With MTN surging to 5,7 million mobile money customers, FNB topping 3 million users, MPesa voted as one of the top five mobile inventions, and 37% of South Africans with a cell phone already using mobile banking services, mobile banking is surging ahead with rapid speed.

So now that major banks, telcos and other service providers have taken the initial steps in developing technologies, strategies and infrastructure for mobile banking, what is the next phase for mobile financial services? Customers are not just hoping for, but expecting more sophisticated services such as location-based services, corporate mobile banking, remote deposit capture and most importantly, mobile payments.

Smaller and more recent entrants into the mobile banking industry learn from bigger more established financial institutions and service providers. It also doesn’t end there: as competition increases, these newer entrants also look to gain competitive advantages by implementing more superior and advanced mobile banking services. Interoperability between all major role-players brings us to the issues of regulation. Taking a closer look at laws and regulations that govern the mobile banking industry we analyze possible issues, loopholes and inadequacies in existing regulation during the three day event.

With senior executives from across Africa addressing the conference, attending will give delegates the perfect opportunity to interact with banking professionals who are in charge of mobile banking and mobile payments. Other executives include professionals from telcos, mobile operators, emerging application developers and key industry analysts.

This year’s event with a revamped programme offers a comprehensive and multi-facetted agenda relevant to all professionals in the mobile banking industry. The conference features 28 top class speakers, 10 panelists, 2 panel discussions, streams, and an adjacent exhibition.

Event Details:

When: 13, 14 & 15 March 2012

Where: Indaba Hotel, Fourways, Johannesburg

For more information click here.

You are kindly invited to the first Girl Geek Dinner Cape Town event of 2012 taking place this week.

The event will welcome guest speaker Catherine Lückoff:

Catherine Lückhoff is the Head of Brand Strategy for Bozza.mobi, a mobile App which offers artists, filmmakers and entrepreneurs a mobile platform through which to distribute their content. Before Catherine joined Bozza she was the founder and CEO of one of South Africa’s leading communications and PR agencies; Mango-OMC. Catherine just doesn’t see things the way others do. And she brings that ability to shift perspective to her work, where she continually marries tried and tested methods with radical new ideas, which is how she has built Mango-OMC into one of the country’s top PR agencies.

She was also named as one of 38 emerging tech entrepreneurs to watch in the Old Mutual Do Great Things Guide.

When: 26th January 2012

Time: 7pm – 11pm

Where: Cape Royale Hotel, 47 Main Road, Green Point, Cape Town

Cost: R165 for a cocktail dinner and goodie bag. (Drinks for your own account).

To RSVP or for more information click here. Places are limited!

To get the 2012 year off to a rocking start, please join MOMO Joburg for the first event of the year, “Mobile Applications and the Developer Community in South Africa”.

With smartphone penetration in South Africa at 16% and rising, apps are going to be a critical tool for us in the way we use our mobile devices sponsored by Vodacom Digital Media, who is advancing the Mobile apps and the developer community in South Africa.

After the sponsor’s welcome, there will be a presentation all about the Vodacom Developer Programme and how it can help grow a vibrant developer community here in South Africa. This will be followed by a  10-minute panel discussion on mobile application development.

And now for something new! The event will also be offering three developers the opportunity to pitch their apps at the event. Each developer will have two minutes to impress the panel.  It’s a great opportunity to get your app out there. The winner, as judged by the panel, will receive free promotion and be featured in the Vodacom App Store. Fill in the form here and we’ll choose the lucky three.

When: 30 January 2012, 6pm – 10pm

Where: Cafe Culture, Pineslopes Shopping Centre, Witkoppen Road, Fourways, Johannesburg

Cost: This is a FREE event

For more information about MOMO Joburg click here.

ScaleConf is a two-day conference that will bring together local and international experts to talk about the challenges and future of building and running online sites and services. The conference is the first of its kind to be hosted in South Africa.

Presentations will cover the culture and methodologies used to architect and develop the strong foundations that enable large-scale web companies to function smoothly, and smaller ones to grow gracefully. The speaker line-up includes some big names like Coda Hale (Yammer Inc.), Simon de Haan (Praekelt), Zach Holman (Github) and Miles Ward (Amazon Web Services).

The conference is the brainchild of two operations engineers at Yola.com, Jonathan Hitchcock and Duncan Phillips. “We created the conference because there’s a growing startup focus in Cape Town, and with that comes the need to build web applications at an unprecedented scale. While in the US I had attended some great technical conferences, and I wanted to bring that level of quality to South Africa,” explains Jonathan. Duncan adds, “Ultimately, the aim is to promote the best practices and technologies that will help drive a world-class DevOps culture here in South Africa.”

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Hear from Thought Leaders of Technology and Digital Marketing at the 2012 Afri-Tech Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa – The largest Digital Marketing gathering in Africa.

The innovative framework of this conference is intended to create cross-functional solutions in the areas of Health care, Education, Banking & Finance, Networking solutions, Digital marketing and Science & Technology.

Guest speakers during the summit include:

• Ross Thomasson – Regional Director, Africa For Vodafone
• Ms Naledi Pandor – Minister of Science and Technology South Africa
• Thebe Ikalafeng – Founder of the Fin Week Marketing Services Company
• Prof. Melius Weideman – Research Professor, Cape Peninsula University
• Aidan Baigrie – SEACOM Head of Business Development

Event Details:

When: 22 – 24 March 2012

Where: Gallagher Convention Centre, 19 Richards Drive, Midrand, Johannesburg

For more information or to register click here.

Co-founders Synergize, University of Cape Technology & ROI Media are proud to present the very first SEO gathering in Cape Town. This will be the launch of South Africa’s first gathering of SEO like minded people, digital agencies and businesses.

Space is limited so book your seat now. There is no cost for the opening event.

View the details of the event below:

When: 30th November 2011

Time: 5:30 – 7:30pm

Where: Think Tank, Metropolitan, 2 Oceans Aquarium

Visit the White Hatters website here.

Founder of World of Avatar and CEO of MXit, Alan Knott Craig will be guest speaker at the next Media Lab Monday.

Some background information about Alan: Between 2003 and 2006 he co-founded five companies in the mobile telecoms sector and in 2006 he was appointed managing director of iBurst, the third largest wireless broadband network in South Africa. In April 2008 he published Don’t Panic, persuading South Africans to come home and in June 2008 founded The Trust, an NGO focused on assisting charities access skills and capital. In 2009 he was named as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

The event will be informal followed by a Q&A session.

When: 28 November 2011 4:30pm – 5:30pm

Where: Room E203, Electrical and Electronic Building, Engineering Faculty, University of Stellenbosch.

Tickets: Free entry

For more information email: mariskaza@ml.sun.ac.za