Silicon Hills Kampala with Fenix International.

This afternoon, we had the privilege of meeting with the crew at Fenix Intl. the event was called Silicon Hills Kampala. The title was ideal because for a long time we have been trying to find a suitable name for the gathering of technology workers that are concentrated and concentrating in the area. In New York they call it Silicon Alley, all emerging from the Californian Silicon Valley. There have been others building on this almost supernatural collection of expertise and business and cash around geographical regions. Michael Porter from the Harvard Business Review calls them Innovation Clusters.

 

The purpose of this gathering was to converge around technology to share ideas as well as celebrate the successes that Fenix Intl. has had in the last few years.

We had some great insights regarding the nature of Fenix Intl. it's structure and growth into last few years from their product development manager Luke Hodgkinson. Interesting ideas around development and change especially how the company moved and shifted gears from clients that were paying in installments for systems on one hand to the time when they 'moved on' and had to be replaced or introduced to other products. Also of note at least from the software leads was the idea that at some point the group transitioned from applications that were finance centered to applications that were device centered. 

Software developers that want to know what is in the hood of this company can play around with Django, Python and Bootstrap.

The keynote was delivered by TMS Ruge. He is co-founder of one of Uganda's leading co-working spaces -Hive Colab. He is also the brains behind Remit Uganda. A communicator, innovator and University of North Texas Graduate. They will be running SWARM events at Hive Colab in December. His task was to give us a covering and present a bird's eye view of the sector and it's challenges from funding to growth and scaling. The historic perspective reading the spaces as they stood and the people of note in the innovation circle were all useful ideas that were presented as was the call to think and create with Uganda in mind and the world as a market.

The panel moderated by the Chief Technical Officer for Fenix Intl. (Jit Bhattqcharya) was made up of some heavy hitters including Solomon King of fundi bots. Whose main interest was in the creation of more integrated and useful teaching methods that woulda increase the relevance of that which is taught in the classroom. He also expressed delight the ability of the Internet to democratize knowledge acquisition.

The young Musimire Mary helped shed some light on the presence of young women in technology and the importance of passion in the pursuit of personal dreams.

Timothy Musoke of Laboremus expressed the value of a good team and the good catch (employee) and the importance of getting the right connections. He also reminded us about the value of business and the heart of the entrepreneur who never gives up on matter what happens. He also helped shed some light on the funding opportunities that often exist with international partners.

Alastrair Sussock the brains behind Safeboda took us briefly through the process where good software has to match the needs of users and the place that governments can take in supporting business Innovation ventures.

The responses to the session were good as was the feedback and questions. Some of these ideas were expressed in the panel and the aspirations that emerged from their conversations. Probably most notable in the talk was a question regarding the 'role of the hussle' in business. This was asked in a place where circumstance forces many young people to take on a 'variety of Hussles' bringing about an inability to focus. The most important response from the Moderator was the idea that a good ecosystem must ensure that the developers focus on nothing else but development. This is probably the role of the venture capitalists or the seed funders who are tasked with financing the project thereby releasing the technical mind to do the necessary work.

A talk from the Uganda Investment Authority

We also had a brief address from the investment authority of Uganda from one of the Board Members-Fred 

Opolot. He encouraged attendees to visit the offices and gave us updates about the industrial parks whose design is meant to help give innovators some spaces of their own. In addition to this there is a purse of funds that will accompany this process. This is a plus because it is the direct involvement of government in the technology/innovation ecosystem whose life force can often be funning from government.

A probable reason for having the event.

This is the perfect event to use in the application of a lesson that should be fresh in the minds of those who have been engaging actively in discussions around the subject of marketing traction. What Fenix Intl. has done is effectively layout a marketing strategy that caters for a whole range of ideas and subjects. Firstly, they were able to celebrate their success. This is an internal thing. It also has external effects because it also draws in those who are in partnership. The second has to do with competencies. This is where Fenix gathers minds that are probably working in the same areas and establishes itself as a leader in the field. The third has to do with its ability to draw in talent. As a result of some of these interaction potential employees are able to interact with staff making the process of recruitment simpler.

The urgency

If there is any major takeaway from the event from this side of the table it is the need to make sure that passion is accompanied by profit and that our young people are not forced to sacrifice their skills on an exhausting altar of popularity in an age when they too have needs to meet. In short we need to make sure we can finance the best minds. If we do not we will lose them to foreign countries.