m:lab East Africa today opened sales of tickets for Pivot East 2014 event which will be held on 24th and 25th of June. Location for the event is Panari Hotel on Mombasa Road, Nairobi. The event organizers for Pivot East have limited the tickets to a maximum of 250 attendees who will be drawn from a rich audience who will include investors, industry players, government and development partners.
Price for the tickets is USD 200 and sales which are fully online are now open. Organizers have not mentioned whether there will be cash accepted but as front runners in tech adoption it’s only fair to process payments in the most convenient method, via a payment gateway, PesaPal that allows for both mobile money and debit or credit cards.
Pivot East event will as is expected have a 7 minute pitch from each of the 25 startups which will be followed by judges questions from each of the startups. There will be short fireside chats after several pitches where selected panelists will discuss key issues in the East African Startup Scene.
Themes for the scheduled fireside chats are ;
- Synergies between developer communities and Corporates in Mobile technology – featuring players in mobile phone and chipset manufacturers, operating system vendors and mobile network operators
- The relationship between innovation, entrepreneurship and the economy – featuring players from development partner agencies, foundations, government, and banks.
- Comparing the startup ecosystem in East Africa to other successful ecosystems – Featuring investors and entrepreneurs from Berlin, London, Silicon Valley, Nairobi and Tel aviv (to be confirmed)
- The size and quality of the deal pipeline for Tech investments in East Africa. Featuring investors and accelerator program representatives from East Africa
One startup per category gets to win funding from m:lab East Africa and other syndicating investors while all the startups have the chance to enter into direct investment conversations with investors at the event. This is during the several networking breaks during the two day event. Startups will also get to showcase their products at the Demo Pit. Winners will be announced on the afternoon of the second day as opposed to the usual night of the last day.
