LAST week, the third Ideas Festival hosted by media mogul Trevor Ncube in Nyanga provided a galaxy of ideas on how Zimbabwe could be transformed. NewsDay spoke to business leaders on their views about the festival.
Trevor Ncube — Alpha Media Holdings chairman
Seeing young entrepreneurs with bright start-up ideas come through at this year’s festival is a big paycheck for me.
Hearing the doors that we are opening for these young people, the opportunities that we are opening for them, and the quality of discussions that will result in real improvement in the quality of lives and the quality of engagements, all I can say is my heart is full.
I am so excited that this is just the beginning and a marathon for us. We are building a community of similar-minded people who love this country and who are contributing to the development of this country. I am excited that the traction is getting bigger.
Janet Zhou — Economic Justice Lead Southern Africa Trust/ Zimbabwe country manager
This year’s Ideas Festival has been amazing. I participated last year and I was not sure if I was going to attend this year. However, I decided to come and I do not regret my decision.
It has been a lot of learning, which I am going to share with my family, my friends and my organisation that this is a great space of ideas which is the main objective.
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It was great to be sharing ideas, innovation and how to do things differently and for me, the group was diverse in terms of age, sectors, experience and the type of presentations.
The masterclasses were fantastic because we got to hear from real experts, who shared their experiences and showed us how we can change the narrative for Zimbabwe and make it the destination for business and for everyone to have a stake in terms of its development. Well done AMH.
Yvonne Mtengwa — Travel Essence Magazine and Narratives PR founder and editor-in-chief
For me, the thing that I enjoyed about this year’s Ideas conference was the diversity of the audience and the depth of the topics that we had discussions about.
We had such an incredible room full of great ideas, great reflections and practical tips on how we can all contribute to a better Zimbabwe, not only as citizens of this nation but also as stakeholders on the global landscape.
So, kudos to the team and congratulations on yet another successful installation. I look forward to coming back from Dubai because I thought it was fantastic and I want to be able to bring more people and tell more people in the diaspora to make their way to Nyanga or wherever you are having it next year.
Nyasha Zhou — Chartered accountant and governance expert
This was my first time to attend the Ideas Festival. This was an amazing combination of ideas and thoughts, the young, the mature, the old, the new, the experienced, the not-so-experienced, together with a common purpose. Amazing ideas that can take this country way ahead.
The collaboration as private sector players playing various roles is just amazing.
My key takeaway is that there is still hope in this country, but we need to create what I call an ideas wave and impact the nation of Zimbabwe and bring them, lift them above toxic politics to business and build a humane country and community.
Divine Ndhlukula — Securico and Zvikomborero Farms founder
So, this idea of the festival is a very important call in the future of our entrepreneurs in Zimbabwe because they are getting the best from here.
The quality of presentations and the levels are extremely high and when I look at the people who are ideating their ideas to take to the market, they are learning from the very best.
I can only see a situation where most of these young guys that have been pitching, have benefited immensely.
The future of our country economically is going to be in very good hands if this goes on. We say kudos to them.
Learnmore Gusvure — Zenith Car Rentals CEO
This conference is life-changing, to be honest. I did not expect to be transformed in any way and I just thought of attending one of the other conferences.
But the content that was shared here, the calibre of people, the likes of Nkosana Moyo, Nicholas Vingirai and even the man himself, Trevor Ncube, were sharing very practical experiences which do help.
The business that I am running is still young, and I can call myself a start-up, so this was an opportunity to learn from polished minds. So, I would say this was a transformative conference and I will be here next year, no doubt.
Nick Vingirai — Banker and entrepreneur
This is a seed of hope for our country. This is a seed of prosperity for our country. This is a seed of deliverance for our young people.
