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1%EVENT: The results!

Posted by  on 30 September 2011, 5:01 pm

1%EVENT Amsterdam 2011_-12

The end of the day has already come… So it’s time for the presentation of the results!

The labs in Cape Town, Nairobi, Buea, Ramallah, Cairo, Kampala and London have worked a full day on questions from different organizations in The Netherlands, and people in Amsterdam have worked on questions the labs have asked to them, and vice versa.. Understand? ;-)

An example of a question: The lab in Cairo is involved in a independent public initiative to write the new Egyptian constitution. They asked: How to make this a ‘real’ public thing, and not just for the (online) elite? The solution from the Dutch team: ‘KISS’: Keep It Short and Simple! Link it to popular things like: the national football team! Go to a football match and ask people there what they want for their children. Gather these answers and use them to co-write the constitution. A big tasks… But hey!

Lastly there was the announcement of the Accenture Skills to Succeed Award of €3000: Pepper Ladies in Liberia!

Unfortunately the day has ended already! See you next year!?

And of course the event ends with THE song from Black Eyed Peas! I gotta feeling that tonight is going to be a good night!

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Vote for the most innovative 1%PROJECT!

Posted by  on 30 September 2011, 2:39 pm

Are you sitting behind your screen somewhere in the world while following the 1%EVENT today? Now it’s time for action! Three most innovative 1%PROJECTS have been nominated for the Accenture Skills to Succeed Award 2011.

This award is founded by 1%CLUB-partner Accenture. The Skills to Succeed initiative educates people around the world, building skills that enable them to participate in and contribute to the economy.

The three projects are:

Pepper ladies – Liberia
Organic fortification of staple foods – Kenya
Youth Production & Skills Training in Masaka – Uganda

You can vote for your favorite project sending a twitter message with @onepercentvote #projectLiberia, @onepercentvote #projectKenya or @onepercentvote #projectUganda. The winner will receive a price of €3.000,- for their project!!

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Inspiration stage: Ben White – VC4Africa

Posted by  on 30 September 2011, 12:59 pm


What prevents more entrepreneurship on the African continent?

The third speaker at the inspiration stage at the 1%EVENT was Ben White from VC4Africa. He told us that in Africa there are more small entrepreneurs than anywhere in the world. But they are encountering many challenges. Ben asked himself: “What can we do to realize their ideas?”

Everywhere in the world young people with ideas face many problems to realize them, but in Africa these problems are are even bigger; lack of infrastructure, network, funding, coaching amongst others. “By sharing ideas and experiences these challenges can be overcome. People need to connect and help each-other!”, Ben said.

One of the places where people are sharing ideas are IT-Labs all over the continent. These co-working spaces are popping up all over Africa: In Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa and even Madagascar. They are organized as Afrilabs, a network organization that seeks to build on this common vision and further promote the growth and development of the African technology sector.

When an entrepreneur comes up with a business plan, he or she realizes this is just the start. The main things they need are not just funding, but also mentoring and training, Ben explained. That is why he, together with Bill Zimmerman, started an online community called ‘Venture Capital for Africa’ on social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Last year they launched the platform www.vc4africa.biz where entrepreneurs can publish the basics of the business idea online. Currently there are 160 business ideas online from 25 African countries. The idea is to connect the entrepreneurs to people who can advise them and of course.. finance their ideas!

Visit the website of VC4Africa.

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Inspiration stage: Mike Lee – Appsterdam

Posted by  on 30 September 2011, 12:14 pm

If you want to make movies, go to Hollywood.
If you want to make musicals, go to Broadway.
If you want to make apps, go to Appsterdam.

That is basically the message Mike Lee from Appsterdam is sharing to everyone who wants to hear it. At the inspirational stage he explained why he left Silicon Valley and moved to Amsterdam. Mike said that more of his former co-workers have to realize that America is on ‘fire’, in the negative sense of the word. He explained that he found another form of capitalism in The Netherlands; one of cooperation and sharing instead of ‘throwing lawyers at each-other’.

Mike would like to see many American developers to move to Amsterdam for a work-holiday or for a year. “Even if nobody moved here, just having everyone in our industry come to one place for part of their year adds up to a net community strong enough to attract people, launch new ideas, and fuel sustainable growth,” he says. Read his blog-post where is explaining his decision to make the move to Amsterdam.

Someone on the crowd asked Mike which ‘app’ he is most proud of. He answered that he mostly mentions the iPhone game ‘Tap Tap Revenge’ which is downloaded over 50 million times. But the most proud he is of the Obama app, for the presidential elections of 2008. “Everyone thought McCain was old-fashioned and Obama was cool and happening.” Someone in the crowd commented: “Our politicians can use an app as well!”

Visit the website of Appsterdam for more info.

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The 1%EVENT has started!

Posted by  on 30 September 2011, 10:24 am


Picture: @olgalouise

A little later than planned, but: the 1%EVENT 2011 has kicked off! Anna and Bart have welcomed the crowd and they have news: they wrote a book! Unfortunately we have to wait for more info about the book… All we know they wanted to create something for the ‘cheetah generation’. [Update: Read more about the book)

Hanno van der Steen is the host today and via live-streams the main room in Pakhuis De Zwijger is connected to ‘labs’ all over the continent: Cape Town, Nairobi, Kampala, Cairo, Buea, Ramallah and London! Jaap is in charge of this challenging technical operation, thumbs up!

Let’s run with the cheetahs today and make it work!

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