Free student tickets up for grabs for major web conference

Financial services group, Old Mutual, is offering 17 complimentary scholarship tickets to the Tech4Africa Conference 2010 to students studying in the information technology, Web, technology or digital fields.

Tech4Africa, to be held in Johannesburg on the 12-13 of August, has managed to attract some major heavy-weight international and African speakers. One of the world’s leading thinkers and writers on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies Clay Shirky will be headlining the conference. He will also be joined by Matthew Mullenweg, the founding developer of WordPress — the blogging software that runs millions of websites around the world.

Shirky and Mullenweg join a stellar line-up of top international speakers – including leaders from organisations such as Twitter, Mozilla, digg and Yahoo! – and African technologists from companies such as PesaPal, Ushahidi, Obami and many more.

Students who are interested in attending the event in August will be able to apply for the sponsored tickets by email. The tickets will be allocated to those that provide the most convincing motivations for why they should attend Tech4Africa.

It’s a rare opportunity for students to learn first-hand from world-class business and technology thinkers from across the globe. The conference will inspire students by highlighting the possibilities and opportunities Africa offers in the Web and technology space.

Students will gain practical insight and first hand knowledge into how ideas can be turned into realities; about the funding landscape in Africa; what cloud computing, Web 2.0, the mobile Internet and other emerging technologies mean to societies; how the most successful African technology and Web businesses are leveraging technology; which new Web and technology-related business opportunities are emerging in Africa and the rest of the world; how the Web can help African societies to succeed and how start-ups can be built to compete on the global stage.

“Old Mutual and Technovated have the goal of empowering the next generation of technology and digital students in South Africa with the knowledge they need to compete on the global stage,” says Gareth Knight, MD of Technovated — the company organising the event.

“The students that receive these tickets will learn from the best in the world, network with big industry players, hear about new technologies and find out what Africans are doing with the Web, mobile and other emerging technologies in real world settings.”

Tech4Africa runs from 12-13 August 2010 at The Forum in Bryanston. Workshops will be held on 10-11 August. The event is targeted at business professionals and technologists from businesses of all sizes, from entrepreneurs and start-up owners through to professionals working at large organisations.

Should you be a student who wishes to apply for an Old Mutual Scholarship ticket, please email your details along with a 200 word motivation about why you should be awarded one of the tickets to scholarships@tech4africa.com by close of business on 16 July. Students studying in the areas of information technology, Web, technology or digital at tertiary institutions may apply. More details are available at http://www.tech4africa.com