NESCAFE brainstorms with Influential African Bloggers – #StartCon14

NESCAFE has proven that it is a brand with an increased interest in the digital space and by extension the youths especially in a continent like Africa where the youths make up the largest percentage of the population. The brand has taken the bold but strategic step of inviting selected African bloggers to Accra, Ghana for a 3 day conference tagged “The Start Conference 2014” with the theme “the role of the youth in reshaping the new Africa.”

Below are the bloggers that attended the conference:

1. Yomi Adegboye, Nigeria, Mobility.ng
2. Ameyaw Debrah, Ghana, AmeyawDebrah.com
3. Yehni Djidji, Ivory Coast, 225nouvelles.com
4. Naa Oyoo Quartey, Ghana, naaoyooquartey.com
5. Basile Niane, Senegal, socialnetlink.org
6. CFA, Nigeria, ICTwithCFA.com
7. Edith Brou, Ivory Coast, lactuwebdedith.com
8. Ato Ulzen-Appiah, Ghana, mightyafrican.blogspot.com
9. Cyriac Gbogou-Cyryky, Ivory Coact, cyriacgbogou.ci
10. Muazu Adamu, Nigeria, Winner of the NESCAFE Get Started Africa 2014 competition (received a price of $20,000)

The guest speaker at the conference was Fred Swaniker, a Ghanaian serial entrepreneur and leadership development expert who founded the African Leadership Academy, South Africa.

The event was truly remarkable as it was a indeed a time of brainstorming for what we believe to be the new Africa – we jointly came up with a manifesto for Africa which we are going to promote massively to our various audiences. We also came up with some action plans that will ensure that all our efforts during the conference is not thrown into the bin for whatever reason – so you’d see more from our coordinated efforts in the days to come.

Invited bloggers received the latest Samsung Galaxy Pro 12.2 inch Tab with their names engraved on them – an honour indeed!

The three day event started on the 12th and ended on the 14th of December, 2014 with a video shoot where the selected bloggers where requested to encourage and motivate African youths.

See some photos of the conference

Kudos to the NESCAFE Central & West African marketing team lead by Kayode Oladapo and Helga Okounou for pulling this one off somehow. Let me quote my exact words to them;

“….. let me thank you guys specially for pulling #StartCon14 off, it would have taken a lot of explanation and assurances to get an approval for an event like this. You guys by this move have indeed boosted the morale of the invited bloggers to first be an advocate for your brand and secondly to appreciate that blogging is indeed a profession that has come to stay and to prove that bloggers are indeed influencers.”

Also, a big thank you to the Now Available Africa team comprising of Prince, Irene, Adunni, Tina, Anna etc. You guys were simply awesome.

Nubi Kay you performed some miracle with this – grateful man!

Finally, these guys have taken the first visible steps in supporting bloggers with literally no strings attached neither were any outrageous requests made. Time will intend show the benefit of this smart move to the growth of the NESCAFE brand or otherwise, #startcon14 and it sure did start and end #withanescafe