Getting to Mindspeak on Saturday morning is never the best of things but there was no way that I was going to miss it today. It would be the first time I would be seeing Safaricom's new CEO speak to a crowd for an extended period of time. The last time I met this gentleman was off course when he was handing me a brand new Blackberry bold at a previous Safaricom event. I had a quick hallo to the man himself and the brains (is it brain or brains I've always wondered) behind Mindspeak Aly Khan Satchu. The picture here is not a Photoshop wonder but was taken by Wangari Murugi who also works for Safaricom and kindly sent to me. Much appreciated.

I walked into the relatively full Westgate movie hall and the magic of Mindspeak begun. First came on Aly Khan Satchu who told us how Mindspeak the idea came in his mind when he was at an event at San Francisco where he had a chance to meet Guy Kawasaki (former chief evangelist of Apple - the one with the I-pads and I-phones and not the ones with the dodgy looking apples from some South African fruit company being hawked in boxes around town) and then quickly to meeting this kid on the road to Mombasa who weirdly enough spake Latin. The idea came to try and connect this young man into the rest of the global community which linked quickly into Safaricom and how it helped him and many others - 16 million - into the global community.

And then came the man of the hour himself. Bob Collymore started his presentation a bit unconventionally with a crack about Medvedev and Vladimir Putin that apparently came from Twitter. The background for those who might be uninformed is that when strong arm Russian President who rides horses and swims bare-chested and shoots guns on camera was replaced by his less well know Medvedev former prime minister, people assumed that the real power would be behind the throne as Putin took over as Russia's Prime minister. Thus the joke here was that the real power would be still Michael Joseph (who was in the audience) with Collymore more as lackey. Collymore explained that nothing could be further from the truth.

His presentation was... interesting. Very little about the man himself sadly and I had to infer a lot from overall presentation. He was born in Guyana and emigrated to the UK when he was 16 where he saw his first TV and more such wonders of technologies. The first time he saw a computer he did not even want to volunteer. He is 52 years and is married with two kids. He has worked in several countries including the UK, Japan and South Africa. He looks more unassuming and has a much understated British sense of humour. He also has a love for life and will have the odd drink and (as reminded by Aly Khan) has among others on his Blackberry contact list D'Banj the Kokomaster. The man has also worked in the telecommunication industry all his working life. Don’t let the quiet manner fool you though as he has the look of a man who will go down fighting which is what that mobile firm needs in these trying irrational times.

He talked about the company which is highly trusted with 16 million customers, the only mobile money transfer market that works in the world M-Pesa (1 million transactions a day which is much more than Western Union), the widest network geographically, the most number of base stations etc. The company has also posted some pretty impressive results every year over the last few years. Off course these achievements do not come without some challenges including having to set up base stations by building a road to the area and then having to maintain them. And then there are some mean spirited individuals who have decided to make it their lives work to cut cables and the company has been forced to hire armed guards to ensure that the network is not physically attacked. The CEO assured us that during this period he has asked the guards not to shoot any vandals.

He then highlighted two specific things that he feels that Safaricom will play a major role; Health and education to rural communities. Children in this part of the world are a distinct disadvantage as compared to their spoilt babied (my words) counterparts in the developed world who can answer any question with two clicks. There is a need to get the technology to Kenya’s rural kids at a reasonable price. Also there is a real issue with health with many dying from easily treatable diseases like malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS with the usual a child dies every thirty seconds in Africa so you can imagine how many kids died during the period I have been speaking coming out. And the solution then is to ensure that the company gets these rural kids and give them a chance. This is by getting the technology into their hands. This is also done by ensuring that they have access to the health care that they need using Safaricom systems. These kids with access will join the mobile community and thus the growth of the power of social media.

He fielded so many questions from the audience that you would expect but the thing that I came aware from here is the focus of this new CEO on social media which will make all the twitter people and facebookers quite pleased. The cyber communities are more powerful than the geo-communities and Safaricom wants to tap into this in a big way.

Announcements? M-Pesa Sacco is being worked on. The upward limit for M-Pesa will from next week be Kshs70,000 and not Kshs35,000 anymore.

Welcome to Kenya Mr. Collymore and good luck.

>> Previous Safaricom Blogs

:: Safaricom's “Kenya Live” at Zen Garden's

>> Previous Mindspeak speakers

:: Liza Mucheru-Wisner rocks Mindspeak

:: Martin Oduor-Otieno rocks Mindspeak at the Westgate

:: Hon. Martha Karua graces Mindspeak and inspires

:: Sicily Kariuki, the tea lady

:: Julius Mwale and Kisima Awards 2009

:: Caroline Mutoko, Juwan Howard, 2 Linets and more

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