First Open Day Meet-n-Greet

Ramon Thomas wants to be your manager, super agentI make models Miss South Africa, businessmen get onto CNBC Africa, unpublished authors gets published or how to make one hell of a profit and still get to heaven. My most recent experience includes a strong focus on life coaching models, businessmen, heads of business schools, PR companies, Marketing Directors and even sales training for radio stations to increase advertising spend.

This open day is to meet prospective clients for my new agency – provisionally called “Arli$$ Ari Gold Management” after my two favourite agents in television. You will get to know me, who I am, what I stand for, and what makes me different. Some of my client portfolios will be on display. And you can ask me anything. My fees are based on a more realistic mindset of what is required in the global recession. And because I leverage a very large online and real-world social network, I can afford to only charge you 10% flat rate. I make up the difference by asking you to do photo shoots or gigs for my own projects at no cost. All this is tracked, so you never feel like you’re being abused or taken advantage. And in each case we ensure you get testimonials, exposure and meet new clients to find even more opportunities.

The venue: Nino’s Rosebank, The Zone opposite Nescafe. And I will be there from 12-6pm before going to the Dr John Demartini Talk @ Montecasino tonight. I’m also working with TalentFinders.com as the new Marketing Director so I’ll handle your online and offline portfolios to maximise your income and reduce your effort. Leave it to me, and I’ll make it happen for you. As my awesome PA, Yusuf Moses, says at this junction “Let’s dance…!”

The Fairy Godmother’s Guide To Getting What You Want

The Fairy Godmother's Guide To Getting What You Want by Donna McCallumThe title of this book is so delicious I didn’t bother coming up with a different title for this blog post. I’ve know Donna McCallum for some time now and we’ve both been to each other’s workshops. This was actually one of the best lines for me at her book launch party because the reaction I got from the other guests were awe and surprise. Who is this guy who Donna went to for advice ;-) After all she’s the fairy godmother, and she makes your dreams come true. Well at one point I felt that describing myself as a blogger or trainer of bloggers will spoil the social interaction. After how many bloggers are nerds or geeks with no social skills? Plenty.

So who is the Fairy Godmother? Well Donna McCallum is a former advertising guru turned human potential guru. Maybe that’s taking it too far. However, Donna has an excellent grasp of the principles behind movies like The Secret and the works of people like Dr John Demartini and his mentor Dr Wayne Dyer. She makes the idea of manifesting your dream fun and exciting. And she has very practical strategies by which this is achieved.

Some time ago I was invited to attend her Dream Mapping workshop with a view of me writing a review on this as I had done so for Dr Demartini’s Speed Reading and Breakthrough Experience workshops. Anyway I never got around to writing that review. However, the success of the Fairy Godmother’s book launch is the simply the best book launch I have ever attended. The location was the amazing Zenatude restaurant / conference centre in Rivonia. And the team of people who were hosting the event and supporting Donna was simply outstanding. You could feel her personal magical fairy dust was sprinkled all around the venue. The people were all friendly and inspired by their experiences with Donna, or their friends who dragged them along to meet Donna.

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CSSA Event – The Dangers of Children Using the Internet and Other Technologies

Computer Society SouthAfricaIn a perfect world, the Internet would automatically shield children from contact with questionable content and dangerous people. Unfortunately, nobody exercises complete control over the online world in any centralized manner. What is considered illegal in one country may not even be considered an issue in another. This danger has been extended to free-for-all mobile IM chatrooms without moderation or age restrictions. How do we as parents, educators and IT Professionals equip ourselves for this crisis. How do we identify and deal with problems before our children are exposed to dangerous situations.

The Panel:

Adrie Stander is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Systems at the University of Cape Town since 1999. He has more than 30 years experience in the computer industry and has done research in many diverse areas such as the psychological aspects of computer use and data communications. He is currently responsible for the first computer forensics course to be offered by a South African university.

Naomi van Wyk is a Clinical Psychologist and works in the field of parent education. She runs a private practice in Stellenbosch and presents workshops to parents and teachers on the prevention of child sexual abuse. She has written a book about the subject which is soon to be published called Safe and Sure.

Pieter Nel started dabbling with software and electronics as a teenager in the mid-eighties. After postgraduate studies, he spent a number of years with Flextronics Design working on projects for companies such as Intel and Thales before joining MXit’s original mother-ship, Swist, where he managed software projects for the local mobile operators. He joined MXit in May 2008 as Chief Technology Officer and life began in earnest.

The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session.

Who should attend?

This presentation will be of value to educators, parents and all concerned Professionals in the ICT sector.

