SA Rocks

Today while expecting new business cards I was presented with a package that included a new cellphone, pre-loaded with airtime, a Nando’s flashdrive and instructions from Kagiso, the “New CEO”.

Here’s a photo of the package:

I think this is a fantastic campaign for a few reasons:

1. I was expecting something else (my business cards) so this played in their favour
2. It is a well-executed campaign filled with customised goodies like a cellphone box and cover inside and out, customised flashstick and instructions to call a number on the cellphone you are given.
3. Having worked at Vodacom SA, I know how difficult it is now with RICA, to do a campaign of this kind.
4. Neat execution.
5. I was not contacted by the PR firm to ask for my details. They found them and sent me the package. Impressive.

Popularity: 26% [?]

Don is a very good mate of mine and I think he should win Mr South Africa. I hear you asking why. Let me show you:

That is why. Incase you missed it, this is the original that is being parodied.

Popularity: 24% [?]

The TechCrunch Europas, the European Startup Awards for tech companies, has listed Cognician, a South African technology startup, as one of the top 11 Best New Startup’s in 2010.

I’ve met Patrick Kayton, co-founder and COO of Cognician and the guy is pure class. He is 100% humble, incredibly smart and very switched on to the world around him. With that said I am in the perfect position to say how incredibly happy I am for Patrick and his team. He has fought incredibly hard for his product, the vision and his company and deserves every bit of success that comes his way.

Some info on TechCrunch Europas:

The Europas serve to honour the best technology companies and startups across the web and mobile space. The awards span 22 categories and recognise and celebrate the most compelling technology startups, Internet and mobile innovations of the past year.

A little about Cognician:

Cognican, the original thought processor that presents content in the form of provocative questions, helping users to apply the author’s ideas to their own tasks, so that they can think better, further and faster, was selected through a process done by referencing TechCrunch’s database of tech companies on CrunchBase. This was followed by a month of online public voting that saw 33,126 votes being cast across all categories. The final award winners will be determined based both on popular votes received through website voting along with the results submitted by The Europas Advisory Board.

The award winners will be revealed at The Europas event which will be held in London this Friday, November 19. The evening will be attended by over 350 people from the cream of Europe’s startups, VCs and entrepreneurs along with industry leaders of the the tech startup and investor scene who will be presenting the awards to the winners.

A quick word from Patrick:

“Cognician has made great strides in 2010 with limited resources and see being nominated in the final 11 as testament to both the quality of Cognician and the work that our small team has put in,” adds Kayton.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Mike Scott is a very talented man and the guy behind the new Goldfish single.

Check it out:

Popularity: 16% [?]

It really isn’t often that I ask for help. But I think that this time it’s warranted.

My godfather (In the Greek culture that basically means a guardian of sorts) runs an NPO called Footprints PLAY that aims to participate in the lives of African youths (P.L.A.Y). They take care of, shelter, clothe and feed many, many young South African children. This is an incredibly admirable thing to be doing and one that I admire.

But Footprints are in a bit of a pickle and need help. Here is the email I received from Terry, my Uncle. Please, if you know of anyone who can assist this fantastic organisation please get in touch with me: editor@sarocks.co.za

Let me be straight up and to the point. HELP

Bus to transport the children is down. Engine blown or something like that.

Our options are as follows plus minus 25k to get this one on the road again that is a rebuild. We would be willing to put company name etc on the bus if we can get financial help to get it on the road. Other options if anyone knows someone in the motor industry a New bus would be great or maybe an engine for a VW Microbus 2.1 I.

We have all the necessary PBO and NPO numbers in place should anyone require them. Charity can be viewed on www.footprintsplay.co.za .

Thanks much,

Terry Zaf

Popularity: 19% [?]

The incredible part about this story is not that DJ Black Coffee set a new record, ’cause he did. That part was seemingly easy for the man. The tough part for me to comprehend is that he did it with one arm.

DJ Black Coffee set a new world record for spinning by doing his work for 60 straight hours.

From the Telegraph:

Nkosinathi Maphumulo, 34, completed the challenge on Sunday at a charity event in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The dance music DJ, who lost his left hand in an accident aged 13, hopes video footage of the event will win him a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

He said: “I stayed strong. The music kept me going. I’m going to be a better DJ as I was doing it for a greater reason.
“At some stage I held back tears.”

