Count down to BarCamp Nigeria ‘09

Hey! It’s happening in Lagos this Saturday! You’re right! BarCamp Nigeria ‘09. The very first BarCamp in Nigeria!

We hope you’re getting set and prepared for it. We thought we’ll just quickly give you a run down on all the latest updates.

Keynote Speaker #2

We’ve confirmed our second keynote speaker - Mrs. Victoria N’dee Uwadoka.

Victoria N’dee Uwadoka works with Microsoft Nigeria as the PR & Events Manager for Anglophone West Africa. She is charged with managing the company’s image agenda, media relationships, agency support and strategic events across the Anglophone West Africa region.

Before her current posting, Mrs. Uwadoka had worked with IAS Courier Services (now IAS TNT) as personal assistant to the Group Managing Director before quickly rising to the position of Manager, International Operations, coordinating IAS Courier’s relationship with FEDEX. From there, she joined the PR department of IKB Industries Limited, a beauty care products manufacturing and marketing company where she managed the company’s relationship with the media and communications agencies. Mrs. Uwadoka moved from IKB to Kent Rayners Merchants Limited, a healthcare products marketing company as Business Development Manager for West Africa.

She then had a spell in the Nigerian movie and TV industry, working as an actor and training as a TV producer/director before deciding to pursue a career in Public Relations. This led to a 2 year stint with Sesema PR where she sharpened her PR and Event Management skills by managing diverse accounts from FCMG to service providers.

Victoria is very happily married to Chris Uwadoka, Vice President of Answerbank Sales Academy, a sales force effectiveness consultancy.  Her passions include helping people achieve their potential, singing, reading and writing.

Victoria is a self-acclaimed non-techie and will be bringing an interesting different perspective to BarCamp Nigeria ‘09.

Hotels

We are really honored to have guests coming from all over Africa to attend BarCamp Nigeria ‘09 and we thought we’ll provide a quick guide on places to stay while in Lagos.

Sheraton Lagos Hotel
30 Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way P.O. Box 21189 Airport Road, Ikeja Lagos, · Nigeria Phone (234)(1) 2800100-300 · Fax (234)(1) 4970321-2
Starts from $600 per night
Website
7.96km/4.95miles from Central Lagos

Protea Hotel
42/44 Isaac John Street, GRA, Ikeja
+234 (1) 448 2000 · +234 (1) 448 2009
$380 - $945 per night
http://www.proteahotels.com/
Situated 15 minutes from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in the Government Residential Area of Ikeja. 35 minutes drive from Victoria Island/ Ikoyi which is the financial district of Lagos.

Eko Hotel
Eko Hotel & Suites, Kuramo Waters, Victoria Island, Lagos
Phone: +234 1 277 2700 · Fax: +234 1 270 4071
$348 - $2174 per night
http://www.ekohotels.com/

For more hotels, please visit the VeryLastMinute Nigeria web site and search for hotels in Lagos.

The venue for the event is closer to Bank Anthony then Ikeja, Victoria Island and other locations. This should help you in choosing where to stay.

The prices are as we got from our sources. They might vary - please contact the various hotels to confirm current prices.

Africa Gathering

Africa Gathering is a day for thinkers, supporters, sponsors, doers, geeks, dreamers - and everybody else to come and share, promote, highlight, progress and evolve issues related to ICT, social networking and technology in Africa and coincidentally, it will be taking place the same day as BarCamp Nigeria ‘09.

We’ve had discussions with Edward Scotcher of Africa Gathering and we’ll be having a link up session with them during the event.

Registrations

Finally! If you have been following us on Twitter, this is no news. We earlier sent out messages to people who RSVP’ed on our Facebook event to send in answers to a series of questions and such. Due to the limitation on the venue we’ll be using, we have to shortlist those who’ll be attending.

We’ve made this process simpler. Simply follow this link to register. You’ll fill in a series of fields and that’s it. We’ll be closing registration on Wednesday so hurry to register and tell your friends and colleagues to do so too.

We’re asking for where your location is so we know those who are coming in from other places apart from Lagos. This will help us in the logistics so please do make sure you fill that in.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday. Comments are welcome! If you need a direct line, please send us an email at barcampnigeria@gmail.com.