Date: 20 August 2009

Time: 15:00 sharp to end 18:30

Venue: The Nassau Centre, Groote Schuur High School, 76 Palmyra Rd, Newlands (map will be provided on booking)

Parking: Available on grounds

Cost: R30.00 per person; R20.00 Groote Schuur School staff. BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL.

The Q & A. will be followed by an opportunity to network. Light refreshments will be provided.

To Book: Info@interware.co.za or Lilian at (021) 447-8450

By: 18 August 2009 This event has been kindly sponsored by PANDA

TEDx: Banishing the Mundane from the Center of Accra

EDx: Banishing the Mundane from the Center of Accra

TEDxSYPALA – Trials, Tribulations & TRIUMPH

We just successfully completed West Africa’s first TEDx event.

Tedx.Sypala.org (more images and videos to be uploaded over next couple of days).

It was embedded into IMANI’s (www.imanighana.com) annual SYPALA program which brings rising young professionals from across the West African sub-region to stay at TEDster Patrick Awuah’s university, Ashesi, for a week. TEDx crew was extremely grateful to IMANI and Executive Director Franklin Cudjoe for their tireless support and encouragement.

At SYPALA this year, IMANI also launched a prize named after Guido Sohne, the quintessential Ghanaian-born genius who has hired by Microsoft to develop an African strategy for them last year. Guido unfortunately passed away before his dream of uniting the proprietary and open-source software worlds could be realized. This year’s Sohne Prize was sponsored by IPMC Ghana (www.ipmcghana.com) and Tropical Business Solutions, and was won by Theophilus Acheampong, a Chemical Engineer by training, and a deep-thinking, all-round, star performer by practice.

SYPALA had the honour of hosting several amazing speakers, including the first African in 850 years to become a tenured professor at Cambridge University, and the musical rebel who dared a sitting President on live television. But this post is about TEDxSypala, not SYPALAJ

TEDxSypala was held at the fabulous Coconut Grove Regency hotel (http://www.coconutgrovehotels.com.gh/Regency/regency_index.htm), nestling tranquilly in the pulsating historic center of Accra city.

Speakers ranged from a Ghanaian-born financial guru who served on one of the Clinton transition teams to an amazing young Ghanaian Designer who thrilled the crowd with his incisive insight into the developmental context of design (blending as he did artistic opinions about the redenomination of national currencies with deadpan observations on the travails of fair-trade branding).

There was also the dude building what is probably West Africa’s only Technology Park dedicated to SMEs, and, of course, TEDster Patrick Awuah was there to inspire us with a new talk about “what’s next for Ashesi”. The opening Speaker, Dr. Anyimadu, formerly of Ghana’s Legon Ivory Tower, set his talk against the background of the Thomas Fynn collection, and with irresistible panache sent us all on a mind-bending trip into the digital consciousness of fisherfolks along Ghana’s soon-to-become oil belt.

Bernard Akoi-Jackson, who we were honoured to have as the event’s impresario, has carved a niche for himself as the conceptual artist who transformed elite perceptions about the artistic possibilities ensconced in the interstices of Ghana’s best known psychiatric institution. For his TEDx performance, he strove to take the German composer Wagner to trial by distending the composer’s chords around the Ashanti trance-dance, the Akom. The Akom is a rebellion against any notion of natural order, and is the mainstay in the repertoire of the official sorcerers of the ancient and extant Ashanti Kingdom. It is not a dance to be performed lightly, even if the motive is as high as cutting Wagner down to size.

Planning and organizing a TEDx event gives you a much better appreciation of what the TED crew manages year in and year out to deliver at Monterrey, and now Long Beach (www.ted.com). That delivery, not even to mention the much eulogized talks, is itself worthy of cataloguing as one of the unsung wonders of this age.

We set up our audio-visual equipment overnight and begun testing a full 3 hours before the event. Yet, true to Murphy’s Law, we still had to contend with a hitch that saw us start 30 minutes after the advertised time. Though some performances called for lights-out, the TV crew (including our own professional videographers) would have none of it. Apparently, no one had informed them of the need to bring directional lights. The lapel mikes malfunctioned and speakers had to endure the unTEDlike ordeal of using hand-mikes. Even Africa-renowned Atukwei Okai (de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atukwei_Okai), revered for his devotion to the ideal of poetry as spectacle, was forced to wrap his lyrical fingers around the shapeless gadget, and restrict his gesticulations accordingly, very much to his consternation, as you would imagine.J

We managed to deliver TEDx to our participants and the general public and post TEDx evaluations revealed the need for a much better organization should we decide to have our future SYPALA participants and the general public go through the experience.