Nkosinathi, who uses the stage name Black Coffee, started his record attempt in a shopping mall at midnight last Thursday.
Under the rules of the record attempt he was allowed a 20 minute comfort break every four hours.

But his manager told South Africa’s Sowetan newspaper he finished in style by playing the final 15 hours without stopping at all.

Wow. What an amazing achievement.

[blacknotes / Telegraph]

Popularity: 28% [?]

In case you haven’t heard the 5FM adverts I though that it was valuable for me to alert you to the 1 in 100 000 campaign.

DJ Fresh is trying to meet 100 000 people in 1000 hours. That’s a big call and it’s all to raise awareness about Leukaemia.

Here’s some background information:

A person suffering from Leukaemia has a 1 in 100 000 chance of finding a bone marrow stem cell donor match.
That’s 1 match for every 100 000 people.
Most of us won’t meet a 100 000 people in our lifetime!
In fact, if you lived to be 90 years old, you’d have to meet 1 person every 8 hours, from the day that you were born, until the day you die,
To illustrate these odds The Sunflower Fund has challenged DJ Fresh to try and meet 100 000 people online in the 1000 hours leading up to The Sunflower Fund National Bandana Day on the 12th of October 2010.

Once on the website visitors can ‘meet DJ Fresh, send in sms donations as well as sponsor some of DJ Fresh’s meetings on our sponsor page.
It’s for a really good cause and every bit of media mileage will help.

So spread the word, visit the site and raise some awareness.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Why do I want to tell you about the indieBerries blog?

Well firstly I know Che (the author). We studied together at Rhodes and embarrassingly I only realised this when I sought her out at this years SA Blog Awards (sorry Che!).

Secondly how could I not blog about a woman who’s name is Che?

Thirdly Che is South African and very proud of it.

Then she also has an online store where she sells her stuff over at Etsy. Do yourself a favour and check out the indieBerries store now.

I must admit that I had very little knowledge of what Che was doing before the blog awards. And I’m very glad that I am now a reader of her content. Che won two awards at this years blog awards; Best Blog Design and Best Personal Blog. I hear whispers that she also came in a close for the Best Blog of the year award. That went to very deserved winners (in my opinion) WatKykJy.

What I like about Che and her blog is the originality of her content. It’s not a blog filled with duplicated content, with slick images photoshopped by someone else and posted on her blog. It’s her content, her idea and herself on/in/all over the her blog and I really admire that. I know how hard it is to write original content. I struggle.

So I think that the moral of this story is simple – go and read indieBerries. It’ll do you good.

Popularity: 17% [?]

At the SA Blog Awards on Saturday the lovely people from ZA News were present. Their Helen Zille Puppet was present too and yes, you guessed it, so was Helen Zille herself.

Firstly let me say that since moving to Cape Town I haven’t had the pleasure of hearing the Western Cape Premier speak in person so I was quite happy to know that she would be attending the blog awards. Helen Zille did not disappoint. From what I’ve heard she never does in fact. She was funny, humble and very switched on about her audience, their interests and her relevance to the occasion. Nice one.

But on to the fun stuff. The folks at ZA News wanted to meet Helen and moreover wanted their Helen to meet Helen. So the Helens met:

Compliments to Dave Duarte for the photograph. Nice work.

Popularity: 20% [?]

Fantastic news for the “Big Easy” as Ernie is called. The man is a giant, larger than life and one helluva golfer. Not only is his golf on par (weak pun, but intended), but Ernie is also a philanthropist who does his best to help his community and those less fortunate than himself.

I’m proud to call Ernie a South African and proud of his achievement.

Congratulations Ernie.

Here’s a little snippet from Reuters:

Three-times major winner and former world number one Ernie Els has been voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2011.

The 40-year-old, whose selection in the Hall of Fame’s PGA Tour category was announced on Wednesday, will be inducted on May 9 at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Florida.

“It was quite a surprise,” South African Els told reporters with a broad smile at East Lake Golf Club. “I thought you had to be a little bit more senior.

“You’d like to think you could have done more and can still do more, but obviously I’m very, very honored to be inducted.”

Popularity: 16% [?]