Over 500 speakers will be gathering together at the Sandton Convention Centre from 12 – 14 September for the annual Leaderex conference that kick started yesterday at 9:00am.
The convention featuring talks from industry experts extensively explores all aspects of ecommerce, HR, and finances with special emphasis on innovation, trends, solutions, key insights to maximize growth and preparing for a digital future.
The conference that is South Africa’s largest gathering for business leaders, entrepreneurs, government leaders and high potentials was organized by Leader in association with JSE. Payfast by Network International, South Africa’s largest payment gateway, hosted this year’s dedicated payment section.
The conference extended opportunities for visitors to engage in one-on-one advice sessions with experts, participate in 45 minute workshops and view demo sessions from the likes of the top e-commerce, digital marketing and fintech solution providers in the country like BulkSMS, Netcash, Paystack, Payfast, Yoco, and Zoho.
The day was filled with thought provoking questions, where experts thoroughly dissected every aspect of the ecommerce business model, the challenges, opportunities and problems that could potentially arise from them and how to either solve or mitigate them.
A rich and diverse presentation of key insights and knowledge marked the day. Some of the key highlights presented by industry experts included:
- A presentation by (GIBS) Gordon Institute of Business Science representative emphasised that education is key in the entrepreneurial world and having a sound foundational background can provide aspiring business owners the launching pad they need to stay ahead in Africa’s challenging and competitive economic landscape.
- Their is a sharp rising economic boom happening in the world of ecommerce, especially in some of the biggest East and West African markets like Nigeria and Kenya making it crucial for business owners who plan to launch an ecommerce business or are already successfully running one, to be equipped and ready to meet the challenges for the process of attaining sustainable continuity that is required in ecommerce.
- Solutions from various experts across the retail, logistics, sales and marketing sectors are adapting to technological changes faster than ever before and provide a broad spectrum of solutions for business owners to meet their goals effectively.
- Major value – adding topics pertaining to the retail industry with particular emphasis on digital transformation in the sector and how businesses can adapt to the changes. Particular topics to note included: retail trends shaping informal trade, digitizing the main market supply chain, Warehouse of the future, social commerce in FMCG and accelerating retailer growth through data.
- In the realm of logistics topics of particular interest were: 4 ways to prevent parcel theft, everything you need to know about importing and exporting products, using lockers and counters to send and receive parcels around the country and how AI and automation are transforming fulfillment.