Theme: Future City 2.0

This salon kicks off the first of three salons. The central theme guiding all three salons is "Evolve or Revolt", the fight or adapt instinct inherent in every man.

Humanity has come a long way from the days of the caveman. We have transcended from just satisfying the primal needs: food, clothing, shelter to the expectation of a richer, deeper quality of life.

“Future City 2.0” will be looking at how Nigeria’s society has and still is evolving. This theme will delve into urban renewal, housing in Nigeria, its growth and influence on the economy’s expansion, intelligent homes, eco-friendly living and sustainable home designs. We will look at human interactions and analyze how they aid in building cities for the future. The ever-increasing need for good customer service, the role of education and health play, and job attainment and retention will be a primary focus. Human capacity development - a definite and very important path to the transition Nigeria is currently on, is another major issue that will be discussed.

The Dome
17 Peter Odili Road
Port Harcourt, Rivers
Nigeria

Aquila Kalagbor

Aquila is a recent graduate of Financial Management Technology from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State. He is currently doing his mandatory National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) year in Rivers State where he is president Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) Community Development (CD) group. While still at university, he became fascinated with agriculture and the vast potential for national economic growth it promises. He is planning to use his accumulate knowledge in the fields of financial management, technology, and agriculture to empower people who are not inclined to follow the accepted path of formal education while helping to continue the fight to end world hunger. Or at least, hunger here in his own backyard.

Austin 'TAY' Iwar II

Born in June, 1997 in Lagos city, Nigeria, Tay has, according to revolutionary African entertainment website Notjustok, brought "A breath of fresh air to Nigerian music". Currently studying engineering in school, the youngster has so far released a series of R&B and Afro-Fusion songs influenced by artists and producers like James Blake, Pensado, Chris Brown, Bon Iver, Drake, PartyNextDoor, Fela and such. After being encouraged into music by his music loving parents, Tay took it a step further by teaching himself on the finer points of music production, composition and writing. From his last mixtape release – Passport - Tay has in a short period of time gained reasonable recognition amongst music listeners and has succeeded in attracting industry professionals to his unique sound.

Efa Iwara

Efa Iwara describes himself as having a dual personality; there is the introverted family guy who loves to stay indoors and watch movies with family and close friends and his alter ego (the multitalented rapper and actor EFA) who is very unpredictable and likes to let his mind explore and expand. EFA has performed across the country performed with 2Face on his 2012 Buckwild and Breathless tour and 2013 Campus Connect tour. He has also performed alongside such major acts as Waje, eLDee, Timaya, J. Martins, Sunny Neji, Shank, Olamide, and Movado He has also appeared on Tinsel and MTV’s Shuga and made cameo appearances such music videos as 2Face’s Let Somebody Love You, Nosa’s Pray For You, and Falz's 'Ello Bae. His main forte is storytelling.

Justin Ijeh

Justin Ijeh is currently Head of Card Products at Access Bank Group. He is primarily responsible for crafting and driving the Bank’s payment card business strategy in the context of a rapidly evolving global payments landscape and a hypercompetitive domestic banking sector. His fifteen year industry experience prior to venturing into the electronic payments space spans from banking operations to commercial and corporate banking. He once served as chairperson of the Banking sub-committee of the Port Harcourt City Chamber of Commerce. He is actively involved with several youth groups, mentoring and providing inspiration and guidance in personal development. Justin often masquerades as a writer. Unconfirmed rumors have it that he is behind the little known but interesting www.sonofmaya.com online persona. Justin is however known to own a personal website www.justinijeh.com, which he rarely updates. Speculations are that he probably needs counseling in this regard.

Saidu Abdullahi

Saidu Abdullahi is currently responsible for Public Sector Business Development at Microsoft Nigeria. Prior to this, he was President/CEO of Procentric IQ, a company that won ICT Company of the Year in Education for its work in Ekiti State implementing e-Learning for 100,000 students & 18,000 teachers. Mr. Abdullahi has worked with several established, well-recognized multi-nationals in and out of Nigeria such as Microsoft, Shell, British American Tobacco, Resourcery Plc., Virgin Nigeria and Cadbury. In each, he filled several roles including Public Sector Director, Business Development Manager, Business Analyst, CRM/ERP Project Manager, Research Analyst and IT Director. He is also an experienced General Manager having been a Country Manager trainee in the past. Mr. Abdullahi also enjoys mentoring young people especially in the area of Career Planning and is a coach on the Mandela Washington Fellowship’s Programme called Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI).

Seun David

Seun has over 10 years of experience working with Technology in the Telecoms, Oil & Gas, and Digital Marketing spaces. He is the co-founder of Chaos Theory Creative - a digital agency. An Artificial Intelligence enthusiast, he has vast professional experience in front-end and back-end web application development, User Experience Design, Systems Administration and Network Infrastructure. He has done academic work involving Natural Language Processing, and Crowd-generated Geo-spatial data. He is a self-proclaimed Chronomancer ( because "Futurist" isn't spooky enough) with the power to spot which technologies will shape the future and how disparate technologies can combine to solve real-world problems. He is secretly preparing for the coming Singularity and our Robot Overlords. He is still working on his superhero disguise.

Uade Ahimie

Uade's career in the Banking, Oil, Gas and Energy Sectors of the Economy spans over 21 Years. He began with banking in 1992, working at various financial institutions until joining the Sahara Group Limited as a senior auditor in 2006. There, he moved through the ranks until he was asked to develop the Sahara Group's corporate governance framework. He believes strongly in personal accountability and integrity at all levels of management. He also believes that there is tremendous untapped potential in Nigerian youths and as such has lent his support to talent development schemes like Sahara’s Graduate Management Trainee Program, RCCG Maryland Youth Career development program Choices, as well as acting as a mentor to high fliers in the organisation. Uade is married with children, and is an avid football fan.

Ugochukwu Nwosu

Ugochukwu Nwosu joined the Rockefeller Foundation in May 2014. As a Stakeholder Development Officer, he is responsible for the country level strategy for Foundation Initiatives. In his role as Stakeholder Development Officer, Ugo oversees the implementation of Digital Jobs Africa in Nigeria and Ghana by engaging with stakeholders from private sector, government and civil society while optimizing opportunities for the Foundation to build its profile as important stakeholder in the youth employment space. Digital Jobs Africa aims to impact 1 million lives in six African countries by catalyzing sustainable, Information Communication Technology-enabled (ICT) employment opportunities, and skills training for high-potential but disadvantaged African youth; thereby generating social and economic opportunities for those employed, their families, and their communities.