Here’s a confession: I’m not the most social person in the world. I’m what you may call, an introvert. That basically means, I maximize efficiency when I’m indoors rather than outside, talking to people.
But in my field of work, I have to socialize and meet new people in the tech space and know more about what’s going on. Is it easy? Not really but it’s getting better and I’m getting more comfortable outside my comfort zone.
So when I got an email which had an invite for something called a “Silicon Drink Up“, I was interested. A mixer for entrepreneurs? Sounds like an interesting concept.
So I put the event on my calendar, psyched myself up and decided to attend.
The Mixer
So, this event was created by Starta. Starta is a company which provides entrepreneurs in Africa with business support content, tools and opportunities required to launch, manage and scale a business startup.
Starta has done these type of mixers before. They’ve done most of them in Nigeria and this was their first one in Ghana. A reason for creating such an event was to have people in the tech industry come together, have drinks and conversations.
You always meet interesting people at events like these. I spoke to different people working in the tech space including folks from the agriculture sector, branding, and education.
It’s really cool to talk to lots of people who are doing many cool things behind the scene in the tech sector. But people who do all that work are rarely featured on the front page of newspapers in the country. The average citizen may have never heard of these companies or what they’re doing. It’s not until they get appreciated for their efforts in other countries like Europe or the US. Then the local media swoops in and piggybacks off them.
But hard work pays off for most of these entrepreneurs and that’s all that matters.
Sometimes you read the news and can tend to see things as gloomy. But meeting individuals who are really trying to make impact and change lives gives me so glimmer of hope for the next generation.
Hopefully I can go to mixers like these drink ups. I’m still trying to get more out of my comfort zone.
But if I meet more cool people at these mixers, it’s not going to be that hard.
