Desmond Tutu, former Ghana president at major new media event

A major Africa-focused new media conference, Highway Africa, is to focus on “African Voices in the Global Media Space” from the 4th-7th of July in the small university-town of Grahamstown.

The conference, which is expected to be attended by about 500 delegates drawn from over 40 countries, claims to be the largest annual gathering of technology-focused African journalists.

This year’s speakers include former Ghanaian President John Kufuor, Advocate Pansy Tlakula, MTN executive Nozipho January-Bardill, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu and online entrepreneur and former Mail & Guardian Online head Matthew Buckland. Tutu is no stranger to the world of web 2.0, being one of the first Africans to be interviewed on Second Life a few years ago by Reuters.

The conference will kick off with the Telkom-Highway Africa New Media Awards. Prizes will be given to three African online operations that have excelled in the use of online technologies to produce and deliver news and information.

Using a combination of plenary sessions, keynote addresses, debates, training workshops, networking dinners and book launches, the conference will explore how internet and mobile technologies are transforming Africa’s media and society.

A key feature of the conference is the Reporting Development Forum — a series of plenary sessions in which leaders in media and broader society discuss how Africa’s media is framing the continent’s role in the global development agenda.

Some of the key questions the sessions will interrogate include:

• Africa’s relationship/partnership with China;
• Africa’s recovery and growth trajectory in the aftermath of the “global financial crisis”;
• Africa position in relation to global trade rules and the emerging re-alignments;
• Africa’s democratic prospects (has Africa finally turned the corner in terms of dictatorships and human rights violations)?
• Africa and the meaning of the 2010 FIFA World Cup?

The conference will look at how the business of the media is changing in light of the rapid uptake of internet and mobile technology. Going beyond the usual debates around the death of print, the sessions will seek to explore how African media companies are harnessing technology to grow audiences and revenue.

As part of the conference’s social programme, Absa will host a dinner in honour of the former
President of Ghana, Mr. John Kufuor and MTN will host a Fan Zone for delegates to watch the two 2010 FIFA World Cup semi-finals.

The conference ends with a closing speech by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.