Pick-up at Hyatt Regency Hotel

Morning discovery of the South African ecosystem

The first day of the Executive Insights Program 2024 will include disruptive visits to discover the South African ecosystem , culture and companies.

Tour of Christel House South Africa

https://sa.christelhouse.org/

The Vision: A world where poverty does not limit potential.
Christel House transforms the lives of children experiencing poverty around the world. A robust RR–12 education and a strong character development program are supported by regular healthcare, nutritious meals, guidance counseling, career planning, family assistance and College & Careers support.

Christel House Robotics & Coding demonstration

coffee break

Discussion with Ian Merrington, CEO UVU Africa, (www.uvuafrica.com) on challenges and unique opportunities presented by sub-Sarahran Africa for technology start-ups

Ian Merrington

Group discussion, led by Ian Russell, on the reality that education and technology are the only two key pillars that will support sustainable African economic growth.

Ian Russell

Lunch Break

Visit to Knife Capital

Knife Capital is a leading venture capital investment manager that accelerates the international expansion of African innovation-driven businesses by leveraging Knowledge, Networks and Funding.

Keet van Zyl

Visit to Data Prophet

Data Prophet specialises in AI for Manufacturing 4.0. It helps positioning manufacturers for digital-era success by optimizing production process performance. Value generation is guaranteed as their solutions are adaptable to a plant’s unique production performance challenges. Their data-driven solution moves your plant to its optimal region. A collaborative approach ensures plant teams boost their skills as connected workers

Panel Discussion “The 2024 Outlook for Africa Tech: A Founder and Investor Perspective” and cocktail

Kick-off welcome cocktail from Big Five Digital , with selected South African VCs .

Panel Discussion “The 2024 Outlook for Africa Tech: A Founder and Investor Perspective”

Speakers: Janade Du Plessis, Managing Partner, Launch Africa Ventures; Thaheer Mullins, General Partner, Savant Venture Fund; Meghan McCormick, Co-Founder & CEO, Oze

Networking Dinner at Tiger's Milk

Tiger’s Milk is the best destination for ‘dude food’, made good. Epitomising handcrafted goodness with a menu that takes pizza, grills and burgers to the next level, pair these with our locally made Tiger’s Milk Lager and you’re sure to leave satisfied.incredible cheeseburger & the best cocktails!

Dinner partnered with Dataprophet

Host Welcome

The BigFive Summit host team will welcome the delegates and offer a brief overview of the Summit’s objectives and what they can expect from Day One

Attending Big 5 in Cape Town at Radisson Blue Waterfront followed by sponsors dinner at Innovation City

BigFive Summit 2024 connects the various segments of the SME tech space into a cohesive progressive narrative. These segments all work together to enable small businesses to utilize the latest innovative technologies to help them get ahead.

Participants to the Siinda Executive Insights Program will get a one-day pass for the kick-off day of the Big 5 Digital Summit, including sessions with Telkom or AWs and also including an executive dinner.

Some of speakers that will be presenting at Big Five Digital Summit include
- Fiona Tabraham, Chief Executive of CapaCiTi (part of UVU Africa)
- Denvor Daniels, Senior Manager, Mobile Advertising, MTN South Africa.
- Khomotso Molabe is the Group CIO, Personal and Private Banking, at Standard Bank Group
- Ashmita Singh, SwapVend Africa
- Miranda Perumal, Scale
- Zach George , Launch Africa Ventures

Headline Address – Makgosi Mabaso, Managing Executive, Telkom Consumer

Telkom Consumer's broadband leader Makgosi Mabaso will offer a view of the current state of the digital transformation of Africa’s SMEs. Makgosi will share this overview and a vision for how corporates can arm SMEs with the digital tools they need to grow, creating employment and wealth in the process.

Headline Address – Khomotso Molable, Group CIO, Standard Bank Group

Khomotso Molable returns to the BigFive Summit stage as one of the Summit’s highest-rated speakers. As CIO of Standard Bank Group, Molable is the leading technologist at the African continent’s largest bank, which serves more than 15 million clients across 20 Sub-Saharan African markets.

