Canon Launches Africa Frontiers Of Innovation Series 2021

Canon Incorporation, the Japanese multinational optical products company, has launched the Africa Frontiers of Innovation Series 2021.

The Africa Frontiers of Innovation Series is a multi-sector initiative that unites industry and sector professionals to provide an effective online platform to drive innovation, share ideas, gain insights, experiences, and generate actionable solutions to existing challenges.

Canon first launched this initiative in the Middle East five years ago. This year’s launch will run as a monthly online broadcast that explores the impact of the pandemic on individuals, sectors and economies

Expert speakers and career professionals will share insights on key evolving trends and delve into how different sectors are meeting Covid-19 challenges, and setting the scene for a sustainable post-Covid world.

“Much like the previous editions of Frontiers of Innovation, the Africa series takes a deep dive into innovative technologies and operational efficiencies across a range of sectors, including music, photography, cinema and printing,” explains Mai Youssef, Corporate Communications and Marketing Services Director for Canon Middle East and Canon Central and North Africa.

The first episode, which tackled the tough subject of post-Covid education, was aired on Wednesday, 27th January 2021.

It was headlined ‘Developing digital skills and literacy for students’, and featured distinguished guest speakers; Dr Pius Egiolamhen (Dean of School, School of Art, Design and Printing, Yaba College of Technology); Julianna Lindsey (UNICEF Representative in Rwanda), and Professor Charles Ochieng’ Ong’ondo (Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development)

These guest speakers explored the challenges and opportunities inherent in a post-Covid, digitally-driven education landscape across Africa.

Canon first launched the ‘Frontiers of Innovation’ Series in 2016, with the first edition focusing on Big Tech and the Internet of Things, while the second edition turned the spotlight on cyber security, entrepreneurship and smart cities. Both editions were held as in-presence events over one day.

In 2020, as a response to the pandemic, the Canon ‘Frontiers of Innovation Forum 2020’ launched a weekly online session that proved highly successful, with more than 3,000 attendees per session.

Africa Frontiers of Innovation 2021 aims to expand on this, with a series of pertinent topics geared to inspire Africans from all walks of life on what can be achieved when a crisis is viewed as an opportunity, rather than just a challenge,” notes Youssef.

Attendees can look forward to a deep dive into various topical issues, including:

• Innovation in music: how digitisation has impacted the industry and its challenges in Africa
• How Cinema is reinventing itself in a COVID-19 world
• Content creation: the trends, challenges and how consumer demand drives innovation
• How print can also act as a platform for augmented reality, elevating print beyond the paper
• How the pandemic has fuelled an even greater need for traditional print media and what this means for the modern press
• Innovation in photography: exploring the application of modern photography from personal to universal, and its cross-cultural implications; key trends in genres, from food styling to fashion photography.