Africa’s First Consumer Electronics Expo & Tech Awards – Vifaa Tech Festival

Despite the fact that African consumer tech is a billion-dollar industry, the space remains significantly unconnected.

Because this industry in Africa is often at the bottom of the list, there isn’t a solid platform where consumers and the brands they patronize can connect, share ideas and showcase the tech in store for the region’s consumer space.

To pioneer bridging the gap, Gadgets Africa—a fast-growing consumer-tech publisher in the space—has joined hands with the largest media conglomerate in East Africa, Nation Media, to unveil the Vifaa Tech Festival.

Vifaa Tech Festival is a consumer-centred technology expo, conference, and awards show. With this event, both brands want to create a platform for the African tech community to ignite conversations about innovation, electronics, gadgets, and building for the next generation of consumers.

The expo’s name has been derived from the Swahili word, Vifaa, which means equipment or gear, representing the industry’s gadgets. Vifaa Tech Festival is a two-day virtual festival that seeks to bring together industry stakeholders and consumers onto one platform.

“Consumer technology and electronics brands are celebrated, criticized, and appreciated in the US, SE Asia, and EU. One of the key motives of launching Gadgets Africa was to empower the Kenyan consumer in making informed decisions in buying electronics. Today, we’re moving a step further, and joining us is Nation Media Group in launching Africa’s very own consumer technology launchpad forum,” says Rishabh Lawania, CEO of Wee Media Africa.

As a fully virtual event, the experiential festival will take place on June 11th and 12th. The setup of the expo will include product showcases from several consumer brands operating in Kenya, conversations, fireside chats, and discussions with product leaders & innovators in consumer tech.

Most of the discussions will center around Geo-restriction of content and services, unsolicited texts and data protection, eSports and mobile gaming in Kenya, 5G and the future of home connectivity, TV vs live video streaming, influencers and the new wave of digital marketing.

Vifaa Tech Festival will also shed light on the work from the home culture and the tech that enables it, and finally, the future of mobile money and digital payments in Africa.

Consumer Awards

On top of this, Vifaa Tech Festival will include Gadgets Africa’s pioneering consumer awards, which seeks to recognize and shine a spotlight on brands, gadgets, and even stores that consumers appreciate.

Unlike the previous years when awards selection was purely an internal consideration, this year’s shortlisting is now in the power of the public. The winners will be determined by the consumer tech community.

“An important aspect in the life cycle of a consumer product is feedback from its users. We believe that through these awards, brands will be able to better connect with what their customers like, and hopefully, the results serve as a blueprint for future products,” said Saruni Maina, Managing Editor, Gadgets Africa.

Consumers can cast their votes for their favourite brands here.

Dell, Intel, Samsung and Little Sponsor Vifaa Tech Festival

Vifaa Tech Festival has received support from flagship consumer brands in the East African countries. These brands have come together to ignite meaningful conversation with their consumers and showcase products that hold the promise to make life easier.

“With this increasing demand for technology and digital workplace environments,  a platform like VIFAA Tech Festival allows us to launch products in the African market in front of the right audience. Dell Technologies has been an active enabler in the African region and as proud to partner with Gadgets Africa to launch a first of its kind consumer electronics conference,” said Secil Seyfe, Marketing Director, Dell Technologies.

At the helm of it all is Nation Media Group (NMG) who have been a key partner since the inception of the idea, from toying with different names, different concepts and finally joining hands as a media partner.

Note: Gadgets-Africa and WeeTracker are publishing platforms of WeeMedia Africa.