Fireside Chat TBA

networking break

Headline Address – Lee Naik, CEO, TransUnion Africa

Lee Naik is a leading voice on digital transformation in Africa. He is responsible for a portfolio of businesses across eight African countries that strive to help businesses make more informed decisions. Lee is a former Managing Director of Accenture Digital.

MSME Pulse Survey -- A Current Look at Africa's Small Businesses

Africa 118 and Geopoll are back with another wave of their MSME Pulse survey, which takes the digital pulse of African small business operators. This data is a great stage setter for conversations taking place throughout the Summit, both on stage and off.

Featrure Talk -- Using AI to Solve the African SME Funding Gap

Nic Rawhani, the co-founder and CDEO of the AI fintech startup Vula will address how AI can be applied to make it faster and easier for African SMEs to gain access to funding.

Networking Lunch

Fireside Chat: Aisha Pandor, Co-founder, SweepSouth and Pandora Biosciences

Aisha Pandor is a celebrated South African entrepreneur. She is co-founder and CEO of SweepSouth, a marketplace platform consumers and businesses use to find domestic workers for home and office cleaning. She also has a Ph.D. in human genetics and co-founded the biotech firm Pandor Bioscience, which is building an “AI-driven precision medicine platform.”
We will engage Aisha in a conversation about leadership, entrepreneurship, impact, and Africa’s tech potential. You won’t want to miss this one.

Headline Address – Denvor Daniels, Senior Manager, Mobile Advertising, MTN South Africa

Denvor Daniels, who leads MTN South Africa’s mobile advertising efforts, will share the state of the art for SME mobile advertising in Africa. There is no one better to deliver this address.

Featured Talk -- Sandy Lohr, COO, Vendasta, "AI Unleashed: A World Beyond Martech & Adtech"

Vendasta's Sandy Lohr will talk about how organizations can revolutionize their digital product lines by expanding into AI-enabled tools for SMEs. Sandy will contend that enhancing offerings, empowering clients, and positioning brands as trailblazers in the ever-evolving digital landscape is easier than you think.

Headline Address: Fiona Tabraham, Chief Executive, CapaCiTi (a division of UVU Africa), "Unlocking Africa’s Digital Skills Opportunity"

Fiona Tabraham, Chief Executive,
CapaCiTi (a division of UVU Africa)

Headline Address: Kimberley Taylor, CEO, Loop

Kimberley Taylor will share her insights on life as a young tech startup founder. Her company, Loop, helps organizations optimize delivery routes.

Pre-dinner cocktails at Location Bank office

VIP Dinner with Big5 Digital

Set against the backdrop of The Alphen gardens, contemporary architecture with glass facade and open terrace overlooks the sprawling grounds of this National Monument site. Cosy in winter with an indoor fireplace, al fresco in summer – it’s a go-to destination for locals and tourists alike, whether for afterwork drinks or a casual evening meetup.

Bus drive from Hyatt Regency to Stellenbosch

Bus leaves at 07.45 am.

Visit to Immobazyme Facility Lab

Immobazyme is a biotech spin-out company from Stellenbosch University that is revolutionizing the production of high-value active protein ingredients through precision fermentation. In 2019, three friends gathered over a beer and opened the discussion of Immobazyme - a company that would leverage innovative technologies and environmentally responsible practices to drive sustainable growth in scientific research and development in South Africa. This concept quickly evolved into a thriving start-up, focused on bringing cutting-edge biologics to markets that were previously constrained by cost or implementation challenges. Today, the company has expanded significantly from its founding team of three master's candidates to a team of seven highly skilled and experienced scientists, all of who are committed to catalysing the future of global innovation through precision fermentation.

Introduction to Stellenbosch Launch Lab and Insights from Launch Lab portfolio companies

Stellenbosch University(SU) is firmly committed to the pursuit of knowledge, research and innovation, in service of society. They provide a world-class centre for learning and development, which is globally relevant, yet rooted in the upliftment and transformation of our local communities. Their actions are guided by key values and attributes, and enabled by outstanding staff and students, sound operating systems and a deep sense of purpose.
SU is home to an academic community of more than 32 500 students, including more than 3 700 international students from 104 countries. SU has 4 658 permanent and fixed-term contract staff members, including 1 393 academics.​

Their ten faculties (AgriSciences, Arts and Social Sciences, Economic and Management Sciences, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine and Health Sciences, Military Science, Science, and Theology) as well as the School for Climate Studies, the School for Data Science and Computational Thinking and the Stellenbosch Business School are located across five campuses in the Western Cape province of South Africa.


