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Apps World Africa 2011 in Cape Town
Posted by Dennis Burford in Android, BlackBerry, iOS, J2ME, News, Nokia, Phone 7
Next week sees a major event on the calendar for mobile app developers. Appsworld Africa takes place at the Cape Town International Convention Center (CTICC) on 1-2 June 2011. These two days will be packed with workshops from industry leaders like Google, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Nokia. Also on the agenda are several talks about monetizing your apps — an obvious, but key part of the equation routinely overlooked by many a developer.
The conference organizers have done a great job in attracting the big boys in our industry. There are several free-to-attend workshops as part of the ‘developer zone’. The first day will see Droidworld presenting an introduction to Android development. Nokia have sponsored a workshop later in the day which includes several influential speakers. Also on day 1 is a presentation by Robert Virkus, CEO of Enough Software and creator of J2ME Polish.
On Day 2, BlackBerry is putting on a free developer masterclass, hosted by Michael Weitzel, the senior application development consultant for RIM South Africa. Immediately thereafter, Microsoft present a workshop on Windows Phone 7 development.
There is also a paid-for stream of workshops over the two days which cover mostly business topics. At £295, it might be a little pricey for startups, but there will be some good stuff so it may be worth while.
Conferences like these serve as a much needed spur for the local mobile dev community, which is growing at a healthy rate. With mobile penetration in South Africa particularly high, we have every reason to believe that our country can be a leader in this field, within Africa and globally. Others have recognized this, which is why we are seeing more and more investment and interest from the world.
Running alongside the Appsworld conference will be the Social Media World Forum. These two fields — mobile apps and social media — are intimately intertwined. Those working in either field can ill afford to ignore the other. Users expect social media to be woven into almost every app at some level, and the ideal platform for social media are those devices we carry with us wherever we are. For these reasons, don’t neglect to have a look at the SMWF agenda too.
