SingularityU South Africa Summit 2019 set to #futureproofAfrica

This year's Summit will take place at the Kyalami Grand Prix and Conference Centre / Kyalami Theatre on the Track in Johannesburg on 16 and 17 October. Now in its third year, and promising to be exponentially bigger than previous years, this future-focused event will take Singularity’s mission to use new technologies to help solve the global challenges further.

Thought leaders and innovators from across the world will present a forward-thinking approach to unlocking the potential that Africa holds. Topics that will be addressed are designed to bring the most pressing issues facing the continent to the fore, including education, energy, poverty, prosperity and water.

The Summit intends to equip the leaders of today and tomorrow with the thinking and knowledge needed, to use technology to help pioneer a better future for all Africans.

“As part of our mission to futureproof Africa, we are focusing on the most pressing problems and the technologies that can help address these. Innovation holds the key to the exponential solutions that can solve our education, energy, poverty and water challenges,” said Mic Mann, co-CEO of SingularityU South Africa.

Mic Mann, co-CEO SingularityU South Africa

The first six speakers that will take to the stage at the Summit were announced. They include:

• Sivan Ya’ari, the driving force behind InnoAfrica, which has supplied over one million people in rural areas in Africa with clean drinking water, using solar power, after identifying the need for a more sustainable energy solution.

• Award-winning scientist and futurist Ramez Naam, who has authored several books including The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet, which looks at the environmental and natural resource challenges of climate change, energy, food and water, will address the scientific and technological innovation needed to solve the energy challenges faced by Africa.

• Andres De Leon, the COO of Hyperloop Transportation, who are pioneering the full scale passenger capsule, will share how boundless thinking has enabled the future of mobility to include this remarkable transport solution.

• CEO and chief researcher at Next Bio Sciences, South African SingularityU Faculty member Kim Hullett, will share how advances in stem cell and genetic research are unlocking solutions to medical challenges around the world.

• SingularityU Canada robotics specialist faculty, Suzanne Gildert (pHD), who co-founded Sanctuary AI, with a mission to build synthetic humans, will discuss how we will have robots that will look like us and assist in the future will help us be more human.

• Coming in from the Nordic faculty of SingularityU, Kris Øostergaard will present an innovative perspective on transforming legacy organisations by embracing a new innovation framework and the exponential effects that this can yield.

More speakers will be announced in due course.

The Summit will showcase how technology can be used to solve the various global challenges. It aims to address the most pressing issues facing Africa, by hosting global thought leaders in the areas most in need of attention, and will focus on creating a collaborative and more economically-inclusive future, whereby partnerships and deals can be conceptualised and developed, across the continent.

“We believe we have the ability to unlock the potential lying in the African continent and lead the way in the fourth industrial revolution,” said Shayne Mann, co-CEO of SingularityU South Africa.

Shayne Mann, co-CEO SingularityU South Africa

A youth event will be held in conjunction with the main Summit, details of which will be announced at a later stage. Networking opportunities will allow attendees to connect with SingularityU faculty members and alumni, and exhibitors will present breakthrough ideas and investment opportunities that will run alongside the Summit.

Early adopter tickets: R16,650 (sold out). Standard tickets: R18,500. Late mover tickets: R20,350. Tickets limited to 1,800 attendees.

Register here.

The SingularityU South Africa Summit 2019 is hosted in collaboration with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, global partner Deloitte and strategic partners MTN and Absa.