This was the very first cohort of the Google Developers Launchpad on the African continent, launched in Lagos, Nigeria.

The program consisted of 12 startups from six states, with 35 founders and over 4.5-million users affected. These groups received $120,000 (~R1.58-million) in equity-free financing from Google and increased 7-million (~R92.3-million) in the capital. There were 40 mentors dedicated to seeing that all those startups received the support required to make it through the “large touchpoints”, or boot camps, which took place over three weeks.
Altogether the startups — that represented Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda — have generated 132 jobs spanning four businesses: 41 per cent fund, 25 percentage press, 17 per cent agri-tech and 17 per cent wellbeing.

1. SwiftVEE, founded by Andrew Meyer, Russel Luck and Alexander Molde — South Africa
SwiftVEE is an independent technology platform for the livestock industry, motivated by South Africa’s crippling droughts, which affect livestock mortality.
– Providing technological power to a stagnant livestock industry, allowing value proposition and competitive gains within the industry.
– Connecting a number of stakeholders within the agri value chain on a single stage.
SwiftVEE’s most important intent is to mitigate the inefficiencies within the livestock industry that lead to cows dying because of drought. They intend to align themselves so the program can be expanded beyond the boundaries of South Africa, continuing to link stakeholders and supply services through their own platform.

2. Teheca, founded by Ruyonga Daniel and Namugambe Asha — Ugand
This is a health-tech firm using cellular technology to ensure a better experience for mothers during pregnancy, delivery and postnatally.
– Individually tailored care plan for ladies.
– Linking healthcare professionals and caregivers to moms, therefore empowering women to make informed decisions.
– Supplying developing-care packs and tool kits for moms — as a number of the girls who fall pregnant are unemployed, so this gives them something, to begin with.
The business ensures that there’s a constant mode of communication between the health practitioner and the mother at all times, by providing both offline and online channels — to help overcome the high mortality rates among new mothers in sub-Saharan Africa.

5. ThriveAgric, founded by Uka Eje and Ayo Arikawe — Nigeria
ThriveAgric joins farmers through crowdfunding initiatives.
– Focuses on optimizing return for farmers through educated data.
– Connecting smallholder farmers into a marketplace that wants a service supplied.
– knowledge or information to “grow right”.
ThriveAgric discovered farmers had many challenges that often got in the method of ensuring they’re able to perform within their marketplace and contribute on a regular basis to the market. The principal problem for farmers was access to finance, which banned farmers from scaling up their farms successfully.
It’s apparent that Africa is ready to begin being a key player in the digital revolution, with advanced solutions handling some of the significant socioeconomic issues facing our continent.

The rise in the ageing population has continued to challenge the technology industry to provide revolutionary solutions. The advancement in technology is improving the lives of the elderly and their caregivers, increasing safety and comfort.

Seniors are posed to health and safety risks by many basic household activities. To keep the aged safe from harm, family caregivers and nursing homes should consider buying senior-friendly devices to aid with injury prevention.

The lists provided below are some technological innovation to help seniors live their lives more independently and with fewer risks
1. Cleaning Floors
Robotic vacuum cleaners can clean up the seniors’ floors, eradicating the risk of falls as well as injuries from vacuuming. Likewise, robotic floor washers will keep uncovered floors in bathroom and kitchen thoroughly clean. The great thing about robotic vacuum cleaners is that the homeowner can simply set and forget about the device and refrain from straining their body through the use of traditional vacuum cleaners.

2. Yard-work and Gardening

Robotic lawnmowers can easily navigate around the yard’s borders and mow it to a set level. Moreover, gutter clogs can also be prevented by micro-mesh leaf guards so seniors don’t have to manually clean their gutters. These technological innovations allow senior residents to sit back and take care of their health rather than risking an injury to complete household tasks.

3. The Kitchen

An internet-connected smart refrigerator identifies when any of its contents need restocking and automatically places the order for home delivery. The advancement in technology has made smart refrigerator available for seniors and doing everyday tasks for them. This technology allows seniors to be well-fed and also prevent unnecessary trips to the grocery store. Easily opened stoves, talking microwaves, glass cooktops and dishwashers are other kitchen conveniences that can enhance the lives of the elders. Kitchen safety is a priority for seniors since so many accidents can occur with all the equipment and appliances.

4. Mental Fitness

As far as physical fitness is important for seniors, mental fitness should not be jeopardised. The internet is a beneficial platform that helps the senior to socially engaged and mentally stimulated. Many of these platforms have video conferencing that allows long-distance interaction. This does not only foster the senior’s mental fitness, it also helps them maintain social connections and promotes emotional wellbeing

5. The Laundry

Various companies involved in manufacturing laundry machines are now making pedestals that can lower or raise the machines, making it comfortable and easier for seniors to do their laundry without bending. Seniors can also easily operate laundry machines with larger knobs and readouts

The magic carpet is another monitoring system that serves a similar purpose but makes use of pressure points sensor instead. The presence of people in a room can be detected by flat sensors placed underneath carpets.

