Baraza Media Lab has announced the second annual Africa Media Festival, set to take place from February 21st to 22nd, 2024, at the Nairobi National Museum.
After a successful inaugural event in 2023, which brought together over 650 participants from 18 African countries and beyond, the festival is poised to once again provide a dynamic platform for thought leaders, creatives, and innovators to converge, engage, and shape the future of African media.
The edition’s theme, ‘What’s Next in Media’ is to encourage participants to dream and lay the groundwork for groundbreaking innovations that will transform the African media landscape and rekindle hope in an industry facing challenges.
The 2023 edition of the Africa Media Festival provided a vital forum for African media stakeholders to reflect on the challenges and celebrate the successes within the industry.
Among the significant topics addressed were the use of the African media space as a testing ground for disruptive technologies, the need for proactive policy frameworks, and the call for a shift in the perception of ‘African media’.
Acknowledging the incredible diversity across the continent, the festival emphasizes the importance of crafting unique business models, policies, and funding strategies and nurturing diverse talent.
In a press statement, the 2024 Africa Media Festival builds on these discussions with the following objectives: Celebrating Cutting-Edge Innovations where the festival aims to celebrate the latest innovations in the media sector, inspiring experimentation and pushing boundaries, and Enhancing Knowledge Sharing where participants will engage in discussions about emerging trends, evidence-based practices, and novel approaches to promoting media independence and sustainability in Africa.
The other objective is to spark cross-disciplinary Conversations where the festival will promote collaboration, trust-building, and collective action across various sectors to drive regional media excellence.
The conference invites diverse stakeholders, including investors, media owners, civil society representatives, social media influencers, journalists, creatives, and government officials.
With a target of 600 delegates over two days, the festival aims to attract insightful speakers from both within and outside the continent where expected participants will include writers, journalists, cartoonists, AI technologists, TV and radio professionals, social media influencers, photographers, funders, and poets.
According to the statement, the Africa Media Festival is a unique continental platform that offers attendees the opportunity to: Network with key industry players, policy leaders, transformative governments, and media tech industry experts, engage with emerging technologies in the media sector through hackathons, Witness the birth of innovative media-tech ideas and Collaborate and participate in pre-and post-conference meetups organized in coordination with various organizations.
“We want this year’s Festival to be a space that will surface future trends, an opportunity to gaze at the horizon of the big trends that are shaping the media ecosystem,” said Christine Mungai, Lead Curator at Baraza Media Lab and the Festival Curator of this year’s event.
“Join us in this thoughtful exploration of innovation in the present and insight into the future,” she added.
The event will showcase a diverse array of formats, including panels, workshops, masterclasses, keynotes, research reports, product launches, networking opportunities, roundtable discussions, design thinking workshops, fireside chats, and artistic performances.
The festival has been meticulously crafted with official programming scheduled throughout the day, complemented by networking sessions in the early morning and evening. These community-organized sessions are designed to enhance the overall conference experience.
Notably, the program for the 2024 edition will diverge significantly from the 2023 edition due to the introduction of more intimate and collaborative activities by reducing the number of panel discussions.
Interested parties are encouraged to visit the website https://africamediafestival.com/ for more information, sponsorship opportunities, and registration details.
By Michael Omondi
