African Megatrends – a workshop facilitated by Dr Morne Mostert on 13 September

The Southern Africa-Canada Chamber of Commerce was proud to host a workshop entitled African Megatrends and facilitated by Dr Morne Mostert, Director of the Institute for Futures Research of the University of Stellenbosch. The IFR is the first and only institute for futures research on the African continent.  www.ifr.sun.ac.za

The IFR has as its calling ‘To deliver global impact research for innovative long-range decision-making in Africa.’

And this is what the exciting, interactive workshop was all about.  Industry leaders and senior management were challenged, questioned, made to ‘think out of the box’.  And they loved it.  Jackets were off, sleeves were rolled up and all eyes were on Dr Mostert as he peeled back the accepted vision of the African continent.

African Megatrends

The purpose of the workshop was to enhance the competence of senior decision-makers to identify African megatrends and incorporate such insights into meaningful decisions.

The expected outcomes were to:

• Identify African megatrends
• Interpret the implications of African megatrends for business imperatives
• Contrast African megatrends with internal business decision-making
• Evaluate the risk of emergent African megatrends for strategic decisions
• Discern local and continental opportunities from global megatrends

 

The venue

OpenText kindly hosted the workshop in their high-tech offices in Bryanston.  Lenore Kerrigan welcomed the delegates not only as Country Manager for OpenText, Africa, but also as a proactive SACANCHAM Board member.  Her staff were always at hand to assist and ensure everything went smoothly.

The networking

One of the highlights of the networking session was the wines sponsored by Leopard Frog Vineyards.  Dr David Bates is a SACANCHAM member in his capacity as CEO & Deputy Chairman at Brookwood Capital Corporation, with his sought-after wines being another interest much appreciated by the delegates.  Dumisani Maluleke of TEDA was the proud winner of the draw – a bottle of wine drawn from David’s private collection.

The compliments received after the event were numerous, including one from Dr Mostert himself who is eager to facilitate again.  He really enjoyed the intelligent interaction.

Another excellent event from SACANCHAM!