Still it was a day to remember: for nearly 10 hours we attempted to “banish the mundane” and stayed immersed in a world where ideas can terrify, and soothe; fortify, and melt; disrupt, and heal; and we emerged reformed from banality, and, on that account, TRIUMPHANT.

On behalf of: Remy Edmundson – Producer

Chris Kweku Benett – Production Assistant

Bright B. Simons – Curator &

Bernard Akoi-Jackson – Impresario

MXit Drug Counselling at 27Dinner in Port Elizabeth

Marlon Parker, Brent Williams and Ramon Thomas at Highway Africa, Rhodes University in GrahamstownMarlon Parker will be visiting Port Elizabeth this week to present an inspirational talk at the regular 27Dinner event this Thursday in Port Elizabeth. The 27Dinner events are free events where geeks and non-geeks get together and discuss technology. The purpose of the 27Dinner events is to create awareness about how technology can be used to change in society and also for entrepreneurship and income generation. And the events happen on the 27th of the month in Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban. This will be the 3rd 27Dinner event in the Nelson Mandela Bay area.

A big part of the motivation for bringing Marlon Parker to Port Elizabeth is to kick start the DAS@MXit in Nelson Mandela Bay area. Over the last three years MXit has grown to over 10 million registered users. This platform, the most widely used instant messaging platform among people 12-25 years old is the most practical method of providing online counselling. In North America and other parts of the world Internet-based online counselling has been available for years now. However, due to the cost of bandwidth in South Africa, cellphone-based online counselling is more practical alternative.

The other guest speakers will be confirmed today and their information posted on www.27dinner.com where you have to register and add your name to the particular event you would like to attend, in the city of your own choice. Stormhoek wines have sponsored free bottles of wine in Cape Town and Johannesburg. I have yet to persuade them to send some wine to Port Elizabeth for our enjoyment.

This is also the final function for the year that the NETucation team will be organising because we are shifing our focus inwards until 1 March 2009. Planning my 2009 schedule is going to be one of the key success factors to grow the audience to this blog as well as to my other online efforts.

IKM Conference 2008 – Shaping the Future

University of Johannesburg, South AfricaEvery year business leaders, industry and faculty experts come to the IKM Conference to share their knowledge, learn and network. True to the theme of this year’s conference, “Shaping the Future”, presenters will offer cutting-edge knowledge based on relevant, innovative and rigorous research.

Come and listen to reflections, estimations and predictions on the coming transformation of strategy, competition, business models, and management and gain insight to what others consider their business challenges, such as:

  • Mr Mike Schussler (T-Sec) on the Future of the Knowledge Economy
  • Ms Luisa Mazinter (The Marketing Site) on the Future of Web 2.0 and Knowledge Sharing
  • Ms Wendy Sealy (Caribbean Development Bank) on Social Capital and Knowledge for Development
  • Mr Max Smeiman (MD, Max Smeiman Associates) on the Future of Virtual Businesses
  • Mr Ramon Thomas (NETucation) on the Future of Social Networking
  • Dr Antonie Botha (Consultant) on the Future of Knowledge Management
  • Dr Piet Steyn (Eskom) on Just-in-time Knowledge Management: A reality or just an aspiration?
  • Ms Marmara Schutte (UP) and Dr Peter Tobin (GIBS) on Knowledge Management and the Food Service Industry.

Be sure not to miss the 8th Annual Information and Knowledge Management Conference on Friday, 4 November 2008, at the FNB Convention and Training Centre in Sandton, hosted by the University of Johannesburg Department of Information and Knowledge Management and chaired by Prof Adeline du Toit. Should you require further information, please contact Ms Andrea Ferreira on +27 (0)11 559-2183 or send an email to infoman@uj.ac.za.

2008 MyBroadband Conference and Broadband Survey

2008 MyBroadband Conference @ VodaworldThe 2008 MyBroadband Conference will take place on 27 November at Vodaworld from 10:00 to 16:30. Thanks to the generous sponsorships from Vodacom, Axxess, Poynting, Miro Distribution, Vox Telecom and ECN Telecoms, the conference will be free to all delegates. Vodacom has even thrown in a free lunch and then drinks after the conference.

It’s easy to register for the conference, simply click on this form.

More information about the conference.

2008 Broadband Survey

It is once again time for our yearly broadband survey. You are given the opportunity to comment on the service levels and pricing offered by your broadband provider and ISP. You will also get a chance to tell your provider what they can do to improve their service, and vote for the Journalist of the Year and Mampara of the Year. Your participation is a valuable means for us to provide feedback about the state of broadband in South Africa from a consumer’s perspective, so please try to complete this survey.

Please complete this 10 minute survey.

