AfricaCom, reportedly the largest communications conference and exhibition on the continent with the gathering of over 5 000 telecoms decision-makers and key players, takes place this week. Starting on Wednesday 9 November until Thursday 10 November 2011 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, South Africa, the event focuses on issues concerning the future of digital in Africa. As part of the conference, the 4th AfricaCom Awards, which acknowledges the growth and importance of the telecoms and digital sectors across the African continent, will take place at a gala dinner on the Wednesday evening. Here is the complete list of finalists. At a 'Marketers' Night Out' in Kampala, Uganda last week, Wale Akinyemi, CEO of Power Talks Consultants urged marketers to be more innovative during tough times to enable their businesses to thrive, instead of pursuing bigger budgets to achieve their targets. Fireworks Advertising, a communications consultancy based in Uganda, emerged as the overall winner at the 2011 PRAU Excellence Awards in Kampala on Friday, 4 November 2011. In just a few weeks, the inaugural Forbes Africa Person of the Year will be announced. The top five candidates include: president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; former president of Cape Verde, Pedro Veron Pires; founder and president of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote; governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; and the late Professor Wangari Mathaai. May the best candidate win! The battle of media freedom continues as Angolan journalists are targeted by the government and in the DRC, journalists are being harrased in the build-up to the upcoming elections. Here's to a great week! Evan-Lee Courie (@evan1985)

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