Dear LakeHub team,First of all, I would like to congratulate you on coming up with this phenomenal idea. A journey of a thousand miles always starts with the first step; and you are absolutely on the right path towards building the next iHub. I would suggest that you join AfriLabs. From there website "AfriLabs exists to support the growth of communities around African technology hubs and to encourage expansion of the network by providing tools and resources for new and emerging labs. We do this by providing best practices, mentoring, networking opportunities and other resources for high-potential entrepreneurs." I believe getting in touch and sharing your unique tech hub experiences and needs with other HubSpots across the continent will help you streamline the future of your noble initiative. You could also plan a visit to iHub/NaiLab - Nairobi, Kenya, Hive Colab - Uganda or m:Lab EA to get more exposure and learn from there beginnings.I wish you the very best in the tech hub space and would be glad to hear your future success story. Kind Regards,Kipchumba.
Date: Mon, 20 May 2013 14:04:58 +0300 From: lucas.oketch@gmail.com To: skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke Subject: Re: [Skunkworks] Building "LakeHub "- Tech Hub in Kisumu
How do i participate in this venture.
On 5/20/13, LakeHub Kisumu <lakehub@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey Skunkworks - call for help here
A little over a month ago a crew of techies - university students and young professionals got together to organize a community for like-minded coders and hackers in Nyanza/Western.
We've gotten off to a good start. LakeHub (www.lakehub.co.ke) has held two "Tech Workshops" that have covered topics ranging from an Intro to Mobile App Programming to Design Thinking to mildly more sophisticated "Blink" programs with a couple Arduino (Mega) boards.
At the moment, we have an agreement with a coffee shop that has a private room and an outside garden each of which can fit about 30 people that their space is our space on Saturdays from 1-5 PM (tea and mandazi provided). Every other week we hold a semi-formal tech workshop, the weeks in between are a fully casual hang-out. We've been getting 25 people at the workshops and 8-10 at the hangouts. There is a crew of 5 that meet on Wednesday to plan the events and try to collect and share resources etc. We have a listserve, a Twitter account (@LakeHub) and a Facebook page ( www.facebook.com/LakeHubKisumu)
I'm hoping you all can help with how we can best move forward from here. We know a handful of priorities: * Permanent Space * Strong / Reliable Internet Connection * Fundraising
And we're looking for two broad categories of input: 1) Specific leads on the topics mentioned above - advice on how to secure them, individuals, companies, or organizations we can connect to, or introductions to those people/places 2) Concrete suggestions for how to build up the community and program(s).
We're leaning on a few people as our main "trainers", though we are encouraging those that are looking for training to also take on their own projects. We want to host some sort of BarCamp as a big event in a couple months, we want to connect with business(es) in the area, and/or with local/county government. We're dreaming big and moving at a pretty good pace, but we want your ideas, support, guidance, networks, and experience to help us do more of both of those.
Please (please) feel free to share your thoughts with us through lakehub@gmail.com or with a post here. Thanks for the time and suggestions / looking forward to the conversation and progress.
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