education and health.

East Africa Com was once again a great showcase for the innovation and entrepreneurship to be found in the region. Next year’s event (to take place in Nairobi on 20-21 May 2014) will again focus on how to make networks more reliable and affordable in order to provide relevant services for the region’s users. 

Until then, the next events in the Com World Series will look at networks and infrastructure developments in West Africa (Connecting West Africa, 11-12 June, Senegal), Digital services (Digital Services Africa, 25-26 June, South Africa) and trends in Africa’s largest digital market (NigeriaCom, 17-18 September).

We look forward to seeing you next year at East Africa Com 2014.  
  
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Thanks for tweeting and using the hash tag #EastAfricaCom @allaboutcom 
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The East Africa Com team received a record breaking 500+ tweets over the course of the two days, which surpassed last year’s tweet record by 68%. Plus, the hash tag #EastAfricaCom was trending on Twitter today as a key topic in Kenya.  

We look forward to reading your tweets next year! 

You can still tweet about your experience this year using #EastAfricaCom @allaboutcom on twitter!  

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What our attendees said about this year's show:   
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“Overall conference was well organised, excellent networking and good contacts with my operator customers in the region with some hot leads generated”
Regional Account Director, SAP UK Limited

“Well organised event & excellent contacts made. Speed Networking sessions were great! Propose that you keep doing them again!”
Regional Director – Africa, iBasis

“We had very good two day at East Africa Com and made valuable contacts during networking with new & exciting partners”
VP Sales, Ekinops France

“Great event! It is our first time at East Africa Com and it was a good opportunity to interact with more players in the region as well as our clients. The speed networking was a valuable session in which we got to sell ourselves to potential clients”
Commercial Officer, ComzAfrica Kenya

“Informa put on a great networking event presenting valuable opportunities to explore business relationships.” 
Cyrus Sang, Executive Director, Jamii Telecom Ltd, Kenya

“Good show and productive targeted meetings with East-African operators – will definitely take part again.”
Philippe Llau, Director Line of Business Data & Telecom, Eutelsat France

“It has been a pleasure attending East Africa Com and participating as a panellist, hearing and sharing views from other regional players.”
Betty Mwangi-Thuo, General Manager, Financial Services, Safaricom

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Thank you to all the Sponsors of East Africa Com 2013
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Comza * Eutelsat * Liquid Telecom * KDN * Simbanet
  
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See You Next Year!     
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To get involved early for the 2014 show,       
please visit our website: http://eaafrica.comworldseries.com/

 East Africa Com 2014 
20-21 May 2014 
Safari Park Hotel
Nairobi, Kenya