6. The bedroom

Smart storage solutions and wardrobes allow seniors to access their clothing safely. Innovations such as foldable rails and customisable shelving have made it easier for a senior to be independent. High tech beds that are height and position adjustable has increased the comfort of seniors. Some beds even have a bed sensor to alert another individual of any potential falls, or the senior individual can press for emergency assistance.

Since the elders are vulnerable to health and safety risk, both technologies aim to create surveillance systems to put the minds of caregivers at ease as well as enhance the elder’s safety

In today savvy society, it’s quite understandable why the most effective products to help seniors and caregivers are innovative technologies that promise to make daily well-being easier and make health monitoring a breeze.

Here are our top digital marketing strategies for business coaches, both aspiring and new. After all, the web is a powerful tool for ongoing, endless lead-generation–and has to be included in your marketing mix.

But be aware, electronic marketing is a complicated game. If you go in unprepared, it can suck up weeks of your time and create little in the way of substantial earnings and direct flow and you would have been far better off using an AdWords agency to get you traffic.

Do not get caught up in “get rich online” schemes. Rather, follow these easy digital marketing hints that will assist you create business coaching leads online.

What You Want to Know to Be a Successful Digital Marketer

Concentrate on producing a constant stream of digital copywriting that is articles. They say content is king, and that is as true as ever. The creation of high-value, high-impact content must be the cornerstone of your electronic marketing efforts. You can achieve it through videos or podcasts–though if you are just getting started, your best option is to blog frequently. Blogging does wonders for your search engine results and offers you a steady flow of content you’ll be able to push to your followers through social networking and email marketing.

And here is a hint: being a constant blogger is much more important than being a successful blogger. Many coaches feel overwhelmed at the concept of cranking out a post daily. But that’s not required. Find out the frequency that is a fantastic pace for your audience, and your consistency will help your followers know what to expect from you. On top of that, you will attract a growing number of search engine traffic due to adding to your website a stable flow of high-value, relevant articles on subjects that business coaches think are important to post about. That the key to success is to perform the right things in small amounts over a long duration of time. That is as accurate for content creation as it is for anything else.

For help finding the perfect topics and keywords for you, look for a business coaching group on LinkedIn where you can mingle with the coaches in a community environment, and also get a hold of articles they have created so you are not starting from scratch.

Create gated content. Create at least one piece of content that people can get in exchange for their name and email address. This is known as “gated content.” Generally speaking, gated content is more useful, specific, or extensive than your complimentary offerings. It may be an ebook, report, or video training series. Use sales copywriting through blog posts, emails blasts, direct mail, local media / business card exchanges, and social websites to drive traffic into the squeeze page where contacts enter their information.

Subscribe to TimeTrade. That is an incredible (yet affordable!) online service which enables customers and prospects to schedule appointments with you–without needing a one-on-one conversation! You only list the times you are available in the online program and include the URL to your calendar from all your advertising material. TimeTrade syncs with your Google Calendar or Outlook automatically. As your prospects and customers have your content and decide that they want an appointment with you, they will literally reserve themselves in! I can tell you from personal experience how cool it is to open your email in the morning and see a couple of one-on-one business coaching opportunities awaiting you…and you did not have to lift a finger!

Leverage email marketing. Email marketing is an wonderful way to keep in contact with your leads and customers, so get an email marketing solution with auto-responder capabilities like MailChimp (super cheap, but limited feature set) or Infusionsoft (a little more expensive, but VERY feature-rich). Create an autoresponder email sequence (“drip marketing” email messages that go out based on a predetermined program) and register your prospects into the sequence as soon as they opt in for gated content. About once a month, send an email out of your most popular blog posts to your list. Run promotions via email and reminders to book a coaching session.

Get social. There are two ways to use social media: organic and paid using AdWords. Paid advertisements can be specifically targeted to your perfect customer. On Facebook, you can target by age, location, profession, and interests. On LinkedIn, you can aim by job title, company size, and industry. Use advertisements to drive prospects to your squeeze pages, where traffic opt-in for content that is gated and join your mailing list.

Use organic posts to keep the conversation with your present followers. Share interesting blog articles, videos, and infographics. It is fine to self-promote by connecting to your blog articles and squeeze pages, but make certain to curate high-value content from other sources also. Comment on others’ posts and respond to comments on your webpage.

These five digital marketing strategies for business coaches must form the cornerstone of your internet advertising efforts.

Technological improvements over the years have suggested that Midrand-based tower cranes and lifting solutions firm “SA French” has the capability to prepare an asset tracking system of GPS fleet tracking on its crane fleet, promising more efficient operations during construction tasks.

