One year ago, TED and the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation organized the global event TEDxChange. Going beyond ‘ideas worth spreading’, the collaborative wanted to benefit from the passion and knowledge of the community and turn ideas into practice.

In Amsterdam, TEDxChange invited eight energetic speakers to present their vision and asked TEDsters how they could help them to get further. One of the speakers was Ndubuisi Ekekwe, an American-Nigerian engineer and the founder of the African Institution of Technology. His mission is to reshape Africa through technological developments. He participated in TEDxChange to get support to realize his ambitious plans. By telephone from Boston, he looks back at this day in September 2010. Although he was unable to attend in person, Ekekwe felt his interlocutors were genuinely interested in his ideas.

For more….click here.

Editor’s Note: Ndubuisi later attended TEDxAmserdam live.

Inaugural Brand Africa 100 awards ceremony was held Thursday, 29 September 2011 by Brand South Africa, and Brand Leadership Academy in South Africa.

Brand Africa 100, according to the organisers, is based on a multi-tier methodology that incorporates qualitative, quantitative and secondary research. Developed by the Brand Leadership Academy in partnership with TNS and Brand Finance plc, this seminal research has set the standard for brand evaluation on the continent.

The valuation also takes into consideration how brands are evaluated by both consumers and investors, taking into consideration how consumer affinity for brands translates into value for the investors. It was conducted across Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The results of the Brand Africa 100 awards proved that African brands are gradually making a headway representing 33.7% of all the brands nominated, whilst international brands had 66.3%. A further breakdown of the African results indicate that South African brands represent 24% of the share, Nigerian brands represent 9% with Kenyan brands representing the remaining 1%.

Chairman and Founder of Brand Africa, Thebe Ikalafeng said “one of the primary drivers of Africa’s growth lies in stimulating and growing thriving African and global businesses and brands in Africa”. He added that the inaugural Brand Africa 100 “will signal which brands are getting it right on the continent.”

Oliver Schmitz, managing director of Brand Finance South Africa said that “Brand Africa 100 acknowledges Africa’s most admired and valued brands amongst their world leading global peers. For the first time, African brands are recognised for the brand value they have created on the African continent by embracing and leveraging African values”, adding that “it’s inspiring to see African brands finally taking their place on the world stage and setting a benchmark for the rest of Africa.”

Brands that made the top 10 include  Glo, MTN, Absa, NNPC, Eskom, Shoprite, Dangote, Woolsworths, Pick n Pay and Vodacom while GTB, UBA and First Bank made the top 20.