The serene and green environment of Café Neo – the venue of the MEST Talks Lagos event would definitely be the first thing every invited guest will observe as the nicely treated lawns alone would convince anyone in doubt of the quality of the programme.

Networking Was The Major Agenda For Attendees
Networking seemed to be the main agenda of many of the attendees as they were seen giggling and grinning away as they exchanged pleasantries, handshakes, warm hugs and more importantly “business cards”. While some were clearly getting to meet for the first time, others appeared to have met at one point in time or the other. This phase of the program went on for about an hour before myriads of drinks were served. People drank away while still enjoying the networking session which was reinforced by the hospitable environment.
The event commenced around 7:30 pm with more than 200 people mostly startup founders and aspiring entrepreneurs. Adorned in a simple but classy jumpsuit, the African Queen of Polo, Neku Atawodi who was the host for the night quickly requested that the team of panelists comprising 5 male and 2 female investors introduced themselves to the visibly anxious audience. Worthy of note is that the networking did not stop as many attendees still giggled at inconsistent intervals.

An Amazing Group of Panelists Shared Their Thoughts
From the extreme left was Yele Bademosi of Starta Africa whose conspicuous confidence spoke well for him. Next to him was Segun Adeyemi of Amplify, a graduate of economics who later became a financial analyst. Ngozi Dozie of Kaizen Ventures followed, and right beside him was the former Minister of Communication and the Chairperson of the Global Alliance for Affordable Internet, Omobola Johnson. Jason Njoku, Co-founder and CEO of Iroko TV, Lexi Novitske of IHS towers and Dan Marom, an Israeli Angel investor completed the pack of panelists.
Without much ado, Neku presented the panelists with questions previously sent in and they didn’t just do justice to them but they did it in an interesting manner. Shortly after, it was time for attendees to ask their questions in person. It seemed like they were all waiting for the opportunity as many hands filled the air. This in my opinion was a good sign that the event was fulfilling its purpose! Eventually, close to 20 attendees were given the platform, and as expected, brilliant and thought provoking questions were asked. As expected, the combination of the seasoned panelists did justice to the questions. Some of such answers included:
“I don’t like PowerPoint presentations or structured logical presentation. All I want to see is if an entrepreneur has an idea…” – Jason Njoku
“Entrepreneurs should work more on ideas that have clear business goal which can be sustained for at least six months…” – Yele Bademosi
“The best way to penetrate into the Nigerian market is to criticize the government.”- Dan Marom
“Government doesn’t get interested until its getting interesting”- Omobola Johnson
“If you as an entrepreneur focus your mind on your business, you needn’t meet investors, they’d come to you” – Jason Njoku

Lastly, the panelists were asked what they thought the next big thing was and they all gave their opinions. While Omobola Johnson thinks it’s education, Jason thinks it’s gambling. The MEST Talks Lagos event ended with the organizers thanking everyone including Café neo, Bella Naija, Pulse.ng and Interswitch to say the least (who were the sponsors and partners for the night). Everyone dispersed around few minutes after 9pm. While attendees left straight away, the remaining lot who still believed one’s network determines his/her net worth, networking just got real!

https://www.techvoize.com/africa/heres-went-mest-talks-lagos-event-4876