Theme: WOMANOMICS - Woman as the BRIDGE to unlocking Africa's potential

We will be showcasing 10 handpicked individuals to speak to this theme in the following idea sessions:
Idea Session 1: DESIGNERS – we will be profiling speakers as architects of change. Within this category we would like to showcase disruptors, thought leaders, activists, policy makers, advocates etc who are championing and envisaging a new reality.
Idea Session 2: BUILDERS - speakers are likely to include financiers of Africa's development, implementors of the development agenda; educators of the next generation of Africa's leaders, individuals powering Africa, feeding Africa, and other relevant sector players.
Idea Session 3: OPERATORS - this session will feature speakers who have successfully implemented change and have influenced society, communities, environment, practically or through a way of thinking that now is experienced as the norm. These influencers are keeping things going.

LemonJack Studio and Theatre
276 Poole Avenue
Raslouw
Centurion, Gauteng, 0157
South Africa

Georgina Read

Moneyfit Entrepreneur

Georgina is a versatile speaker and facilitator. She hosts workshops on Money Management and runs training programs on Leadership and Development in business. Uplifting South Africans through life skills training in money management is her core focus and she hopes to reach across South Africa and its borders.

Jean Chawapiwa

Growing Business in Africa

Jean has extensive experience in external affairs, communication and media in the mining sector, which included work on several divestments and acquisitions. She was the first woman to sit on the South African Chamber of Mines Executive Council where she sat for over 6 years ending December 2012. She is passionate about helping entrepreneurs and mentoring women and young professionals to play a growing role in Africa’s development.

Kate Tregan Rowe

EQ Specialist

Kate's life’s purpose is to create novel ways to support people to connect with each other. Her mission is to support people to develop more connected relationships through authentic and open-hearted communication – especially the relationship between adults, children and teens

Marang Marekimane

Business Advisor

Marang Marekimane is an advocate for change. She runs a consultancy, Business Process Mechanics, that assists entrepreneurs to build sustainable businesses and empowers them to buy back their time and sanity. She facilitates discussions on change and skills development workshops designing growth strategies to improve the ecosystem for entrepreneurs and business owners.

Masego Madzwamuse

Economic and Social Justice Advocate

Masego has extensive experience in community based natural resources management, community adaptation to climate change, land tenure security, sustainable land management, environment and gender, social policy. She led the development, implementation and monitoring of several programmes and projects with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and later UNDP. She has working experience in rural development, participatory approaches to conservation and working with the Civil Society Groups in Southern Africa through various networks where she was active.

Nthabi Sibanda

Founder Puo Educational Products

Developing content that educates, entertains and empowers children through Africa's heritage. Nthabi is the founder of Puo Educational Products (“puo” is a Sesotho word for language), a company that produces bilingual printed and digital learning content for children under the age of nine years.

Sonia Paiva

Agribusiness Social Entrepreneur

Sonia Paiva founded the Woman Farmer Foundation, which started as an event, The Woman Farmer Competition in 2007. Since then she has never looked back. Up to now, the foundation has trained and empowered more than 2000 women in agri based entrepreneurship in Swaziland in as much as facilitating market linkages. This has improved livelihoods, increased the food basket and uplifted the economy under the Agricultural sector of Swaziland. Women in Agriculture have grown from grassroots to commercial level through WFF. They are shunning away from taking agriculture as routine activities but as proper enterprises, thereby increasing the potential of agribusiness in the country. She is managing director of Eswatini Kitchen a gourmet food manufacturer that produces natural products without any colorants nor preservatives, for export from Swaziland to overseas markets.

Thabiso Mahlape

Publisher

The engineering graduate-cum-publisher has loved books from a very early age and she always knew that the beautiful world of books would be part of her life somehow. Her publishing career began in 2010, when she secured an internship at Jacana, one of South Africa’s biggest publishing houses. She has just launched a new imprint, BlackBird Books. The imprint, seeks to provide a platform and a publishing home to both new voices and the existing generation of black writers and narratives.

Thandi Sibisi

Art dealer, curator and creative director

Thandi Sibisi is an art dealer, businesswoman, humanitarian and writer. Sibisi is renowned for her cultural activism in South Africa. At 25, Sibisi became the first black female to ever own an art gallery in South Africa. She was born the daughter of farmers, and initially moved to Johannesburg to study. However, she now runs three separate businesses, including a charitable organisation which advocates for rural women in Natal Midlands towards sustainable development. She is currently the Curator and Creative Director of the IDC Gallery in Sandton. Thandi is completing her studies towards a Law Degree.

Yandiswa Xhakaza

Head of school

A Social Scientist at heart, kaRadebe has been involved in a number of social research initiatives. She is a Teacher by trade and is an avid Educationalist, having taught English for a few years before going full-time into education research. Her focus has been on providing affordable, high-quality education at scale. She's passionate about different instructional methods, the science of how children learn, education innovation & teacher training & development. She is currently the Head of School at Arrow Academy in Centurion, Pretoria, South Africa.

Zed Xaba

Mediation and Conflict facilitator

Zed Xaba is a director at Ndiza Le and has been working as a facilitator in the last 14 years. Her work spans different areas; conflict work, diversity, personal mastery, team effectiveness. She has also worked in different sector, government, non-government and non-profit sector, locally, regionally and globally. Her years of experience of facilitation across different fields and sectors make her particularly suitable to work with organisations in the area of Mediation and Conflict. Zed is an accredited Mediator with the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) Network. She is trained in the CINERGY Conflict Coaching Methodology and has a Masters in Conflict Facilitation and Organisational Change from the Process Work Institute in Portland Oregon, USA.