The organisers of the SA Innovation Summit 2016 have called on inventors, innovators and established companies to enter their prototype or product into the Inventors Garage and SA Innovation Legends Pitching Den competitions.
The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Innovation acceleration – scaling and impact for ideas that make a difference’.
“The competitions are a big part of the summit, with finalists and winners exposed to a number of investors and incubators,” said summit director Dr Audrey Verhaeghe.
She added that the organisers of the summit had this year also introduced a match and invest platform, enabling entrepreneurs to pitch ideas directly to investors to secure funding for their growing businesses.
The Pitching Den competition was open to high-growth start-ups, established companies and large corporates that were driving innovation on the African continent.
Entries to the Pitching Den could be submitted online.
The Inventors Garage competition was open to anyone with a working prototype or product from proven concept to early commercialisation – whether a kitchen or garage inventor, a businessperson or a seasoned innovator.
Those selected as semifinalists would be invited to showcase their products or prototypes at the SA Innovation Summit’s Market on the Edge.
Both competitions would close on July 30.
The SA Innovation Summit would be held at the Birchwood Hotel and OR Tambo Conference Centre, in Gauteng, from September 21 to 24.