The Biggest Tech Conference in West Africa - Silicon Mountain Conference 2022

Okay, what is the hype all about?

Hmmm, just the biggest tech gathering series of our time: the Silicon Mountain Conference!

And guess what? Even more powerful this year.

So what really is Silicon Mountain and why should you care? Should it matter to you if you are non-tech too? What made this year so special?

Okay; okay, slow your thoughts there pal. We're getting everything unveiled and satisfying every curious fiber right now.

PS: we're adding up all the highlights of the event, so you can either relive the thrills in an image or get a glimpse of the experience as if you were there all along too.

Photo credit @ NervTek

Oh boy, we had drones baby; imagine the quality of the images!

Silicon Mountain is a nickname coined to represent the technology ecosystem (cluster) in the Mountain area of Cameroon, with its epicentre in Buea. It is currently home to tech startups and a growing community of developers, designers, business professionals, enthusiasts, institutions, and universities. [source]

It started sometime in 2019 with a group of like minds willing to share ideas, associate, and give technology a place of honour. Recognising its impact on the community and the change innovation has brought to many lives.

This year marked the 4th edition of the now-renowned Silicon Mountain Conference.

This year, however, it came in bigger and sponsored. 

Centered around the community and people's efforts to make it better, the theme of this year was as follows:

demeanour"Local Solutions for a sustainable digital economy"

That for sure tells a lot about what the activities and outcome of the conference could be. Either way, let me still try to surprise you!

How was the conference structured this year:

Okay, I did mention the sponsorship but is that the only innovation there was this year?

Definitely not. Yeah, I haven't mentioned the sponsors yet: that'll come, fret not.

Already like an established routine, the conference spans several days and is full of activities for everyone and just anyone.

The other editions held a similar stature, but the demeanor of this edition was seasoned differently. You know, like "soya" with pepper and "soya" without pepper: you sure notice the difference!

The Silicon Mountain Conference always has a wide range of partners and sponsors. As it is, Silicon Mountain is not an individual, a startup, or a separate entity but an ecosystem of diverse resources (people, places, tags, and media).

Hence, supporting this awe of talents and display include giants, start-ups, developers, and other individuals.

Meanwhile, this year the Silicon Mountain could count as its sponsor one of the biggest Network operators in the country: Orange Cameroon. Orange has always made it a mission to support digital innovation and entrepreneurship in Cameroon, this was only normal to find them here too. Being actively involved at every level, supporting in kind and in cash the entire conference and its activities.

Let's move on to the conference proper, hope you are excited. It's just folly to have missed it if you could make it. However, we hope this recap do you justice in reliving every instance.

The 4th edition of the Silicon Mountain Conference was held for 3 days, that is from the 10th-12th November 2022.

No fixed location, no specific category of people nor were their specific events.

The conference was meant to be generic, inclusive, educative, and informative. Any participant will testify to if not all, then at least one of the features that pertain to the Silicon Mountain Conference.

Drafted across these days, an extensive schedule was made for every day. Programs spanning throughout the day for everyone to attend at least one session if they were too busy.

What were the various activities from Thursday’s opening day to Saturday’s closing day?

Now, let's be case specific and look into the activities of the various days and know how they all went.

Head up:

Out of the official dates on flyers, there's one activity that took a leap ahead of every other showcase.

A blaze of impact in the city of Buea: Hack My City.

Hack My City was a 24-hour hackathon where the participants were meant to tackle the problem of waste management in the town of Buea.

They were to build innovative, viable, and scalable solutions. The focus of the hackathon was not coding as they mostly believed but it was coming up with sustainable ideas.

The participants were also provided with some tools by their instructor, Bongajum Lesley to test and improve the strength of their various ideas.

The hackathon started on Wednesday, 9th November at 8:30 am with the arrival of the participants and coordinators.

A workshop session was held for about 2 hours then we moved to the hackathon proper at 1pm and it ran right up to 1pm on Thursday, 10th November. Yes, you got that right : sleepover!

The hackathon took place simultaneously at Mountain hub and Activspaces.

