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Yoadan Tilahun
CEO of Flawless EventsYoadan Tilahun is the founder & CEO of Flawless Events. Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Flawless Events organizes summits, corporate events and conferences throughout the African continent. Yoadan founded Flawless while working in Washington DC. She re-located the company to Ethiopia in 2008 in recognition of the opportunities on the African continent. Her team has since hosted events in Ethiopia, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Gabon, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe,
South Africa and Mauritius.
Yoadan is an enthusiastic advocate for professionalizing the MICE industry in East Africa. In 2015, Flawless won the “Event Planner Africa” award at Meetings Magazine’s Women in MICE celebration. Yoadan serves as the president of the newly-established Ethiopian Events & Exhibition Organizers Association. Most recently, UNDP awarded her “Seasoned Entrepreneur of the Year 2018” award and MeetingsNet had Yoadan a 2017 Changemaker for her trailblazing role in Ethiopia’s events industry. She has also been featured on Forbes Afrique and on How We Made It in Africa.
Yoadan leads Flawless Events with a keen eye for design and detail and a passion for flawless delivery. She holds a MBA in International Business and is fluent in Amharic, English and French. Along with her husband, they are raising their three growing boys!
Kezy Mukiri
CEO & Founder of Zuri EventsKezy is an award winning entrepreneur, lawyer and sustainability consultant with particular interest in inclusive trade for sustainable development. She is the founder of Zuri Events. The company has 13 years’ experience in developing sustainability plans for MICE events, strategic consulting for organisations within the MICE industry and concept design for impact-driven live and hybrid events.
Zuri Events has developed event concepts for global and regional events such as the Global MICE Summit, the Africa MICE Awards, and the Africa Tourism Technologies Forum. Zuri Events is a 2019 winner of the Global Hospitality Award as well as a nominee for the 2020 World MICE Awards. E-Mail: kezy@zurievents.com
Zuhura Ogada-Odhiambo
Chairlady at Event Managers Association of KenyaZuhura Ogada-Odhiambo is a leading expert in Business Management, Organization Development, a Communication and Media Expert and has got over 15 years experience in Marketing. For the past two decades she has had extensive experience in the field of communication, marketing strategy, events and brand management. She has been instrumental in exploring the convergence between marketing strategies and the use of data for organizational transformation. Her desire is to see businesses develop winning strategies, generate multiple income streams and nurture strong brands. Over the years she has enabled companies to turnaround in East Africa through enhanced consumer experience and increase of revenue for sustainability.
She is a co-founder and Director of Cocoa by Design an events- management firm, She is also the Founder and current CEO of New Revenue Solutions Africa a prolific revenue generating company which enables organizations accelerate profitable revenue through the use of data, strategy and commercial development. Her experience in media sector spans over 10 years at the Nation Media Group and Capital Group and CNBC as a Commercial Director. Initiated partnerships and was involved in having the first Indian Film Festival Kenya from the Indian Film Festival Worldwide being the first in Africa in August 2019 and many other Conferences, Events and Concerts and have been also involved other Women Forums in Kenya.
Her leadership skills have made her serve in several Boards namely; Chairperson of Events Managers Association of Kenya (EMAK) Board, East Africa lead of 30% Club E.A that advocates for gender diversity inboards, and has also served on the GorMahia Sacco which empowers members socio- economically.
Harry Hare
Publisher & Chairman at CIO East AfricaI am a serial Entrepreneur with a passion for technology. ICT Consultant and e-Government Strategist at heart, I have worked with East African Governments in crafting e-Government implementation strategies. This work includes setting up the East African eGovernment Working Group and the development of the East African eGovernment Framework that was ratified by the East African Council of Ministers.
I have deep knowledge and understanding of the East African ICT landscape having followed it for the last three decades. I am a regular ICT commentator on ICT issues in the region and consulted widely by Government Agencies, International Organisations and the Private Sector on strategic ICT issues.
I write regularly and I am a founder and publisher of CIO East Africa, an ICT information platform that has a monthly print publication (CIO East Africa), an online ICT portal (www.cio.co.ke) and a series of events including the CIO Executive Breakfast Series, the CIO Golf Series and the CIO 100 Awards and Symposium.
I am also a founder and Director of African eDevelopment Resource Centre. Probably one of the best corporate IT and Telecoms training firms in Africa. We have trained Engineers from over 27 African Countries in the last 8 years.
Founded DEMO Africa 2012 to discover innovative startups from Africa and presenting them to the world. DEMO Africa has since launched 150 startups who've raised over US$65 million. I am also a partner at Akili, DEMO Ventures and InsightWells Research.
Glenton De Kock
Chief Executive Officer at Southern African Association for the Conference IndustryGlenton had refined his public and private sector strategic management skills during his tenure as Managing Director of Tourism Buffalo City (covering East London, King Williams Town and Bhisho) where he oversaw the development and implementation of the destinations USAID Funded Tourism Master Plan, as Chief Executive Officer of Nelson Mandela Bay (Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch) he refocused the organisations operating model, and as Chief Executive Officer of the Eastern Cape Tourism Board, which is now The Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency (ECPTA) he drove the implementation of the provinces international partnerships program.
As an Associate Director at KPMG he led the Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism Unit for Africa and South Africa before moving onto Grant Thornton in a similar position. His position as Project Manager at the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber ensured that Business embraces its civil society role by driving a holistic approach which enables business within the Metro to work towards long-term sustainability, though projects such as the Nooitgedaght Low Level Water Scheme and the re-activation for the much needed Addo Road refurbishment.
Glenton’s business management experience cuts across various sectors, such as Tourism Hospitality, Petro-chemical, Mining and all spheres of government to name a few. He provides strategic input into his family footwear manufacturing business which employees 60 people and is run by his sister.
As active citizen, Glenton acts as an independent advisor to the Nelson Mandela Bay Consultative Christian Churches, The Nelson Mandela Bay Civil Society Coalition, and the Northern Areas Education Forum and occasionally when time permits mentors businesses within the ICT and Services Sector.
Glenton was recently appointed as Chief Executive Officer for the Southern African Association for the Conference Industry (SAACI).
In his spare time, he is the President of the Nelson Mandela University Football Club and is a budding golfer.
Eric Schmidt
CEO & Co-Founder of EventBankCEO of EventBank, a cloud-based event and membership management software platform is the leading SaaS platform in emerging and developing markets and North America.
As CEO of EventBank, Eric L. Schmidt is focused on delivering cloud solutions that transform the way professional communities enable and enrich relationships. EventBank has office in 10 countries and clients in over 50. Eric’s focus is to continue building the best product for EventBank’s clients and expanding the company’s presence in emerging and developing markets around the world. Over the last 18 years, Eric has founded and incubated several companies from the ground up; including China Entrepreneurs which was the top community organization for more than 50,000 entrepreneurs, hosting more more than 100 conferences annually.
Eric was an elected member of American Chamber of Commerce in China's Board of Governors for three years (2017, 2018 & 2019) and is recognized as an authority on digital transformation and business in Asia. He has been featured in media such as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Baron’s, BBC, CCTV, China Daily, and numerous other outlets.
Eric once traced Marco Polo’s route from Beijing, China to Venice, Italy, 100 days by bicycle – he was appreciatively sponsored by Nike and Philips. He also previously lived in China (17 years) and Guatemala.