LATEST NEWS
The Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative’s Royal Visit
30 September 2019
The Cape Innovation & Technology Initiative (CiTi) has always been proud of its Women in Business Programme which is run annually in partnership with the City of Cape Town. The programme facilitates and supports women in and around Cape Town to future-proof their businesses and teaches them how to thrive in a digitally advancing economy.
In the past week the programme and it’s female entrepreneurs hosted HRH the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle in a roundtable discussion at the Bandwidth Barn in Woodstock. Here they were able to highlight a few of the programme’s milestones, industry hurdles and looked at some of the success stories of other female peers.
‘Ladies who Launch’ ignites opportunity through network-building between aspiring, and inspiring women entrepreneurs and successful female role models. These women are building and driving entrepreneurial ecosystems in South Africa which has become a proud entity of the programme and a milestone that was worth sharing with the Duchess herself. During the discussion, the female founders shared stories on how to tackle the South African economy along with some of SA’s biggest challenges such as lack of inclusion and inequality. The Duchess was able to engage, inspire and even be inspired by a few of these trailblazing women.
Women like ‘SweepSouth founder and recently appointed Chairperson of BiouCiTi Aisha Pandor, she said: “The round table discussion with the Duchess and the ‘Duchess 12’, as the group of women entrepreneurs, have called themselves, was a great opportunity to candidly discuss our work, motivations, challenges and the importance of tenacity and perseverance when you are a role model to others and a game-changer in your field.”
CiTi CEO, Ian Merrington also shared: “Empowering female entrepreneurs, especially within a digitally-driven economy, is core to CiTi’s mission of building a future-fit inclusive society. We were delighted to host the Duchess and to further build out opportunities for innovation collaboration with the UK.”
Throughout the discussion, the Duchess shared advice based on her own experiences and encouraged the ladies to keep paving the way forward even during tough times and to have confidence in themselves. The day was not only filled with ‘shop talk’ but a few laughs and some tips and joys that come with motherhood.