According to official figures of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) released in 2022, SU is among South Africa’s top three research-intensive universities, both per capita and in terms of total research output.

SU now boast a total of 20 of A-rated researchers – our highest number to date – having received nine new A-ratings in the 2021 rating round.

Presentation Biocode

Biocode is a medical technology company that was spun out from South Africa’s Stellenbosch University (SU). What started as a collaboration between SU’s Physiology and Engineering Departments is now a backed enterprise, dedicated to the research, development and commercialisation of inflammation-centred health-screening and diagnostic solutions. Biocode’s interdisciplinary team works across the company’s brand family to bring to market innovative solutions that range from proprietary lab methodologies to rapid test products. Empowerment and healthcare transformation are our primary goals. Excellence, innovation and empathy are our guiding principles.

Presentation Cube Space

At CubeSpace ADCS, we purely focus on innovative satellite control systems. This is only one piece of the puzzle, but we aim to make our systems so user-friendly, so robust, so affordable, and so scalable, that it makes a global impact on the industry and changes the way satellites are built. We provide systems that enable entry level university students to accurately control their first CubeSats; innovative start-ups to build their constellations and ultimately make their business plans work; and experienced scientists to do cutting-edge research and make the discoveries of tomorrow. We will play our part in helping the new generation of space people change the world.

Presentation TerraClim

Data-Driven Solutions for a Climate-Resilient Future. TerraClim empowers informed decision-making, optimising crop selection and land management for a sustainable agricultural future by leveraging our centralised climate database and advanced research capabilities. Making a global impact starts with field and farm level insights.

Discussions with LaunchLab Companies

Lunch break at Stellenbosch Cafe

Connected and Distracted: Making sense of the Relationship between Online Connectedness and Attention - Lecture and session with Daan le Roux, Head of Cognition Cognition and Technology Research Group at Stellenbosch University

Over the past two decades we have experienced the emergence of a media ecology characterized by the omnipresence of mobile computing devices that offer a rapidly expanding range of gratifying online experiences. As smartphone use volumes have steadily increased, online platforms have proliferated, creating an increasingly competitive attention economy. A growing body of both popular and academic literature have raised concerns over the potential impacts of these developments for human wellbeing. One area which has received substantial attention concerns the effects that permanent online connectedness and constant media multitasking may have on cognitive control – our capacity to exert control over our attention. Some studies have even suggested that technology use may lead to the shortening of our attention spans. In this talk we systematically consider the state of empirical evidence in this domain with reference to recent studies of both the short and long-term effects of digital technology use on cognitive control.

Daan Le Roux

Wine Tasting Dinner

Partnered with Vendasta/Matchcraft

Tokara Restaurant opened its doors in October 2001.
It was one of the very first iconic winery restaurants established in the Cape Winelands.
Chef Carolize Coetzee might be home-grown, but her cuisine is world-class. Inspired by the local countryside and farm produce, she’s designed Tokara Restaurant’s menu to celebrate refined farm-to-table cuisine. And she’s so looking forward to spoiling you.
Raised in the small town of Humansdorp, in the Eastern Cape, her fondest memories are of laughing and sharing stories around the kitchen table while watching her mother prepare recipes passed on from previous generations.
It’s true. Our restaurant staff are hard at work to ensure that the linen is pressed, tables are expertly laid, and the decor positively shines. Did we mention that we have large-scale tapestries by internationally-renowned artist William Kentridge adorning the restaurant walls?
Our kitchen is busy preparing the day’s menu. The local farmers have dropped off their produce, and talented team is transforming this into tempting delights. We’ve scoured our wine cellar to select only the finest bottles of wine for your dining pleasure.
And to top it all off, the dramatic views over Stellenbosch and False Bay make dining at Tokara Restaurant an experience to remember.