There were 10 teams in total and 5 teams were distributed in each of the hub locations.

Spoiler: The first prize-winning team was at Mountain hub.

This marked the official start date of the 4th edition of the Silicon Mountain Conference and had the following activities:

Innovation Walk

From 6:30am were the Innovation Walk and Caravan from UB Junction to Mountain Hub.

PS: Participants got free Silicon T-shirts before kicking off.

Highly powered by the Google Developers Group (GDG) Buea, Women Tech Makers (WTM) Buea, and a host of other sponsors.

Opening Ceremony

From 11am, there was the opening ceremony with a Press conference at the Buea Council.

Panel discussions with a very select panel of impact creators at the Silicon Mountain.

That rounded up around 4pm, the activities of the first day.

Oh no, I did not just leave that out… oops.

Even if it could be wordy to add so much and this article becomes too lengthy. I can't ignore the guest star artist and crew, and the presentation of one of the best in the field of spoken word in Cameroon: Penboy.

Delivering a special presentation tailored for the event on the topic:

In addition, other performances and interviews to top off the first day.

Live it like you were there with the images of Day 1

(Psst, are you feeling the thrills too? Yh, let's ride on!)

This was the second day of the Silicon Mountain Conference and the stakes were becoming even juicier.

This one started at 8am and had 3 different principal locations, each with its own set of activities.

The day was filled with talks, networking, and workshops including demos, panel discussions, and 3 main Highlights:

Code Battle - Jongo Hub

Saying the name is self-explanatory will be right but there's definitely more to say about the famous Silicon Mountain code Battle.

Are you thinking if they are coding robots to fight or take over the world? , okay that's far-fetched #sciencefi.

However, these developers are coding for a cause following assigned themes.

Divided into two niches: front-end track participants, focused on great UI and flow of components and the back-end track participants directing their focus on the complexity or simplicity of their algorithms.

Participants were allowed in teams of 2 or more persons and had to lucky pick their code challenge from 3 pre arranged themes

Pitch Contest - Active Spaces

The pitch contest is an initiative of the Silicon Mountain Conference to encourage start-ups with existing projects or MVPs to present their solutions in a competitive scope. This approach enables them to challenge themselves, welcome public opinions about their projects and accept remarks from the judges. All these are in a bid to grow and do better in developing more or enhancing existing ideas about their product/Service.

Here, 10 startup participants out of approximately a dozen that registered were able to pitch their ideas to the judges.

Photo credit @ Yann Kamche

Design Thinking - Active Spaces

Wondering about the DOs and Don'ts of UI and how to shape your UX to fit real-world expectations?

Then this was the workshop for you!

The board of four panellists facilitated this session, with an eager and dynamic audience around the subject matter: Design.

Starting with sharing an experience, a panel member intoned, the little story centred around career growth in the design industry. Consequently, giving tips on how to grow in design indeed.

Moreover, the session continued spanning across the phases and roles of design, and how to get better at design. The amazing panellists enlightened the hall full of design enthusiasts. Following was displayed advice on how to get better in design.

Now, getting handy with an example only enriched the session. The design example was a light illustration of the concept of the Silicon Mountain. available soon

Finally, there was a powerful presentation on branding. Truly, there's no real branding without the corresponding appealing design. Or perhaps, what are your thoughts?

Comment on them.

Well if you missed any of the other days, this is the one you should have been at.

The crown of the 3, the closing ceremony.

And to add more excitement to this day, it was also the prize award ceremony for brilliant innovators. These youths had demonstrated exemplary creativity, skill, determination, critical thinking and expertise, deserving to be awarded merit-based honours as their respective juries saw fit.

Starting at 8am, start-ups, companies and individuals were set for the exhibition of their solutions. It was easy to find an audience as many gathered to appreciate the various products explained to them.

Alternatively, there were keynote presentations, and speeches from invited dignitaries or their representatives going on in the hall. Also, entertaining spoken word displays, panel exchange and that was almost enough to make us forget there had been no electricity. If at all came back, was seized before one could blink.

Did I feel you think Gala?