“With our laptop computers or cellular phones linked to the tracking system on the cranes, we can see cranes’ functional activity from the time they are set up for usage to its real working hours. This allows us to successfully prepare for when a crane will require upkeep,” says SA French MD Quentin van Breda.

He explains that crane upkeep abroad has become a ‘needed upkeep’ rather than the typical preventive measure that was used on older cranes (which suggests that only the parts which must be mended are fixed). This system, known as CraneSTAR, which is offered by Potain, for which SA French is the South African provider, can have a module fitted to each crane and through the worldwide system for cellular interaction connection to the desk of a plant manager.

“We prepare our upkeep around our tracker and upkeep issues based upon extended working hours are alleviated, conserving a great deal of arguments with customers. If [they] … call and inform us that a crane isn’t functional, we can quickly inspect it and, on occasions, can find that the malfunctioning crane is not ours,” Van Breda explains.

Together with the South African market now favouring bubble crane and other crane hire for new building and construction projects, rather than buying cranes, he clarifies that SA French can supply any kind of tower crane which a customer may need.

When a client requires a specific crane, SA French will buy the crane that the customer needs, depending upon a budget plan and if they favour brand-new or used. This has made it possible for the company to extensively increase the selection of cranes on offer, with a few clients that lie in Africa requiring cranes and frannas in distant locations. A larger fleet of cranes guarantees a trusted source for the company.

“We provided a customer in the Democratic Republic of Congo a crane 3,000 km from South Africa. It took us 28 days to reach the building site from Dar es Salaam, owing to the stopped roadway facilities. The tower cranes are simple to put together but are rather like containerised Meccano sets which require subassembly then erection; for that reason, they need to be transferred by truck to site,” he explains.

Industry Problems

Irrespective of the technological advancements made by SA French on its own apparatus, Van Breda cites that funding devices providers and the construction and building market have yet to see is a significant part of the R800-billion warranty in 2008 for upgrading facilities throughout South Africa, with numerous apparatus pros and providers reluctant to operate more on government-funded jobs.

He explains that, in 2008, the Southern African national government had an improvement strategy in place to boost facilities throughout the country. Tons of regional construction and construction company and device providers consented to take care of tasks like the construction and construction of football arenas for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, intending to greatly increase the efficiency of facilities across the country later.

But after the arenas were built and associated facilities like the very first phase of the Gauteng Highway Facilities Task had really been developed, the needed facilities updates never saw the light of day. This has triggered a whole lot of neighbourhood facilities advancement decrease, with present sewage, energy and water systems not able to adapt into quick city growth.

The lack of facilities has additionally triggered private organisations to re-evaluate where and strategies to spend money in South Africa, says Van Breda. He discusses that, with centres not being upgraded, the overall building and construction of new structures in the locations away from the primary enterprise zone of South African cities has really diminished.

In 2012, national government presented the brand new National Facilities Strategy (NIP), valued at R827-billion, which ensured to upgrade sewage, electric power and water facilities throughout South Africa before completion in 2017.

He explains that the NIP is an excellent strategy which, if it’s carried out efficiently, the nation will be able to continue construction management and development “with ease”. There are two strategies by the national government, the NIP and the National Advancement Strategy (NDP), through which it plans to increase and upgrade the facilities of the country. Part of the NDP vision is to utilise the present medium-term spending strategy of the NIP to present a complete facilities upgrade by 2030.

I still bear in mind that the very first time that I parked my car in the front of this enormous, glass-front office which housed my first job. It’d been more than a little intimidating passing through the security for the very first time.

Being recruited by a Fortune 500 company is exciting; however, the sheer scale of those operations that happen behind the reception doors is inspirational.

It’s funny how emotions remain with you. The feelings of the very first day in “the big leagues” have always served to remind me that every member of the c-suite has a responsibility to create a stable, yet challenging atmosphere for all those employees in their own teams.

CIOs have the largest effect

I know, everyone had that one manager or boss that made their lives miserable. Those rotten apples certainly damage worker productivity. But, CIOs are liable for each and every piece of technology that employees socialise with. From the moment, they walk through the door, or check their email on their own phone, staff members are interacting with the community that CIOs assemble, maintain and upgrade.

And in the whole world of Big Data, we are seeing a revolution in how predictive analysis affects human resources. Businesses that have significantly invested in HR analytics such as “…stock market returns that are 30% greater in comparison to S&P 500, they are twice as likely to be providing high impact recruitment alternatives, and their management pipelines are 2.5x fitter.”

Irrespective of how bad or good a line-level manager could be, their personality doesn’t hold a candle to the frustration that community glitches and poorly conceived tech policies might have on the employee experience in the digital era.

Human resources employees rely on CIOs

Designing, building and maintaining a community is critical, but that is mostly old information. The new frontier of employee experience is in the jungle of cloud management system programs that promise to boost employee involvement, HR effectiveness and overall productivity.

