“Industry is eager to engage, question, find solutions and close deals”

Three exciting days of live conference sessions, technical presentations, networking opportunities and an exclusive Utility CEO Forum will form part of the programme of the upcoming Virtual Future Energy East Africa from 1-3 September 2020.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the organisers of this long running regional conference and exhibition have decided to cancel the live event that was scheduled to take place from 1-2 September in Nairobi. However, the event will proceed with a fully-fledged programme online. This will be the 22nd edition of Future Energy East Africa.

“While Africa is currently still dealing with a rising curve in Coronavirus infections,” says managing director David Ashdown, “it is now more important than ever for the utility and energy industry to gather and share information, best practice and, most critically, continue doing business. It is key to address the sector’s current COVID-19 challenges, but also to get ready for post-COVID realities. Just as technology has played an enormous role in keeping a lot of businesses going with lockdown restrictions, including the event sector, as well as in the fight against the pandemic, it will also play a crucial role in the post-pandemic era.”

Seamlessly running online event
“Last month, we organised a hugely successful Virtual African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa after postponing the live event in Cape Town to November. We were the first in the sector to pull this off and the attendee numbers and level of engagement speak for themselves, 3,642 registrations and 7,015 matchmaking recommendations, showing clearly that that the industry is eager to engage, ask questions, find solutions and close deals.”

He adds: “our media division has been organising webinars for years and we were able to partner with them and seamlessly run the event online, managing to deliver a meaningful audience on a digital platform. As event organisers we have also heeded the attendees’ feedback and the upcoming Virtual Future Energy East Africa will be even more interactive and the content will be of interest to the sector’s full value chain, from utilities and regulators to project developers and technology and service providers.”

Virtual Future Energy East Africa will take place during the same week as the originally scheduled live event, but instead of two days, will run a three-day programme from 1-3 September.

Highlights of Virtual Future Energy East Africa will include:

• Conference: 1-3 Sep 2020
  – Keynote
  – Country focus roundtables
   
• Utility CEO Forum: 2-3 Sep 2020
   
• Matchmaking: 1-3 Sep 2020
  – Throughout the three-day event programme
   
• Training sessions: 1-3 Sep 2020

Value added exposure
“The Virtual Future Energy East Africa will provide a mix of free and premium sessions,” David Ashdown explains, “ensuring that all levels of attendee can get the most value from in-depth content. It is our way to offer both our long time partners and friends as well as new acquaintances the opportunity to stay connected. For those industry leaders who want to join us in a commercial capacity for extra exposure to this fast growing regional energy market, we also have some exciting opportunities available to add value to their participation.”                          

Multi-award winning events
Future Energy East Africa is organised by Clarion Events Africa, a multi-award-winning Cape Town-based exhibition and conference producer across the continent in the infrastructure, energy and mining sectors. Other well-known events include African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa, Future Energy Nigeria, Nigeria Mining Week, East & Central Africa Mining Forum and DRC Mining Week. Clarion Events Africa is part of the UK-based Clarion Events Group’s Clarion Energy Series, which runs over 40 events that cover the oil, gas, power and energy sectors, making it one of the group’s largest portfolios.