Yeah, that's a great hunch, the 4th edition of the Silicon Mountain Conference ended in grand style.

Be there, or be there!

A gala night, a grand fiesta at the prestigious Mountain Hotel.

How terrific 😊. Indeed, all is good that ends well.

Team Traleor took an active part in the Silicon Mountain Conference by participating in the pitch contest organised at Active Spaces on Friday 11th November.

There had been over a dozen start-ups who were retained for the pitch but the present for the display was 10.

The hall was tensed as every start-up went on exposing its pitch deck to the panel of judges and the audience, for their critics and appreciation.

Everyone on their turn presented their pitch and entertained the questions from the judges.

It was obvious the Traleor team had made quite an impression on the judges from the excited tone they asked their questions.

The displays quickly rounded off satisfying the curiosity of the audience, impressed at every new creative and useful project shown before them. After listening to the participating start-ups, the jury gave incredibly useful insights from the solutions they had just listened to.

Filled in more advice and closed with general remarks.

Now, left in suspense for the results that will come the following day, the Silicon Mountain Conference followed up with the fireside chat at Jongo hub.

Fast forward to the moment of the result proclamation on Saturday the 12th of November, the last day of the Silicon Mountain Conference.

And Traleor emerged as the winner of the Pitch Contest!!!

In case you still have no clue about what Traleor really is. Visit our website now.

Oh well, all good things come to an end, and so did the conference.

It was an amazing experience, a vivid display of talent, a pool of opportunity and an enormous networking possibility.

Learning, joy and impact overflow.

Meanwhile, it was impossible to mention just every part and parcel of the whole show. Too many hands did this light work. From Government to local representatives, dignitaries and officials in the tech space, passing through the communities, developers and so much more.

Please feel acknowledged and thanked. You were an awesome part of the Silicon Mountain Conference 2022.

While you steadily digest this year's edition, let's prepare actively for the coming edition. Definitely, full of even more surprises!

For all the online pool of content on the conference, check the official event hashtag #smcon22

In addition, find more images about each day of the conference to delight your eyes.

Day 1: Day 1 Google Drive Folder

Day 2: Google Drive Folder 1 and Google Drive Folder 2

Day 3: Day 3 Google Drive Folder

What is the Silicon Mountain?

Inspired By Silicon Valley and home to the highest mountain in Cameroon is born the biggest tech ecosystem in Cameroon. Buea being the cradle of innovation and technology in Cameroon. However, everyone from far and near, present in or have an affinity with Buea and an enthusiast for technology is part of the Silicon Mountain.

Silicon Mountain isn't a person, a place or even a company. The Silicon Mountain is an ecosystem of creative and innovative tech minds.

What is the Silicon Mountain Conference?

The Silicon Mountain Conference is a 3-day immersive experience full of events, competitions and showcases in and around tech. The aim is to educate, inform, inspire, challenge, recognise, reach out and contribute to the growing tech space in the region.

What is the Biggest Tech Conference in Cameroon?

The Silicon Mountain is without any doubt the biggest tech conference in Cameroon. Bigger and better as the years go by.

What are the Biggest Tech Conferences in West Africa?

The top tech conferences in West Africa include Tech Unite Africa ( Lagos, Nigeria ) and the Silicon Mountain Conference ( Buea, Cameroon )

What is the Silicon Mountain Community?

Around the Silicon Mountain are members of the Silicon Mountain Community. The Silicon Mountain Community organises and participates actively in the Silicon Mountain Conference.

What is the meaning of Smcon22?

smcon22 Stands for the Silicon Mountain Conference for the year 2022. The 4th edition of the Silicon Mountain Conference. Also, smcon22 was the official hashtag of the 2022 Silicon Mountain Conference.

Why should you attend the Silicon Mountain Conference?

You should participate in the various activities organised during the Silicon Mountain as it gives you an amazing opportunity to learn, network and challenge yourself.

The Silicon Mountain Conference also enables you to discover what people are doing in the community, and get inspired and motivated to do great work yourself. Finally,  the conference lets you enjoy technology in its pure and undiluted form, the dream of every tech enthusiast. View this video made by the community