R 30 000 WANTITALL.CO.ZA/UKASH COMPETITION

Wantitall.co.za and UKash have partnered with MyBroadband to run a competition with R 30 000 worth of prizes over the next two weeks. What makes this competition unique is that you will select the prize/s that you want from the Wantitall store, and if you win you will get what you requested. To enter you simply need to list what you want!

For more information and to enter please follow this link.

We hope to see you at this year’s conference and we look forward to hearing back from you regarding your broadband service

IT Security & Cyber Forensics Conference

World famous hacker, Kevin MitnickToday I am speaking at the Marcus Evans IT Security & Cyber Forensics conference. The subtitle for this conference is: Mitigating IT security risks through improved processes and innovative investigations

The inspiration for my talk is based on two books by the most famous hacker in the world, Kevin Mitnick: The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruder and the The Art of Deception: Controlling the Human Element of Security. In 2003 I established contact with his agent in United States of America to bring him to South Africa. After a very long negotiation period and with assistance from ITWeb he eventually made to sunny South Africa in 2006. It was my pleasure to meet him and have his books autographed. I really have to find that photo we took together. However, I know it won’t be the last time we met. His story has been written up in many books and one of them made into the B-grade Hollywood movie Takedown. When you meet a living legend like this its pretty awesome feeling. However, when you know, in your heart that you had a stake in bringing him to South Africa, it is inspirational. This is one of the things that got me “fired” from FNB’s Randburg Computer Centre in 2003.

Date: 16-17 Oct 2008
Location: The Forum, Wonderers Building, The Campus, Bryanston, Gauteng.

My topic: The Human Element in IT Security

Anyway here is the overview from the Marcus Evans event information page:

Over the last decade IT technology has grown and developed substantially. These new developments where meant to streamline operations but they have also created new breaches in security allowing data and valuable intellectual information to be exposed to competitors. Organisations thus need to start using more advanced forms of investigation to identify its vulnerable points, and cyber forensics is starting to play a crucial role in identifying those individuals and organisations involved in sabotaging your system. Every company uses electronic information extensively to support their daily business processes. Data is stored on customers, products, contracts, financial results, accounting etc. If this electronic information were to become available to competitors or to become corrupted, false or disappear, it will greatly hinder business functioning.

With the increased attention on IT security and cyber forensics, IT professionals are discovering that security information threats do not only fall in the hands of hackers and external forces but in this day and age, 50% of all security threats are internal. This creates major concerns for corporates who not only need to hide their important information from their competitors but now also their employees. As the world moves towards the wireless age, IT security needs to grow and develop to ensure the safety of information no matter what the form it is being transmitted in. By attending this conference you will be able to gain insight on cyber forensics processes, identifying an attack and who is attacking you. You will also be able to identify which information is at risk and who we should be watching out for both internally and externally.

Other Key Speakers

Jason Jordaan
Head of Cyberforensics , Special Investigating Unit SOUTH AFRICA

Poppy Tshabalala
Chief Information Officer, Department of Trade and Industry

Stephen Mark
Information Security Officer, Discovery

William Stucke
Chairman, AfrISPA

Evans Nyagah
Head of IT , Telkom Kenya

Key Topics

  • Creating an awareness of IT security threats through constant monitoring and clear communication of potential security violations
  • Analysing new hostile trends that are emerging in our internet landscape
  • Applying cyber forensics pro-actively to create a more secure IT environment
  • Promoting access control though innovative measures to demotivate and prevent • Promoting access control though innovative measures to demotivate and prevent • Promoting access control though innovative measures to demotivate and prevent unauthorised personnel accessing confidential networks
  • Considering the threat Auditing has on your IT security system and information security in general

For a more detailed overview of my backgroun in Information Security or IT Security industry visit my LinkedIn profile.

Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology for Social Impact

Mobile Active 2008 South African NGO NetworkThe Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) and MobileActive.org will host the MobileActive08 Summit from 13-15 October 2008 at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg. The theme of the event is “Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology for Social Impact”.

With more than 350 confirmed participants from over 40 countries, this will be the largest international event to date focusing on this topic and one of the most important ICT4D events to be hosted in Africa in 2008.

Speaking at the end of September 2008 at the United Nations in New York during a high-level event on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Secretary-General of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Hamadoun Touré, announced that worldwide mobile cellular subscribers are likely to reach the 4 billion mark before the end of this year. “The fact that 4 billion subscribers have been registered worldwide indicates that it is technically feasible to connect the world to the benefits of ICT and that it is a viable business opportunity”, he stated. “Clearly, ICTs have the potential to act as catalysts to achieve the 2015 targets of the MDGs.”

