South African developers wanting to make a mark in the growing app development or the IoT spaces are invited to submit their original tech solutions for consideration for this year’s editions of the MTN Business App of the Year Awards and IoT Conference & Awards.
These awards celebrate the talent and out-of-the-box thinking aimed at driving disruption and change. Historically, the events have been attended by more than 800 delegates including captains of industry, key ICT stakeholders, developers, MTN partners and other business leaders in the technology sector.
The winners of the respective competitions, which will both be held at the Sandton Convention Centre on 24 October 2019 are considered to be the Oscars of the ICT industry in Africa.
The IoT Conference and Awards will be held during the daytime and will be capped off with the MTN Business App of the Year Awards in the evening.
There are several categories in each of the two competitions. After intensive adjudication processes by panels of expert judges, the overall winners will each walk away with the trip of a lifetime to a destination like Silicon Valley, USA, Tech Crunch in Germany or a tech event of their choice internationally to the value of R200 000.
The developers of last year’s winning solution at the IoT Conference & Awards opted to travel to Silicon Valley to further their business interests, while the MTN Business App of the Year’s winning team travelled to the coveted Tech Crunch conference.
“Over the past few years, these two platforms have unearthed and profiled ground-breaking, home-grown apps and tech solutions that have become household names and topics of discussion at business events,” says Wanda Matandela, Chief Enterprise Officer of MTN Business.
“We believe that by combining the brand appeal of these two development initiatives, we can make a meaningful contribution to the growth of the ICT sector. Additionally, we are reaffirming our commitment to champion the app development movement by promoting game-changing, local solutions that are scalable and commercially viable on the global stage,”
A session in Cape Town on 27 August will focus on IoT solutions for the industrial,
manufacturing, retail and insurance industries. Another session in Pretoria on 10 September will focus on creating smart cities through IoT.
Submissions for both competitions close 25 September, paving the way for the shortlisting
process. Each competition has a separate judging panel of leading tech experts.
During the second round, each of the finalists will be invited to MTN in Johannesburg or via
Skype if based outside of Johannesburg to pitch their solution to the judges. Contestants will be given 10 minutes to pitch, followed by a Q&A session. The judging process will be audited by global auditing firm, PwC.
To enter, visit https://www.appoftheyear.co.za/ and https://www.iotconference.co.za/ respectively.
