Silicon Cape Reflections

In the wake of last week’s launch of the Silicon Cape Initiative concept, I’ve been trying to find a few minutes just to clear my head and consolidate my thoughts. It has been quite a ride in a very short space of time. We didn’t quite see it coming at the outset, and the weeks building up to the big day proved to be long, exhilirating and exhausting.

I think we can safely say that the event was a great success. Attendees were led down both an uplifting and sobering journey by spellbinding speakers such as Johann Rupert, Dr. Mamphela Ramphele and Helen Zille, as we explored the hows, whys and why nots of the idea that the Cape and South Africa could foster it’s own vibrant ecosystem of tech entrepreneurs, geeks, startups, angel and venture capital investors, spawning great intellectual property companies on a global stage that generate wealth and a future for our country. I think that both the exciting potential and the troubling obstacles received balanced airtime during the proceedings, and it seemed to me that everyone left at the end motivated and enthused. Amazingly, the #SiliconCape tag on Twitter even trended second in the world for a while!

When Vinny and I first realised that we shared a dream and decided that we wanted to promote this concept of the Silicon Cape, we had no idea it would end-up being so big and that it would receive such overwhelming support in such a short space of time. I’ve seen some cynics claim that the whole thing was done as a marketing exercise. Well, it was in part — in terms of marketing our country to the rest of the world. But the truth is, it was originally going to be quite small at the beginning.

Initially we thought we’d have a quiet seated breakfast event with about 80 carefully chosen people that we would invite to present the idea to, and incite discussion and raise awareness of the potential of what we felt was a very underexposed emerging sector. We each agreed to pitch in some funds to make it happen. We figured that over time, perhaps even years, it would eventually catch on and steadily gain traction and support organically.

That all changed when four weeks prior to the planned launch, word got out on Twitter that we had a few seats spare at a small event of ours called Silicon Cape, and it went completely viral. We were amazed at the interest, so we quickly decided to accelerate our plans and launched the social website http://www.siliconcape.com immediately in order to try and give the enthusiasm a home. Clearly, as we had suspected, there was already a community out there which was looking for some shape, form or identity, and this provided a concentration point to rally around. Amazing networking, discussions and comments of support started happening almost immediately on the website.

With hundreds of members signing up within days, and quickly pushing past the 1,000 members mark, we knew that our launch could no longer remain as we had planned. We decided that as this was always intended to be a community movement, we had to embrace everyone’s support and interest, and try and make sure that anyone who wanted to could come. Meetings were hastily arranged at our marketing company and event organiser, Traffic Integrated Marketing, to see if we could ramp up the event in time to cope with the demand. There was so much to do in a very short space of time, from branding, design and materials through to logistics and printing. Our account manager, Andrew Robertson, bravely took on the task.

At 4Di Capital, we quickly agreed that we shouldn’t shut the door on anyone if at all possible, and decided that we had to commit immediately to underwrite the spiraling costs for the rapidly growing scale of the launch, and try and find more sponsors later. There was never a question of charging at the door, this had to be a free and open event, and it had to be top-class. It went from 80 to 120, to 350, and finally over 500 heads as things progressed up to the day! We started pulling people in from wherever we could find them to help… people from our teams at some of our other companies, volunteers from the community, even my own brother as official photographer.

With the profile and attention on Silicon Cape escalating, and with mere weeks to go, it became clear that we would need to make sure that we used this opportunity as best as possible, and positioned it carefully. We had to make sure that as many different sectors and stakeholders were going to be present and were in support of the idea as we could. We also had to find relevant people who were available from across the spectrum to sit on the discussion panel, and sponsors and speakers who would represent a fair cross-section of industries and views. My business partner and the Chairman of the Silicon Cape Interim Steering Committee, Erik, took up the baton, together with our friend Laurie Olivier, and got on their phones.

