My First BIZFEST Experience
It was my first BIZFEST event! The first of its kind in Ghana as well as the first I would ever attend. It is also one of the events in which arrival time was 8 a.m. (GMT) (Ghana Man’s Time — you know what I mean). I was also very excited to be attending this event with my team as a way to have a form of team bonding as we wrap up with our first capstone project at MEST.
Organized by the Google Business Group (GBG) in conjunction with Google’s Women Will, the GBG BIZFEST event is about using Google tools to improve business activities and to expand and grow businesses.
After the opening address, the first speaker for the day was Bizmark, a data engineer who took the session on Data Science for Business: How to use data science and machine learning to drive businesses.
One of the things he said that struck me was that “data science is about you innovating”. At the end of his talk, he recommended Jupyter notebook as an easy-to-use tool for businesses that would like to use data science to improve their businesses. Interested businesses could also download Anaconda, (an open-source software) that comes automatically with Jupyter notebook but basic knowledge of Python or R is needed to work with Jupyter notebook.
After the first talk, there was a light breakfast. On my way to get breakfast, I stumbled on something very captivating — a book stand. It was a sight to behold because I love books. One interesting book stood out from the pack of books on the stand. The title of this book is one you cannot forget. The book is “ When breath becomes air”. I couldn't help but take pictures.
The next talk was given by a man called George from RealFin. This talk was titled, “Being Local but thinking Global”. George spoke from a standpoint of the experiences he has gathered over the years and I found it very fascinating. At the end of his talk, the audience got to ask him a few questions. In his answers, I picked out some points that I thought were very crucial.
In choosing partnerships, he looks out for personal vibes, drive, and the interest of potential partners. Sometimes, it is those that have developed solutions or worked on ideas previously that he looks out for. It shows they can be up to the task. According to him, to start a business in a new territory, one needs to know the market.
The next talk was on “Talent and Retention Within The Organization”. The speaker mentioned something about the Leadership shadow (you can make more research on it with just a google search). The leadership shadow highlights how a leader can cast a shadow on employees through utterances and demeanor.
You only learn when you get to the end of your ability — Anonymous
The speaker also mentioned that an HR person is 3 persons in one — a pastor, an architect, and a policeman. Knowing when and how to balance being these three persons is critical to the success of HR professionals and employees.
Communication, leadership from the leader, workplace climate, and company’s mission have to be relatable. People need to be able to relate to them to create the right environment in the workplace.
The next session was on ChatBots for business which was taken by Ghana’s Microsoft Student Partner, Dawood Iddris. He explained how businesses could employ ChatBots to their benefits and he wrote an article titled, Create a ChatBot With Microsoft Azure Technology. You can follow the steps in the article to build your own chatbot. According to him, Microsoft has got a lot of developers working on their technology and for that reason, you don’t have to worry about security or someone hacking into your chatbot.
Thereafter, there was a panel on “The Design Sprint from a Fashion Angle”. The panel session featured a graphics designer, a UI/UX Designer and a fashion designer who loves creating beautiful experiences with art.
There was also a panel session that had two digital marketers on it and they shared new trends in the digital marketing space. One of the panel members markets and sells her fashion products on Instagram and it was nice to see her talk about the approach she takes in doing this.
Lunch was beautiful and I ended the event by taking beautiful pictures. I have always had a flair for photography and since I couldn’t volunteer to be the event photographer, I thought it was good to explore with my phone camera.
To get more updates on moments that were not captured in my experience, please follow GBG Accra on Twitter @AccraGbg, and on Instagram and Facebook @gbgAccra
If you have ever attended a BIZFEST event, you can also share your experience in the comment section.
