What 2019 Holds For Us

BTNG’s Strategy for Community and Calendar for 2019

It was 5 days before Nigeria’s 2018 Independence Day and we were contemplating and pondering on the task we had set before us. Whatsapp messages in the hundreds. Emails by the dozen. New ideas by the hour. The question at hand; can we pull off organising a hackathon event in one month?

As this is 4 months after the fact, the answer as I’m sure you’re aware of is: Yes.

But it was no small feat. Thanks to the power of community and the members who believed in us by volunteering their time, offering their intellect & wisdom, and resources for us to be successful.

Since the formulation of BTNG, we have always believed in community and the importance of building a thriving and engaged group. Whilst preparing for our time-sensitive hackathon, we stumbled on a key insight:

The solutions to a lot of our problems came to us by looking inwards

That is, reaching out to community members that have an interest in a particular area became immensely helpful. In our short community run, we have witnessed what it means for members to be a part of something of great importance, not just to themselves but to the societies which they belong to.

Here are a few highlights from our year in 2018:

With a brief rundown of what we achieved in 2018, this juncture provides a segue for what we have planned for 2019. Sticking with the theme of community, the following sentence encapsulates our driving force for this year:

We aim to deliberately build and engage our community in useful and impactful ways.

BTNG helps tech enthusiasts build technological solutions that will have a positive impact specifically in the following areas: Professional/Personal lives, Emerging Economies and Nigeria. Here is how we visualise it:

Life is complex. We know people commit to different things for different reasons and we know people engage in different activities which enrich their lives in various ways.

If we create a rigid one size fits plan for all, we create a plan for none. We understand this is crucial and have made deliberate efforts to be bold on a specific focus with a variable individuals can adjust based on intentions and expectations.

Depending on who you are, your interests may align like this:

An event or activity created by BTNG may have more of a positive impact on your professional career than your interest in emerging economies or Nigeria by:

The image above shows how we aim to touch on all 3 areas for all our key activities but giving you the freedom to choose your focus and in this case, professional development could be the preferred area.

In this scenario, the Emerging Economies circle takes precedent. As a tech enthusiast, you may have a keen interest in technological products working in Nigeria but your side hustle is targeted to a certain demographic in east Africa. This slice for you here could be:

We also accommodate this as the knowledge gained from our content can be transferable towards your ventures.

Perhaps you may be frustrated with Nigeria and its progress. Or you may believe Nigeria is an untapped market, or you may want to meet like-minded people who are thinking about real solutions to problems. In this narrative, you may have a desire to:

And many more.

This situation is perfect as our focus zones in on this. The positive impact you can make through your contribution can be immensely helpful in shaping what Nigeria would be tomorrow.

We have broken down these sections as we believe understanding our foundational strategy will help explain the events we have planned for this year. We are looking forward to 2019 and cannot wait to execute on the plans we have laid out. We hope you can join us on this journey as we look forward to serve you.

We present to you our calendar for the year. Though we do not have definite dates, we have decided to push out what our intentions are for the year so you can plan accordingly. We will be sending out detailed comms about each of these in due time.

Event 1: Our Speakers Series Event- April
A campfire styled event where speakers and the audience engage in a healthy discussion on a particular theme

Event 2: Our Annual Hackathon- July
Our Annual hackathon focused on Nigerian problems we believe technology can solve

Event 3: Workshop Event- September
A new approach to building and developing skills in a particular area

Event 4: Speaker series- November
A campfire styled event where speakers and the audience engage in a healthy discussion on a particular theme

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