Techpoint Build’s Inaugural Edition inspired 5,000 Young People

After much anticipation for Techpoint Build, the day finally came on Saturday, January 27th, 2018. The inaugural edition of Techpoint Build gathered about 5000 people from across Nigeria at Landmark Event Centre in Lagos. Many arrived at the venue early enough to take advantage of the limited seats and spaces in the three halls that were used.

The activities at the three halls took place simultaneously. In the main hall, there were 4-panel sessions with industry and market leaders and startup pitch sessions in between. At the exhibition hall, which was positioned in the middle, exhibitors were busy engaging the audience and getting them to use their products and services.

Top exhibitors were Union Bank, Nokia, Farmcrowdy, Flexisaf, Cloud Cover, TeamApt, Thank U and iROKO. Other exhibitors included Ventures Platform, Paystack, MyMusic, Whogohost, Formplus, Accounteer, BudgIT, Leadspace, Delivery man, Shuttlers.ng, AutoGenius, Energy Deliveries, Reliance HMO, Lucy, Techadvance, Health facts, Kbits, Plaqad, Skarabrand, Whogohost and MAX.ng.

At the third hall was the SME Clinic, with an interesting line of career professionals who took turns teaching the rudiments of business when it concerns finance, legal, sales and marketing, brand communication, business structure, product and service development, amongst others.

The startup pitch competition happening in between panel sessions had nine startups battling for ₦1 million in prize money. Following the end of the pitch competition, Placements.ng, an internship opportunities platform, emerged the winner.

But that was not all. There was an invite-only dinner that started around 7.00 pm and lasted for about 3 hours. The dinner had reputable investors, seasoned ICT entrepreneurs, the nine finalist startups and the entire Techpoint team members in attendance and with that came the end of activities for the day. In hindsight, Techpoint Build unlocked a market that extends beyond the immediate tech ecosystem. The overwhelming number of offline entrepreneurs — looking for ways to scale their business online — at the SME Clinic was testimony to this fact.

We hope to continually create this much impact and also urge you to keep an eye open and register for our upcoming event, Techpoint Inspired 2018.

Techpoint Inspired is for everyone — students, tech enthusiasts, industry leaders, futurists, innovators and academics — and registration has begun in earnest. Register now to book yourself a seat and save May 29th, 2018 on your calendar.

For more info, please visit techpoint.ng/inspired. Follow the conversation on social media with #TechpointInspired.

This post was published in support of the TechPoint.ng movement.