Communications, advertising and marketing professionals converged in Accra on 22nd May for the Accra edition of Africa Communications Week (ACW), a global campaign held in over 30 countries across Africa and Europe to empower and equip communications professionals with tools and resources to change the current narratives about Africa. The event was hosted at Kukun Workspace by WaxPrint Media, one of Ghana’s leading digital marketing and communications agencies and featured a discussion on the 2019 ACW theme, “Can Africa Lead Disruptive Innovation in Communications?” with a panel of experts including Makafui Ayimey, co-founder of The CMO Summit, Venus Tawiah, Director of Business Development at Now Available Africa and Jesse Ghansah, co-founder and CEO of OMG Digital.
The intimate session opened with an introduction by Muhammida El Muhajir, WaxPrint Media’s Director of Strategy and followed with reviews and live demos of digital automation and innovation tools for the communications industry such as Press Farm, Prezly, Awario and Clip Coverage that impact functions such as media outreach, tracking, distribution, content management, and reporting and improve how communications managers, independent PR practitioners, and entrepreneurs communicate to the world.
“African businesses across all sectors are often reluctant to adopt new technology and innovation which serve to maximize efficiency, time and money. The focus of our session was to enlighten the communications professionals in attendance from marketing, advertising and communications organizations such as Innova DDB, Women In PR Ghana, Now Available Africa, Kempinski Gold Coast Hotel, and Empire Entertainment on existing innovation that can truly transform our work as communicators and how we tell our stories,” shared El Muhajir who also moderated the panel discussion.
The topic, “Can Africa Lead Disruptive Innovation in Communications?” initiated a lively discussion among the panelists and audience which touched on how they utilize innovation and reflect positive representations of Africa in their work and imagine future collaboration among African entities as an antidote to reliance on foreign investment, coverage and expertise. The panel also concluded that tapping into indigenous tech talent for local solutions were key factors to further innovating communications in Ghana and the continent.
“It can be a challenge staying up to date with new tech trends and innovation. An ideal platform to discover new tools is Producthunt which curates some of the best new products on a daily basis. As one of very few African startups to engage with tech giants such as Snapchat, Youtube and Google, we exemplify that the continent is a market to be further explored as we continue to push the boundaries of innovation in media, digital publishing and content creation,” said Ghansah whose company OMG Digital is a Pan-African digital media platform operating in Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.
Following the event, complimentary trial subscriptions of some of the featured communications tools were shared with participants in effort to jumpstart their adoption of new innovation.
During Africa Communications Week, WaxPrint Media joined other Africa focused communicators from countries such as Ethiopia, Togo, Senegal, South Africa, Rwanda, and more who share a vision for transformative change in Africa through strategic communications. For more information, visit: www.africacommunicationsweek.com
