COLLINS KAKWEZI

The African Women in Technology (AWIT) conference took place over the weekend at Kampala International University, in Kansanga, Ggaba Road, Kampala.

The conference, dubbed “Inspired 2020”, is a brainchild of IBOM LLC, a business consultancy owned by Nigerian-born American banker Anie Akpe.

It is being held in Uganda for the first time in Kampala and over 100 women graced the two-day event which aims at providing opportunities and a safe space for women to grow and lead in the tech space. Delegates came from as far as Mozambique, Rwanda, Morocco, Burundi, Nigeria, and Kenya.

Here is a recap of the event 

Solid Attendance

Everyone who organizes an event is always worried about one thing- whether people will attend. However, these worries were very quickly dispelled for organizers as dozens of women trooped in for the conference.

Over 100 women, including entrepreneurs in the tech industry, students and general practitioners in technology graced the event, which showed that women are not lagging behind when it comes to rolling up their sleeves and doing the hard stuff when it comes to technology.

Guest of Honor Attending

The guest of honor was recently appointed Energy and Mineral Development minister Mary Goretti Kitutu and she actually showed up. It is every organizer’s nightmare to invite someone as chief guest and they fail to turn up.

However, Honourable Kitutu, also the Manafwa district woman representative attended and she did not just stop at that. She also gave an encouraging speech.

She encouraged girls and women to apply for science-related courses because there were many opportunities in the field like oil and gas, which women could take advantage of.

World-Class Presentations

In total, 11 presentations were lined up and all of the presenters did not disappoint. However, as is always the case, the participants had their favorites. 

They took a particular liking to the Internet of Things (IoT) presentation by Rose Barasa, the presentation about cybersecurity by tech lawyers Alice Namuli and Doreen Nawali and the Future of Robotics presentation by Ritah Kayesu and Immaculate Ainomugisha.

The audience learned many things from all the presentations and workshops and also got inspiration from experts in the tech field, who were not shy to share their knowledge.

Maike Striffler from SINA conducted all the workshops at the conference-which were actually two. The Self Management System workshop on day one was insightful but it is the Design Thinking workshop on day two which got the participants fully engaged.

Dancing Performances

On the first day, the Bamasaba cultural group of Kampala International University performed their traditional dance, which got guests onto their feet.

Many were seen pulling out their phones to record the dance, which involved a lot of gyrating, something that excited the guests.

The second day had the Bakonzo have their turn to impress and they didn’t disappoint. They too had the guests excited, bearing in mind that such cultural dances are a rare spectacle on the social scene in Kampala.

Good Wi-Fi and Food

There was free Wi-Fi throughout the conference, something which had the guests fully engaged with the hashtags KIUAWIT2020 and AWIT20.

Plus, the food was really good!