The first Silicon Mountain Conference took place in Buea, Cameroon over the weekend, bringing together various stakeholders in the country’s startup community.
Disrupt Africa reported last week the event was set to take place, focused around the theme “Let’s Build Products”, with keynote speeches given by community member Churchill Mambe, Google Developer’s Group (GDG) leader Isaac Kamga, and Otto Akama, community development specialist at the ActivSpaces incubator.
Mambe told the story of the history of the Silicon Mountain Community, Kamga spoke of the importance of a community spirit, while Akama emphasised the importance of building products that can be turned into profitable companies as a necessary part of building a sustainable community.
The conference also saw products and projects from the community presented, by the likes of the Buea Institute of Technology, Startup Internships, peer-to-peer tutor listing platform Skademy.com and Feem, a local chat and file transfer product.
It ended with a Q&A session with the help of the Quizer app, built by members of the community during two hackathons, and closing remarks from Otto Beseka Isong, who founded Pursar.com and now runs a consulting service for startups called ConceptAfrica.