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A year and a half ago I had the great pleasure to take my first trip to Africa. I was there to open Waggener Edstrom's new office in Johannesburg, South Africa. You can read all of my posts from that trip here. 

In the last 4 months coming from the states I've been in London, England; Munich, Germany; Edinburgh, Scotland; Paris, France and now Johannesburg, South Africa (or as the locals call it: Joburg or Jozi), and of all the locations Joburg gets me the most excited. 

Joburg is not a prime tourist location; it's a huge city in the middle of the desert with no large body of water. There's not much "to do" compared to the other locations. There are not a lot of cool art museums, theaters or the usual things you see in the other places. The place also has its problems. It's still very much a developing market. But Joburg has something the others don't.

Everyone I meet with is super optimistic. The entrepreneurs there are amazing. The people believe in their community and know that there isn't anything they can't do. I got to see several areas under urban renewal. There was loads of culture unlike you'll see anywhere else.

The people are also incredibly open about what's working and what's not. They talk openly about race and poverty and corruption but they do so with an attitude that tells you they believe these are fixable problems, even if they don't totally know how they'll fix them. 

They aren't afraid to try and fail and try again. In these ways they're very American and as I talked with people there, they do self-identify more with America than Europe. Not that they think America is perfect nor do they want to emulate everything about America but they've caught the entrepreneurial spirit in a big way. 

My advice is to watch South Africa closely. With only 12-15% of their population online, they've got a ways to go but the one's that aren't online are still doing some impressive stuff and the ones that aren't online are still very much "connected" with their mobile phones and SMS. 

South Africa gets it. 

The last 2 days have been pretty intense. It's Sunday afternoon now and I'm in London England, but less than 36 hours ago I was on my way to Soweto, South Africa, the largest township in South Africa. The visit was an exercise, emotionally and physically. Then I got 3 or 4 hours of sleep while on the plane, the brand new Airbus A380, the largest passenger airplane in the world. Talk about going from one extreme to another. I went from riding a department store mountain bike around one of the poorest areas in South Africa

to riding business class on one of the most expensive civilian airplanes in the World.

First I have to thank our new GM of the office in South Africa; Marcus Sorour.

The bike tour participants and our guides from Soweto Bike Tours

There is a lot I can say and a lot of back story to the pictures but for some reason, even though they're not that great, letting the pictures talk for themselves seems more appropriate.

My biggest takeaway from the whole trip, and I plan to address this more on my other blog, is the importance of optimism and community in South Africa and that in the next 3-5 years as reliable Internet becomes available to all Africans, you will see a radical transformation there that will have an effect on the Internet, startups everywhere and therefore, the World. I'd encourage you to pay close attention to Africa, I know I will be.

This was one in a series of posts about my trip to Joburg South Africa. You can see all of those posts under the tag: Joburg.

At least that's what the girl at the restaurant told me after she painted my face. 

This was one in a series of posts about my trip to Joburg South Africa. You can see all of those posts under the tag: Joburg.

Today we met with the professors at the University of Johannesburg's Strategic Communications Department. We had a great discussion about the industry of integrated communications and how to prepare students for the job market.

One of the pieces of advice our SVP of EMEA, Chris Talago gave them was to encourage them to have be passionate not just about marketing communications but to find an industry you're passionate about, It would suck to be passionate about nonprofits and be stuck in tech or the other way. And of course that experience matters as much as your degree.

The challenge that UJ has isn't just trying to stay on top of the industry, which is something every university in America also struggles with, UJ has the added challenge that not all of their students have access to the Internet away from school. That sure makes teaching digital communications that much tougher.But its still essential because when they hit the work force they'll have to be able to use these tools.And while Africa has very low Internet penetration that will change and as it does people will be starting off in a Web 2.0 World not ramping up from a 1.0 World the way we did.

Course work, class projects and internships become even more important.

This was one in a series of posts about my trip to Joburg South Africa. You can see all of those posts under the tag: Joburg.

This is my absolute favorite picture so far from South Africa. It is especially poetic because this picture was taken in the largest business park in Joburg. Something about big businesses and processes never cease to create this result.

This was one in a series of posts about my trip to Joburg South Africa. You can see all of those posts under the tag: Joburg.

So far my time in Joburg has been spent prepping for meetings that will be happening the rest of the week. While I've been confined to Mandela Square so far the rest of the week will be spent out in Joburg in meeting that I'm looking forward to. 

Besides the client meetings I'm really excited about getting to go meet with the University of Johannesburg's Marketing and Communications department. I'll be sure to get some great pics while I'm out. 