However, even with ubiquity of access, the challenge to development practitioners and technology experts is how best to adapt and translate growth and innovation in mobile technology in support of specific development challenges. As a result, there is an urgent need to share lessons learned to date and explore the most effective use of this technology.

At MobileActive08, participants will explore how mobile phones are used to advance development work in different parts of the world, assess the current state of knowledge in the use and effectiveness of mobile technology to advance social action, and investigate trends, needs and investment opportunities. Specific attention will be given to the role of mobile technology in health, human rights, economic development, research, advocacy, citizen journalism and democratic participation.

According to David Barnard, Executive Director of SANGONeT, “During the first day and a half of the event more than 60 speakers will share their experiences through a variety of workshops and skill-share sessions, rotating mini-talks, SIMlabs and SIMplaces. The second part of MobileActive08 will be conducted in an ‘open space’ format where participants will delve more deeply into the topics discussed during the first part of the event.”

Some of the key mobile experts that will make presentations at the event include Brian Richardson of Wizzit, Jonathan Donner of Microsoft, Peter Benjamin of Cell-Life, Russell Southwood of Balancing Act and Erik Hersman of Ushahidi.

Go to the MobileActive website for the detailed information about the programme and speakers.

Delegates will include NGO and development practitioners, mobile technologists, researchers studying the use of mobile phones, government officials, and representatives from the international donor community and telecommunications industry.

The MobileActive08 Summit is supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Microsoft, Department of Communications, Vodacom, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership, HIVOS, Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa (OSISA), Ford Foundation and Torque IT.

SANGONeT’s new corporate identity and the new SANGONeT NGO Portal, NGO Pulse, will also be launched during the event.

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For additional comments and media accreditation, please contact:

David Barnard, Executive Director
Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT)
Tel: (011) 403-4935 or Cell: 082 870-8968
E-mail: dbarnard@sangonet.org.za

“Linking civil society through ICTs”

Miss South Africa 2009 competition underway

COULD YOU BE NEXT?

Miss South Africa and Miss SA Teen call for entries

Entries are now open for Miss SA and Miss SA Teen 2008 which will take place at Sun City on 13 December 2008, during a live one and half hour broadcast on SABC2.

Miss South Africa contestants like Tatum Keshwar in Sun CitySun International, the license holder of Miss SA and Miss SA Teen, is looking for someone with extra special qualities. This is no ordinary pageant as the winner of Miss SA represents South Africa internationally and locally; plays an important role in various Sun International Corporate Social Investment projects and interacts both socially and in a business environment with leaders in society. Not only do you have to have beauty and a bikini-perfect body but you also have to be compassionate, intelligent and charitable.

Entry forms can be found in the following editions of Huisgenoot / You / Drum Magazines: 15th and 22nd August 2008-Cape Town,

18th and 25th August- Johannesburg and are also available at all Sun International hotels, casino’s and resorts. Closing date for entries is 31 August 2008

Once the entry form selection criteria has been taken care of, candidates will be invited to participate in all major cities (Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg) from 13 to 21 September. From these candidates, 40 semi-finalists for both pageants will be chosen and they will be flown to Johannesburg, transferred to Sun City and will enjoy an entertaining workshop for a week, from 16 to 22 October. The workshop includes lessons in deportment, etiquette, hairstyling and make-up. The semi-finalists will also learn how to market themselves effectively and how to deal with the media.

The final 24 contestants (12 for Miss SA and 12 for Miss SA Teen ) will be a group of passionate young women driven by their belief that they have a role to play in tackling some of the tougher social challenges in South Africa. Apart from the commercial aspects of the pageant and the glamour and benefits it will bring them, they will learn how to use their prestige to benefit the under privileged in South Africa.

If you’ve always aspired to be a beauty queen then this is your window of opportunity to be at the forefront of fashion, attend SA’s finest social occasions, meet the who’s who of corporate SA and firmly establish yourself on the next rung of your life plan. Being Miss South Africa and Miss SA Teen is not for wilting lilies, it’s for exotic blooms of tropical splendour. You have to know how to dazzle, to sparkle and to keep it up 24:7.

There are early morning photo-shoots, late night social occasions, overnight travel and people – lots of them. But it’s worth it. This pageant comes with the biggest prizes and the most prestige and Miss South Africa gets to wear an incredible t for the year of her reign.

Potential Miss SA Teens who are between the age of 15 to 18 years and Miss South Africa contestants who are between the ages of 19 to 24 years are eligible to enter. All “terms and conditions” are available on the website www.misssa.co.za or www.misssateen.co.za. You can also download the entry form on the website.

Contact Info

Head Office Cell. 074 124 1696

Email: faye@ramonthomas.com

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