That’s a tall order, and it’s up to the CIO to keep the barbarians at the gates. Big promises will need to be backed up with some strong information to demonstrate their claims. Case studies are important, but CIOs are going to be a fantastic idea to dedicate some time with the many vendors offering HR program.

A lot has changed in the HR area, and now, more than ever before, employees expect their companies to supply an employment experience that mirrors the very best customer experiences, representing the value of investment in IT. The line between client technology and employee tech has been blurred.

Here’s how you can make sure you’re having maximum, positive impact on the worker experience:

• Meet to your top-performing human resources personnel. Learn what they are experiencing when working together with employees.
• Generate a focus group comprised of HR and employee advocates. Make the most of these workers to test-drive products from several HR platform sellers.
• Assign an individual in your group to monitor the HR software and solutions your employees count on daily. Don’t let vendors off the hook after forming an agency arrangement. Have this person pay careful attention to the technical needs of these systems — especially when new or stains modules are published.

Let employees get their hands dirty

Among the biggest benefits of working for a Fortune 500 firm is going to be the opportunity to try new products. Huge firms have access to advanced technology that start-ups can only dream about. An employee-focused CIO will create opportunities for interested or motivated employees to interact with innovative technology.

It’s not about teaching a person how to code or place in a host stand. It’s more about showing them that they can try new things and have a beneficial impact on the company they-call home. This technology may be as straightforward as a user-friendly reporting dashboard with a simple interface. This may involve working with outside vendors to prepare easy-to-use products to your group.

As an example, there’s a Wix review which highlights how easy it is for almost everyone to use a drag and drop website builder. Allowing teams to build their own websites, complete with calendars that arrange team-building exercises and site posts that provide peer-to-peer guidance might be a superb means for team member to interact with technology, find out a new skill and move closer together.

CIOs have an enormous effect on enterprise technology as well as the employees that interact with it daily.

Radial Lumber, which declares to be the only industrial radial sawmill on the planet, is opening in Yarram in south-eastern Victoria. The $5 million mill will employ 20 individuals and at first produce 12,000 cubic metres of lumber a year. Radial Wood owner and handling director Chris McEvoy stated the innovation used at the mill was the very first of its kind and established in an area in Gippsland.

“The majority of wood mills generally get a round log and cut it up into a square, then cut boards off from that,” he stated. “Exactly what we do is we get a log and we cut it up basically like a cake. “We cut it into wedges then we cut those wedges into boards and it essentially deals with the growth stresses in the logs offering you a far more steady product.”

Radial lumber popular with designers

While Australia’s biggest wood sawmill in Heyfield deals with closure less than 100 kilometres from the brand-new mill, Mr McEvoy stated the need for radial lumber was growing. He stated the wood was favoured by designers for decking, developing architectural trusses from engineered timber and external cladding.

“Radial lumber remains in big need in Melbourne and with modern-design structures there’s a huge call from young designers to use lumber and use a great deal of wood externally – which is exactly what we specialise in,” Mr McEvoy stated. “We have had the marketplace for a long time, it’s been broadening and we made a mindful choice 4, 5 years ago that we have to develop a brand new mill to handle the increased need.

“We provide a lot interstate but it is generally the Melbourne market where young designers enjoy the sustainability of lumber.”

Mill to depend on plantation in future

Radial Wood has protected a 10-year deal with VicForests but plants to rely entirely on plantation wood within 20 years. Mr McEvoy stated this was how he saw the future of the wood market and the future of other fields that rely on wood supply like landscape contractors that build retaining walls for their job. “Even Heyfield came out and stated to the federal government that if they weren’t getting their resources right, what they needed to do was to have the capability to buy plantations and then require the capability to retool the sawmill,” he stated.

“We saw this possibly occurring 12 years earlier which is why we began buying plantations and after that over the last 2, 3 years focusing on the brand-new sawmill. “We have seen this establishing over a time period and have actually taken a long-lasting view that this is the way for the wood market in the future.”

Plantation lumber provided from 2025

Heartwood Plantations will supply the mill from 2025 with 4 various kinds of eucalypt trees and eventually supply wood directly to the service industry for services such as landscaping. “We’re most likely working to having something like 20,000 tonnes a year in due course that we can gather and most likely half of that will wind up at the sawmill,” Heartwood Plantations basic supervisor Jon Lambert stated. “We have actually got 1,500 hectares in the ground at the moment and we have another 1,500 hectares that will be slowly re-planted.”

Mr Lambert stated the lumber market had to focus on high-value items like laminated structural timber beams, frames and products to stay competitive. ” I do believe the future of the market is to concentrate on high-end, value-added things due to the fact that our expenses to manage, to run as well as consider our labour expenses suggests that it’s rather pricey to do management. “We have got to focus on high-value items otherwise it’s extremely tough to compete.”