In prep for my meeting I was doing some additional research on social media in Africa. I shared the following posts on Twitter but figured I'd round them up here:

Very useful report by @fuseware: The Average South African Tweeter http://j.mp/aWPn6e 

YouTube South Africa http://youtube.co.za launcheshttp://bit.ly/ac2InL via @memeburn

Great post by @loyokezie w/ good stats: 20 hot Nigerian startups to watch http://j.mp/ba4IU5

For those few of you who read my other, other blog HyperBored you may recall a post I did a while ago about Adidas Original Star Wars series. They were limited edition and you could only buy them in stores and they sold out the minute they hit the shelves in the US. Apparently they haven't sold out so quickly in the US. I have found several items from the series here in Johannesburg, South Africa. 

They, of course didn't have my size in these awesome Darth Vader shoes but they had these awesome jackets and hoodies.Which one do you think I should get? I like the Darth one but I'm leaning towards the Storm Trooper hoodie. I would have more pics of Star Wars gear but I got told I couldn't take pictures in the second store. 

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for anything Star Wars and anything Lego, well I also found this cool soccer ball with a minifig on it.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's update.

This was one in a series of posts about my trip to Joburg South Africa. You can see all of those posts under the tag: Joburg.

Today was my first full day in South Africa. The hard thing about business travel is to get out and experience the city you're in. Not only am I staying in Johannesburg (Joburg) I'm staying in the Michelangelo hotel which is located in Mandela Square. Our new office is also located in Mandela Square and if I wanted I would never have to even go outside all week. This is the oldest and biggest mall in South Africa and even by American standards it's big. And I know it sounds silly but I'm really excited about having a hotel room that has 7 foot windows that open up to the square. They're open right now letting the cool air and the sound of African drums in.  You never get windows that open (or at least not very much) in the US. 

Pictures of Mandela Square from my window, my room with the windows and Mandela Square with the huge statue of its namesake. 

The locals are very excited for this years World Cup. Every shop, no matter what the merchandise sold inside has tied the event into their window displays. Some are very creative. World Cup is going to be huge for South Africa, the amount of money coming here will have a serious impact on the region. To give you an idea of the amount of money that flows into World Cup (it makes the Super Bowl look like a bargain), Castrol, one of the sponsors, has rented out the local Holiday Inn, (which is actually really big and nice here) for the three weeks leading up to World Cup all the way through to the three weeks after. The entire hotel! For 11 weeks! And yes I'll be buying World Cup souvenirs and pretending that I'm actually there while watching the games.

Pictures of the Large Adidas soccer balls footballs in Mandela Square.

Having never been outside the North American continent it's a little shocking to me how much of an export American culture is. It's not all bad (says the American) and some of it is the natural evolutionary consequences of capitalization. With capitalism comes a better standard of living and better education (Mandela Square also has a huge public library) but it also comes with consumerism. The best ideas survive but the Europe and the US have a huge head start when it comes to developing those ideas. Joburg strikes me like a place where Europe and America are fighting to colonize. But instead of land and natural resources, it's a brand battle. Who can get more of their brands into the developing economy than the other. I hope that as brands push into Africa that they take the chance to learn from the local culture, they have a lot to teach us.

So far Joburg reminds me a lot of Mexico City. Both are huge, have deep European histories, with tourist friendly areas that hardly make you feel like you're in another country, but if you stray too far you'll be reminded of that very quickly. 

I was getting a little tired of the very Euro/American experience at Mandela Square and thought about taking an evening stroll the neighborhood around the square. I quickly changed my mind as it was getting dark and I had no clue what I was doing or where I was going. There is no public transit here, the closest things they have are these old vans that they cram way to many people into. Behind the square is a huge pickup area where the hotel and restaurant workers catch these vans to and from work.

Pictures of area right behind the square where I learned that even in Africa, skating is illegal.

One thing I've noticed though as I've talked to people is that there is a general sense of optimism. While there is so much that needs to be done here but people can see progress. People see the way to getting there. While most companies aren't looking to Africa like they are to China and India I believe it will only be a matter of time until they do. 

This was one in a series of posts about my trip to Joburg South Africa. You can see all of those posts under the tag: Joburg.

Working for a global company definitely has it's advantages. One of those is the travel (as long as it's not too often).

Next week I'll be going to Johannesburg (5/17) to visit our brand new South African office for the week. The following week (5/24) I'll be in our London office. I'm really excited as I've never been to either location before.