We have a special thanks to MyMoney for coming on board so quickly the night before the BarCamp and helping us with some issues we were having with the venue.
MyMoney also helped present a session on Mobile Money and Microfinance in Cameroon.
MOBILE MONEY CAMEROON SA (2M), created in 2006, is a Cameroonian public limited company with a capital of F CFA 1 billion. The company is an outcome of the pooling of local financial institutions and companies.
2M has the endorsement of:
2M is an electronic payment system provider and to this effect, has developed in Cameroon, an electronic payment service dubbed MyMoney. The service enables everyone carry out daily financial transactions with the use of either a phone, a smartcard, a USB key, a wrist-watch, a key-holder or the internet.
Well, Cameroon first ever BarCamp has come and gone
More than 200 people registered to attend the day-long unconference; about 250 people showed up physically at the event.
BarCamp has become the premier technology conference in Cameroon, bringing together the best minds and representation of the hottest companies in the internet, entrepreneurial, new media, and software industries, among others.
Thanks to Our Sponsors
Huge thanks has to go to all of our sponsors for their kind support.
In particular I’d like to say a personal thanks to everyone at RINGO that worked so hard with us to make this event happen.
Thanks to the Speakers
The feedback from the talks has been tremendous and there truly was something for everyone.
Thanks to You
Of course the biggest thanks has to go out to each and every attendee who made the effort - and especially those who came from far to show their support.
It wouldn’t have been much of a BarCamp without the conversations and buzz.
On a personal note, I’d like to thank everyone who got involved in organising BarCamp Cameroon and helped to spread the word and secure such a brilliant turnout. It certainly was a fantastic group effort -
A few important notes:
* All necessary documents we have created to run this BarCamp Cameroon will be made available on the google group.
* You can yet follow post-unconference discussion on the google group.
Sign up on the mailling list to be notified by email or follow us on Twitter for updates.
Join us next year for a free "un"-conference for the digital and technical community ,See you again at BarCamp Yaounde 2010!
my sincere thanks.
Jean-Francis
This goes live today, follow us live here:
You can also follow the twitter and flickr stream with the hashtag #barcampcameroon. We have a professional videographer who will be assisting us with interviews, so we hope to have some nicely edited YouTube videos in the days following the event.
We’ve got lots of talent in this country. However, most of us are not willing to devote our talent into ICT projects, either commercial or charitable. Most of us prefer securing a stable job, and pray someone else innovates in our place. The same applies to the majority of our companies here. Though they may see the relevance of developing a certain form of technology, they won’t because of various limitations which they can overcome. We are experiencing all of these for a single reason. We’ve all stopped dreaming.
We no more dream of innovating, because we believe innovation does not pay in this country. It might, in certain extreme cases, lead one to jail. We don’t even dream of playing catch-up with existing technology though proven benefits have been derived in other parts of the world. We’ve stopped dreaming in the proliferation of internet connectivity and believe efforts produced by our ISPs and other volunteers are just a waste of time. We’ve stopped dreaming of getting the most out of our mobile phones, because we think there is a very high barrier to entry in the market. We’ve stopped dreaming of integrating ICT in our everyday life, because we feel we don’t have the technology and infrastructure to handle that. Some of us have not even started dreaming yet, because we are ignorant of what ICT can do.
I am hoping one of the principal outcomes of this barcamp will be to give us reasons to dream again.
To help us know that there are ‘heroes’ working on their dreams and are being successful at it.
To help us know that we too, can be pacesetters.
To help us know that we have, or will soon have, adequate infrastructure, technology prowess, and financial assistance from government, VCs, and other relevant institutions.
To help us know that we’ve got some talent. No ! That we already know. We don’t just want to make use of it.
To help us know that the whole ecosystem is already set; the only thing lacking being … us.
We’ve got lots of talent in this country. We just need reasons to believe in our digital dreams.
- A BarCamp Cameroon attendee
Hi Everyone,
The first BarCamp in Cameroon starts tomorrow - I hope you are all excited and have already planned what you are going to be presenting at BarCamp - if you haven't there is still time.
As you all know the event is fully sold out and we are operating at maximum capacity for the venue - Le Meridien Hotel in Bonanjo, Douala.
With this in mind could we please ask you all to try and arrive by 09:00 or earlier so that we can start on time. Registration will be open from 08:30 and we will aim to start our first session around 09:30.
As this is an IT event the dress code for the event is casual, jeans etc. are fine. The important thing is that you come prepared to present and to take part.
We are trying to gather a list of sessions people would like to do, so that we can get a feel for the number and type of sessions people are proposing. The wiki page is below - feel free to add your own session proposals.
http://barcamp.org/BarCampCameroon2009Topics
Sessions will be together in the morning and in the afternoon there will be three meeting rooms available for us to have more smaller sessions.
Ringo is providing Internet so you can bring your laptop and be online, but please try and bring your own power strip if you have one as we have limited sockets. If you have a camera, bring it to capture this exciting day.
Please bring along a printout of your registration from the eventbrite website (http://barcampdouala.eventbrite.com/).
If you are on the waiting list you will be welcome to come after the lunch at 13:30. Please don't try and come earlier as we really don't want to turn you away.
The maximum capacity has already reached so please don't try and attend if you aren't registered or on the waiting list - follow us online instead. There will be a live blogging of the event (details on our blog), plus you can follow on our twitter stream and see photos on flickr via the hashtag #barcampcameroon.
