During the 2018 Stockholm World Water Week, 129 people decided to do some shopping. Shopping for innovative water and ecosystem services that is, in our African Spatial Delight Supermarket session. During this meetup, that was co-hosted by G4AW and AfriAlliance, 12 projects pitched and presented. All of them working on IT and data: using the technologies of the future for African development.

After the pitching round, participants had the opportunity to talk to the ‘stall’ (project) owners, ask them questions about their work and connect for future cooperation. At the end of the shopping round, the audience was asked to divide the chocolate coins they had been given to determine which product was most valuable to them.

We asked Jurjen Wagemakers from Floodtags Mali about his experiences as a product owner.

‘The format was smart and fun. I had concrete interaction with the audience, which was great. I have made some valuable contacts, although it is always difficult to get a large audience that is actually of interest to you and everyone else. I also like the fact that I was working together with other projects: it is a great way to connect – during the event and afterwards’
 

Some feedback from the audience:

‘Many young entrepreneurs and a good mix of North/South. Nice to see pitching instead of lectures’ But also: ‘too many success stories without critical comments’, and: ‘a shame that investors deliberately kept themselves under the radar’. 

Overall we received the feedback that it was a vibrant session with a good moderator. And although not everyone kept to the format, it was definitely a session that made for a ‘dancefloor’ of networking.