Over 400 delegates gathered at this years Etion Digital Transformation Congress which took place on 26 July 2018 at the Gallagher Convention Centre, in Midrand South Africa. The one day conference saw industry leaders explore the wave of change that digital transformation is set to bring and discuss the tools required to implement a seamless digital transformation strategy.

The Congress featured top-notch speaker visionaries, business leaders, industry luminaries and expert practitioners who all shared their first-hand knowledge of real-world digital transformation journeys. Under the theme “Redefining the future organisation through Digital”, ETION DTC encouraged executives to explore emerging technology trends such as AI, IoT, Blockchain, GDPR, IT security, 5G, and robotics, and how they impact business operations. It was the key meeting place for business and IT leaders seeking to advance their knowledge of the latest business technologies and innovations.

Speakers included:

• Pinky Kekana, Deputy Minister of Communications, South Africa
• Tom Cochran, Obama White House and State Department Digital Leader
• Teddy Daka, Group Chief Executive Officer, Etion
• Dr Lance Shingai Mambondiani, CEO, Steward Bank
• Vera Nagtegaal, Executive Head, Hippo
• Lazaros Karapanagiotidis, Head of Digital Innovation, Makro SA
• Lisa Macloed, Head of Digital, Tiso Blackstar
• Nneka Keshi, Director of Digital Marketing Africa, L’oreal
• Lee Naik, CEO of TransUnion Africa
• Jeff Yu-Jen Chen, GIBS Business School
• Rivoningo Mhlari, Co-Founder & CEO, Rikatec

Reactions from Attendees:

Speaking about the event, Teddy Daka, Group CEO of Etion Limited said, “Events such as the DTC are important because this is where people from all walks of life meet and engage to understand what is happening around us. By bringing people into a congress you share knowledge and share issues with other like-minded people. This was a great opportunity for us to think issues and engage with other people on the challenges that we all face not just alone but as a business. This space gave us an opportunity to talk about the questions relating to the country, the continent and what we need to do about it”.

“A conference of this nature is important because the private sector and government come together to understand how technology keeps on advancing and what the private sector wants to do to advance technology. Government benefits from the Congress because we can pinpoint the trends and it has shown how we can improve productivity as government and operate like a private sector. This event has sharpened the thinking around governments way of doing business but it has also assisted us to improve in as far as service delivery, offer timeous service delivery to consumers.” said Pinky Kekana, Deputy Minister of Communications.

Tom Cochran, Obama White House Digital leader said, “This event provided a platform for knowledge-sharing of successes and failures. It is important that when the discussions around innovation take place, failure is discussed because that’s where you learn a lot”.

Thank you to all the panel that joined me on stage @DTCongress today. Always great to hear on the ground stories of digital transformation in SA. @Louis_JvR, @lisataljatd, @veranagtegaal, Vijay Naidoo and Andrew Dafoor.#DigitalTransformationCongress #EtionDTC pic.twitter.com/wYdn0ATMe1

— Mike Perk (@mikeperk) July 26, 2018

WATCH: Deputy Minister of @CommsZA @Pinky_Kekana1 talk about women being under represented in the workforce. She encouraged delegates at the #DigitalTransformationCongress to use #ThumaMina moment as an impetus for tackling reform on education, gender & work pic.twitter.com/L7Fzi2BUUO

— SA Gov News (@SAgovnews) July 26, 2018

My take home from the #DigitalTransformationCongress was most definately @tommer candid interview with @ITNewsAfrica . He shares very insightful experiences about his journey running digital transformation & public diplomacy @WhiteHouse cc: @WMCAfrica pic.twitter.com/6cw8HcVfNe

— Marvin Bisanga (@marvinbisanga) July 26, 2018

Our Executive Head, @veranagtegaal at the @DTCongress talking re-aligning business models to effectively engage digital customers. Follow #DigitalTransformationCongress to be part of the conversation. pic.twitter.com/TVzmRby4rS

— Hippo.co.za (@Hippo_co_za) July 26, 2018