Thanks to their tireless efforts, we had a fantastically broad spectrum of attendees, with representatives from schools and universities, NGOs such as Wesgro and the Cape Chamber of Commerce, local big business such as Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, Old Mutual and Media24, the City of Cape Town, the Province, National Parliament, the venture investment community, and of course, the digital community. There were even quite a few people from Joburg! Our ever-cheerful communications and media manager, Lucy Kenny, also managed to organise a wide media delegation of over 40 people, as well as live bloggers and tweeters to provide coverage for everyone not able to attend on the day. We got some fantastic sponsors, and free wireless Internet with power plugs everywhere amongst the seats for laptop users, and free video coverage of the whole day. Our heartfelt thanks to all those who contributed.

Much to our amazement, we were also able to bring on board some luminary speakers as well at this late hour, who delivered eloquent and poignant addresses, and lent great gravitas to the proceedings. Johann Rupert only agreed to come and speak when I went to see him a mere 2 days before the event. The agenda and programme for the launch was changing and evolving by the day, despite the best efforts of our tireless but stressed event manager and organiser, Seton Vermaak, to get it locked down. Seton pulled off a small miracle in turning his original brief of a small, casual closed event, into a world-class open conference for over 500 people.

Despite the mad rush and many long nights to make this happen on an insane schedule, the teams of people behind this were motivated and driven because they believed in the concept of Silicon Cape with the same passion as Vinny and myself. It immediately became so much bigger than just us and we were happy to hand it over to the community, as we got swept up in the energy of it. In the true spirit of a community movement, it was so many people’s individual contributions that served to make it all happen. Vinny and I just set the ball rolling, but it’s those people who deserve the credit and a huge thank you from us all for the tireless effort and volunteering of time that went into making it happen.

Of course, it now falls to all of us, the community, to be a part of carrying forward the momentum. It’s now a question of asking of yourself, not anybody else, what can I do to be a part of it? We’ve kicked it off and achieved the first goal we set for ourselves, which was to raise awareness of the concept, and to foster a community and start the dialogue. Perhaps some of the press coverage we received will start to attract the interest of the world out there.

As we know though, out of the launch came a number of obstacles and challenges that need to be addressed, if we really want our dream to come true in a big way. I was enthused to see the political and politically-connected attendees furiously writing notes throughout the day. We must however also be realistic about our expectations. I’m mindful that a whole lot of passion can quickly turn into cynicism as well. As we said at the event, this is a 5, 10, or 20 year dream. But I think we all agree that it is possible!

This week, I was very encouraged to hear from Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, that she had already seen the Minister of Science and Technology, and was starting to prepare a position paper for presentation to various ministries and the Reserve Bank on the opportunities and obstacles. It seems she was inspired by what she learned on the day and has not taken her commitment of action given during her speech lightly. Premier Helen Zille has told us that she has been to see the minister as well, who is very supportive of the concept and agrees that politically, this needs a bi-partisan approach. It seems our voices really were heard on the day. Perhaps these two women will be the instigators of change around the national regulatory issues identified on the day?

Jo Neser, head of Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr Cape Town, has also come out in support after he attended the launch, saying that his practice is willing to offer special rates and easier payment terms for Silicon Cape startups’ legal work and IP advice.

For our part, as the interim steering committee and custodians of the concept, we are now trying to take a break, catch our breath, and catch up on our real jobs. At the same time we are overseeing the creation of a community nominated and driven steering committee, which will be charged with creating the Silicon Cape Foundation, to carry the vision and work of the Silicon Cape Initiative forward, and own the website, brand and other elements.

Plenty of nominations have been received, and many have volunteered their time. Once established, this non-profit entity will create it’s own objectives and goals, and hopefully act as representative of the community and the private sector in working towards realising the Silicon Cape dream, particularly when it comes to engaging with government. Whether I am invited to remain involved or not remains to be seen (and whether I can find 48 hours in every day!), but whatever happens we continue our commitment with action as we attempt to invest in local startups here at 4Di Capital.