NigeriaCom 2013 Bows Out On a High: Day 2 Recap

The second day of NigeriaCom 2013 lived up to the expectations. With some really interesting sessions,  it built on the excitement of day 1 event.  While day 1 focused on quality of service, telcos and regulators, the focus of day 2 was contents consumption (and possible ways the network operators and content providers could collaborate to drive contents consumption).

The day 2 started with a panel session on “digital entertainment: mobile devices and changing consumer habits”. Members of the panel included representative of Iroking, Spinlet, and BBC. Both Steve Martin (Business Development Manager, BBC) and Michael Ogwu (Iroking) pointed out how mobile trends have greatly influenced consumer habits and especially how the adoption of mobile devices has hugely increased content consumption over time.

The panel session was followed by the presentation by Teju Ajani of Focus Nigeria on the future of traditional content media such as television and radio. In her presentation, she tried to examine the roles of the traditional media as compared to the new digital media such as YouTube. She pointed out that the new media complements the traditional media rather than compete with it. She then used an example of how YouTube can be used to increase the popularity of a TV show and also serve as an archive for TV show’s contents.

One of the highlights of day two’s event was the launch of BBC Hausa platform app by Mansur Liman, BBC Hausa Service Editor. The app is highly interactive and responsive. It is also adapted for the different mobile phones platforms. There was also the AppGig panel session with Emeka Afigbo (Google Nigeria), Ola Farinde (Browsedotcom), Bayo Puddicombe (Pledge51) and Jibola Aiyedogbon (TexSoftware) as members of the panel. The panel tried to provide answers to the question of how Africa could become the leader in app development.

The extremely interesting gig session signaled the end of a very successful event. Kudos to the Comworld series team and the headline sponsor Etisalat for hosting a successful event. You can search the hashtag #nigeriacom on twitter for conversational excerpts from the event. NigeriaCom will make a return in 2014 with tentative date of 16 and 17 September, 2014. With each additional year, the event seems to take on a more dynamic face.