SA Rocks

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.

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The South African company ReadyMade is no stranger to awards. And not the self-indulgent, “I’m so cool” type of award, but the more humbling and socially relevant type of award.

This year they are a finalist in the INDEX: Awards.

The product:

The Arivi Paraffin Stove.

The stove has 3 main benefits, the first is that the flame self extinguishes when knocked over, tilted, moved or refilled. The second is the increased efficiency, saving users 32% of their paraffin costs. Thirdly, the stove produces almost no particles or smoke and less than half the amount of carbon monoxide required by law, reducing indoor pollution which causes respiratory ailments. A limited number of stoves are being offered for pre-ordered sale to anyone who believes in this cause and wants to help. Please go to www.myarivi.com to find out how you can help.

The Problem it Solves:

The Arivi Paraffin Stove is designed for low-income households as a safe, efficient and clean-burning answer to the raging shack fires that annually affect more than 60,000 South Africans and cost the country an estimated $10 billion each year.

The People Behind the Product:

Tasos Calantzis CEO – Tasos is an industrial designer and the CEO of Readymade. He holds a B.Tech degree in Industrial Design from Johannesburg University and has lectured at universities in South Africa, the USA and Canada. He has served on his alma mater’s Advisory Council for Industrial Design and their Peer Review Panel.

Frederick Kruger CTO – Frederick is an Industrial Designer and CTO of Readymade. He holds a BTech Industrial Design degree from the University of Johannesburg. His work has won some of the world’s most prestigious awards including the German Red Dot Award, Chicago Athenaeum Good Design Awards, as well as a SABS design award.

I think it absolutely rocks when a South African company (and it’s staff and creators) receive international recognition. Whether they win the award or not it is an incredible thing that they have done by creating the Arivi Paraffin Stove.

Hat tip to Don Packett for the story

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Yes, WE won the award (Best Group Blog) because there are a fair amount of contributors to this site. Many of whom are once-off, some who stayed for a very long time and some who helped me in the very beginning to build SA Rocks over a period of time.

As Dave (best business blog) posted on his blog: “Over 4000 blogs were nominated in this year’s awards, and over 25 000 people voted”.

I’ve been blogging for ±4 years now and it’s great to win a blog award no matter how “Shrouded” in controversy they are, seem to be or really aren’t.

I personally want to thank Chris Rawlinson and Huddlemind for putting together an absolutely sterling event that was well attended, fully stoked with Corona, Carlsberg, Stormhoek, Butlers Pizza and many more goodies. Chris – you did a fantastic job mate. Also massive thanks go out to Miguel dos Santos for all of the crazy and tough work that he did this year. Good things.

I loved the venue too, Chevelle was phenomenal and a club that I will most definitely be heading back to when I’m in CT. That’s located at 84 Harrington Rd in CT. Get there. Wicked.

Thanks to everyone for all the congratulatory responses, sms’s, emails, tweets and phonecalls. It’s great to receive recognition in any form for something that you are passionate about and contribute much time to.

And finally to everyone and anyone who took the time to support SA Rocks in this years SABA’s by nominating and voting for this blog, thank you. The growth of the supporters of this blog keep me motivated.

Oh – And to Seth Rotherham, spot on mate, you deserve every award you won. I am on my to your side of the world, live the holiday.

All images in this post are courtesy of Brandon Golding!

And Finally a video from the very hard-working Glen Verran:

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I decided on whim to purchase my ticket to CT and will be leaving at 5pm today to make the incredibly long and difficult journey to the Cape whilst sitting in a seat, on a plane, watching “Bones” on my laptop.

I decided that after many years (in the only world, 4 counts as “many” years) of blogging it was about time that I head down for the Blog Awards this year. There are many people that I can finally meet in real life, really. And I think that all-in-all it will be a great party if nothing else.

I am not expecting and awards and am merely making the trip for the experience. If I win, that’ll be cool but I think it’s more about meeting many people and getting down to CT for me.

To every SA Rocks reader who voted I’d like to say thank you for firstly getting this blog through to the finals and past the nomination phase and then for voting for SA Rocks (if you did).

I will be sure to post all of the pics and vid that I manage to take on my Zoopy profile as well as here.

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I am very pleased to announce that SA Rocks has been nominated for Three SA Blog Awards this year. I’m not going to harp on about this but felt it deserved a blog post to mention and ask for readers to head over to the SA Blog Awards site and vote for SA Rocks.

If you click on the image below you will be taken to the voting page and SA Rocks will be highlighted already in the following categories:

South African Blog of the Year

Best Blog about Politics

Best Group Blog

Your support and votes would be very much appreciated!

There are some fantastic blogs nominated this year and a whole host of categories so be sure to look through and vote for your favourites.

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It’s always been pretty tough to represent locally when it comes to international awards online. The market is much larger than ours when you look abroad, many are dismissive of what we have to offer and some have simply yet to discover the jems that emerge from Africa.

However one blogger is breaking that mould. Glad to be a girl has taken home the Best African Weblog award at the Ninth Annual Weblog Awards. I think this is a fantastic achievement for the blog and for South African bloggers alike.

What a fantastic achievement and my congratulations go out to Philly Girl. Catch her on twitter too.