You can see us online on :
Wiki: http://barcamp.org/BarCampCameroon
Twitter: http://twitter.com/BarCampCameroon (official hashtag #barcampcameroon )
Identi.ca : http://identi.ca/group/barcampcameroon
Linkedin : http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2167753/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=130832626678
Along with ,Ringo,Google and a few others – Africonline is now an official sponsor of BarCamp Cameroon !
Africonline is a newly formed African Centered design and development Group. This company is an extension of a more than 10 years old American company that has well over 50 clients to date. The partnership with certain African natives, business owners and leading IT companies have resulted in a force that believes in a world where every and all Small businesses can and should have an internet presence at a minimum. Top notch technology, high production value design and slick efficient visual communication medium are all rolled into a ready-to-go out-of-the-box affordable package at just the mere cost of regular application hosting. With custom design solutions developed for easy and fast integration into the framework, AO aims at Changing the Digital Face of Africa.
"A website for all. This is what we were born to do and this is the time, so join us."
We are pleased to have Africonline as one of sponsor of this first edition of BarCamp Cameroon.
Hi Everyone,
It's a little over 3 weeks till Saturday the 7th of November when the first BarCamp Cameroon will be lifting off at our new venue the Le Meridien Hotel in Douala.
We have been able to move to this new much better venue because we have a number of very generous sponsors for the event already. Our sponsors include:
* Ringo is our headline sponsor and they are providing free T-Shirts for the event, banners, marketing materials and hostesses for the day as well as their own fast Internet for free during the event.
* Google has also come on board as a major sponsor and their sponsorship is covering the cost of the venue, sound systems and other costs to do with the event.
* Africa 2.0 and Africa Startup Challenge are sponsoring the lunch for the event
* Open Solutions Cameroun is sponsoring the event by providing logistics to help organise the event.
* Limbe Labs is providing logistical support and the network infrastructure during the event.
After initially estimating that around 100 people would attend the event we are now rapidly approaching our maximum capacity of 200 attendees, the event is shaping up to be a seminal moment to open up the IT community in Cameroon and the list of attendees is impressive, if you haven't checked the list recently you can see the full list at:
http://barcampdouala.eventbrite.com/
Just a small selection of the companies represented: Ringo, Google, CRTV, CNPS, Microsoft, Orange, MTN, Douala1, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Kerawa
We are still looking for sponsors!
Does your company want to gain greater exposure to the who's who of IT in Cameroon? Do you want to see your logo up on the event banners and website publicity alongside the likes of Ringo and Google?
You still have an opportunity! To ensure the event is a complete success we are still looking for sponsors to come forward to sponsor the following:
* Mini breakfast of Coffee/Tea/Cold Drinks, croissants and cake when attendees arrive
* A smaller networking dinner in the evening after the event for about 40 selected attendees
It's worth noting that BarCamp Cameroon is a FREE event and that none of the organisers benefit from the event. All sponsors will pay directly to the service providers and full accounting for the event will be published on the internet afterwards for all to see.
What are the benefits for your company?
Direct benefits of your participation:
* As a sponsor, you will have your name and logo on the wiki and the blog as well as official event T-Shirts and banners as well as a mention during the conference.
* You will have your company name associated with an event that stands for technology, that is new and innovative along with the hype surrounding an event that is unconventional.
* You earn the respect and attention of two hundred of the best geeks and technologists in Cameroon, and a technology opinion leaders scattered around the country with your presence on the wiki and blog. The reach of this event goes far beyond Cameroon though to the rest of Africa and the world who are watching this event closely.
* If you sponsor the networking dinner you will be involved in the nomination process to choose the attendees and you will be able to do a short presentation before the dinner about your company or products.
I want to sponsor, what do I need to do?
We are looking for sponsors to put in a minimum of 200,000 CFA (€300) and our estimate for the remaining costs is 800,000 CFA for the mini-breakfast and about the same for the dinner.
If you are interested then please do get in touch with us on email at sponsors (at) barcampcameroon (dot) org or DM us on twitter (@BarCampCameroon)
But wait, there's more!
If you are still reading this far we thought we would tease you with just a few of the things that we are planning to do on the day and after the event to build a bit more excitement.
* Live Blogging of the event for those unable to get tickets or who want to watch the event abroad.
* Live twitter feeds on screens around the event.
* There will be a professional videographer filming at the event doing interviews and filming excerpts of talks, after the event these will be edited and placed online on our vimeo channel.
* And more...
Do you want to get involved in planning or want to volunteer your services for something again contact us on email at information (at) barcampcameroon (dot) org or DM us on twitter (@BarCampCameroon) or join our google group for organisers: http://groups.google.com/group/barcampcameroon
Follow Us
* Blog: http://barcampafrica.com/cameroon
* Twitter: http://twitter.com/BarCampCameroon
* Identi.ca : http://identi.ca/group/barcampcameroon
* Linkedin : http://www.linkedin.com/e/vgh/2167753/
* Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=130832626678
RIngo sa ,the Young Cameroonian ISP , is proud to sponsor such an exciting and innovating event and for the very first time in Cameroon.
We will make sure this event is a success.
http://www.ringo.cm/
BarCamp Cameroon now have his own channel on stupeflix.tv !
Stupeflix is a REST web service that turns your pictures, videos, and
text into professional videos, Stupeflix.tv videos are automatically
generated from twitter and flickr data.
