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Innovation hub launched for SA, Africa problems

Cape Town - A multi-use innovation hub, designed to showcase solutions to South African and African problems, was launched at the V&A Waterfront earlier this week.

The innovation hub has a strong technology and entrepreneurial focus, adding to Cape Town’s strategy to be Africa's digital capital.

Its location at the V&A Waterfront’s Workshop17 platform will provide small entities with the best opportunities, said its CEO David Green.

“Workshop17 was a seed of an idea six years ago when we recognised that we could use our resources to foster small business through an innovation hub,” he said.

“Today, the result is a working space with a clear vision that has a very different kind of potential that extends far beyond the walls of Workshop17.

“We look forward to seeing cutting-edge ideas, plans, developments and solutions that we are certain will come out of this revitalised space.

“Workshop17 has been designed to facilitate a community of talented, passionate and diverse people learning and working together to create new solutions to big and small problems, and will allow interaction between the public, entrepreneurs, innovators and designers as well as between disciplines, sectors and cultures in its endeavours,” Green said.


Speaking at the launch of the innovation hub are (left to right) Marlon Parker, Julius Akinyemi and Elizabeth Gould. (Photo: Rusana Philander)

Marlon Parker, the co-founder of RLabs in Athlone, said he was impressed with Workshop17.

“I believe in inclusivity and, growing up on the Cape Flats, the Waterfront was a place I aspired to,” he said. “I would like to see Workshop17 moving beyond the physical space and developing a culture that can initiate.”

Codex CEO Elizabeth Gould said Workshop17 is both inspirational and aspirational for their coders “who are just kicking off their careers in tech”.

“Every day, they have the opportunity to interact with all the other talented innovators who work there and pass through, and participate in events and programmes of a world class tech hub.

“We could not be better situated to grow Africa’s digital leaders of tomorrow,” she said.

“Dreamers are doers,” said Julius Akinyemi, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “This can be a new space of innovation in all of Africa.”

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