On the 25th of September the second annual Levis Pioneer Nation event took place at the Sci-Bono Discovery centre in Newtown. The event started at 9 AM and by that time I was an hour away from home (Newcastle) and 2-3 hours away from Johannesburg. See 2days before the event I had already made the decision that I was not going to attend because of reasons I'd rather not disclose plus the fact that I had to travel to Jozi early just for this particular event did not sit right with me. I still wanted to do things with my friends back home and spend a little more time with the family as well.
So what changed my mind you ask? Well during my late night perusal on twitter I came across a DOUBLE TICKET GIVEAWAY by Shaka Sisulu, a public speaker, entrepreneur, columnist, amongst other things, and I decided to enter. I had no expectations hence I did not even plan on how I would get to Jozi in time for the event. So I entered the competition and an hour later my friend, Inno, texted me telling me we won. Now I started panicking because I wasn't really sure how I was going to break the news to my mother and my friends about how I am leaving first thing tomorrow morning simply because I had won tickets to this event but the idea of winning excited me so much I started thinking about what outfit I would wear, who I would take with and how long it was going to take me to get to jozi. I went on the Pioneer nation website and checked out the speakers and the times.
The next morning I woke up pretty early, bearing in mind that from Newcastle to Johannesburg would probably be about 3-4 hours. I left the house around half 7 and got to joburg around 12 PM Went straight to res changed and made my way to Newtown. 3 taxi rides and about a 30 minute walk later we found ourselves inside the Sci-Bono centre. The place was buzzing with activity and talks all around.
Once we were inside the adrenaline kicked in and I forgot I was tired. I started getting excited for all the people I wanted to see, especially for Shaka Sisulu's talk called show me the money. The talk was about entrepreneurship. I have never thought of myself as such but the information he gave there was quite helpful not only for businesses but for life in general. I have no pictures of him or that specific workshop because I was just so engaged and entertained. He gave pointers on how to sell your ideas (business), how to determine your worth and most importantly how to get people to SHOW YOU THE MONEY. It was pretty informative and life changing. We also got to sit in on Sibusiso Ngwenya's talk. Now this guy is a 23 year old who owns a company called Skinny sbu socks that obviously sells socks. His socks are manufactured in South Africa and they are absolutely amazing. For a 23 years old this bro is doing great work and he also had a pop up shop there along side RHTC which is a South African clothing brand.
We left the scene early because we were pretty tired. I only got to see 2 people but my friends who were there early saw quite a number of speakers including the hip sop star Riky Rick and provided me with the pictures.
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| Mpho Mahlaela (Friend and blogger) Mpho's blog> ItsOmalicha |
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| Inno Kgarudi |
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| Inno. Rene, Zinhle, Mpho |
Thanks for reading
