The first edition of Ogun Digital Summit (ODS) took place on Saturday, 25th of January 2020 in the city of Abeokuta, Ogun state and we are yet to recover from the experience because it was ecstatic!
It was a free event and about 1,285 people were in attendance excluding the invited guests, speakers and other dignitaries.
Victor Adeleye, the brain behind Ogun Digital Summit, said “Ogun State has the highest number of tertiary institutions in Nigeria and yet events like this are scarce in the state, we are starting Ogun Digital Summit because of the need for a platform to facilitate the convergence of great minds and coalescence of groundbreaking ideas that will shape the nation’s digital landscape through engaging discourse and empowerment that push the frontiers of innovation across various spheres of life in Nigeria.”
The theme for this year’s summit was tagged: Digitization of Reality and we had Mr. Dayo Abiodun, Special Assistant to the Governor of Ogun State on ICT, Mrs. Adekunte Olatundun, Director of Bureau of IT, Ogun State, Mr. David Iyang-Etoh, Lead Partner, Startup Innovation Hub, Uyo as our keynote speakers joined with 6 other panelists.
The opening speech was made by Victor Adeleye, the Convener of Ogun Digital Summit and part of his opening words was that, as the world continues to move from an analogue to a digital age, we could improve on the community where people of the state meet to connect, learn and encourage inspirations to create new opportunities through innovation.
For the first panel session, we had Oluwatobi Akinpelu, Team Lead, Mobile Development at Farmcrowdy, Adedamola Adeleye, POS Development Lead at Global Accelerex, Oluwatobi Owolabi, Lead for Google Business Group, Abeokuta and Blessing Abeng, Founder of Einsteinette Limited speak on the topic: “Building a career in tech”. One key lesson from this session was that “anyone from any background can actually get into tech and the core reason to get into tech should be to solve a problem and see how tech can make our society better”.
Before the second panel session, there was an ice breaker where we had a mini networking session where every participant was opportune to meet with different people, build relationships and also connect with their fellow creatives.
The second panel session was a very interactive one because it spoke about the challenges faced by tech startups within the state. We had Prof. A.A.A Agboola, Director of ICT, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Dayo Abiodun, Special Assistant to the Governor of Ogun State on ICT, Ishola Adebayo, Creative Director of OnlineHub in this session. It was emphasized that Ogun State has the highest number of tertiary institutions in Nigeria and we need to start encouraging our talents to build solutions and address the problems in the State. Dayo Abiodun also said “We are doing all in our capacity as the state government to ensure we provide an enabling environment for startups to thrive”
To round up the event, the convener encouraged everyone in attendance to always look out for opportunities in the digital space with special appreciation to the state government for their support and the volunteering team led by Oluwatobi Kolawole
ODS”20 was indeed an experience and we can’t wait to host you again in 2021! Let’s keep raising the bar! he said.