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The SA Blog Awards nomination period is almost coming to a close. Now don’t get ahead of yourself and become all SA Blog Awarded out, cause that would suck.

There is still another round of voting that needs to take place. The second round is more simple, you simply click and vote for the nominee that you think should win the various awards that are up.

But for now what you need to do is follow this link and vote for SA Rocks as the SA Blog of the Year.

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That’s right, it is that time of year again. time for the SA Blog Awards.

Nominations are open so all you need to do is head over to the SA Blog Awards website and submit some nominations. I say “some” because you can’t simply nominate SA Rocks for “Best blog of the year”. You’ll need to put at least three other nominations in three other categories. So click the below blogawards keychain and vote for SA Rocks and as many other blogs as you can think of.

I have some suggestions for you if you are a bit stuck:

Matthew Buckland – Best Business Blog
Blacknotes – Most Humorous South African Blog
Cooksister – Best Overeas Blog
ThoughtLeader – Best Group Blog
Mark Forrester – Best Design Blog

There are some tips. But do yourself a favour, head over to Afrigator and search through the South African blogs and see what’s out there.

Please send out your vote for SA Rocks and spread the word about the awards. There are many deserving blogs out there that need your nominations.

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It is that time of year once again. The time of year when sports people that we all support throughout the year are rewarded. This years candidates have been announced, they are on the radio being promoted so what you need to do is go and vote for one of the following candidates for SA’s Sports Star of the Year!

Cassius Baloyi

After losing to Garry Sinclair in an IBF junior lightweight title eliminator on November 12, Cassius Baloyi bounced back to regain the IBF world junior lightweight crown after out pointing highly-rated Mzonke Fana at the University Sports Complex in Mafikeng on April 12.

The victory saw him making history by bringing to six, his world title championships since fighting professionally in 1994.

So far he has made one defense to his crow after sensationally knocking out Javier Osvaldo Alvarez on September 13, and is now on the verge of registering his name in history books when he unifies his title with a WBC title next month.

Oscar Pistorius

On 9 December 2007, Oscar Pistorius was awarded the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Helen Rollason Award, which is awarded for outstanding courage and achievement in the face of adversity.

In May 2008, Pistorius made the “2008 TIME 100″ – Time magazine’s annual list of the world’s most influential people – appearing third in the “Heroes & Pioneers” section.

Pistorius won three gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.

Trevor Immelman

Regarded as one of the most consistent yet underrated South African golfers, Trevor Immelman‘s achievements in the past 12 months could not have come at a better time.

He took the highly sought-after Nedbank Golf Challenge last year and Sunshine Tour’s Order of Merit last year and this year he scooped US Masters, a feat that improved his world ranking to 12.

A year ago he was lying in a hospital bed, after having a tumour the size of a golf ball removed from between his lungs and diaphragm, but that blow did not stop him from standing up an be counted among the top 20 golfers in the world.

He could next month walk away with the Sportsman of the Year Award during the South African Sports Awards.

Khotso Mokoena

He saved South Africa’s dignity during the recent Beijing Olympics by being the lone athlete to scooped a medal during in the summer Olympics.

The victory will see Khotso Mokoena being forever cherished by the sports-loving rainbow nation after winning silver in the men’s long jump division.

He was 10cm behind winner Irving Saladinho of Panama, jumping 8.24m to the winner’s 8.34m.

The conquest has earned him a nomination in this year’s SA Sports Awards’ Sportsman of the Year category.

The ceremony takes place in Bloemfontein on November 28.

Natalie du Toit

Natalie Du Toit carried the country’s flag at the Beijing Olympic Games, making her the first disabled athlete to have this honour in an able-bodied Olympics. She also carried the flag at the 2008 Paralympics Opening Ceremony.

On 3 May 2008, Du Toit qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after finishing fourth in the 10km open water race at the Open Water World Championships in Seville, Spain. Her time was only 5.1 seconds off the winner in a race that made its first Olympic appearance in Beijing.

At the Beijing Olympics, she finished in 16th place, 1:22.2 minutes behind the winner. She also took part in the 2008 Summer Paralympics, winning 5 Gold Medals.

What you need to now do is head over to the SASportsAwards website and VOTE!!!

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I know that I am probably making news out of a very old announcement but I just saw how many local acts have been nominated at this years MTV Africa awards… here’s the list:

BEST FEMALE
Zonke ( South Africa )

BEST MALE
DJ Cleo ( South Africa )
HHP ( South Africa )

BEST LIVE PERFORMER
Cassette ( South Africa )
Jozi ( South Africa )

BEST GROUP
Freshly Ground ( South Africa )
Jozi ( South Africa )
The Parlotones ( South Africa )

BEST ALTERNATIVE
Goldfish ( South Africa )
Seether ( South Africa )
The Parlotones ( South Africa )

BEST HIP-HOP
HHP ( South Africa )

BEST R&B
Loyiso ( South Africa )

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
HHP ( South Africa )
Seether ( South Africa )

BEST NEW ACT
Da L.E.S. ( South Africa )

BEST VIDEO
Freshlyground ( South Africa ) – Pot Belly
Pro Kid ( South Africa ) – Uthini Ngo Pro

Wow. What a line up, what an incredible year for SA music. Let’s keep fingers crossed that we pull in some statues!

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