Washington D.C. Impact and Innovation Speaker Series

African Diaspora Network Impact & Innovation Speaker Series 2018

Harnessing the Knowledge and Resources of Africans in the Diaspora for Positive Impactatronage and Investment, June 24, 2020

African Diaspora Network Impact & Innovation Speaker Series

Investment – Entrepreneurship – Innovation – Human Capital

Our first Washington D.C. Impact and Innovation Speaker Series on August 17 was a great success in attracting and bringing together people from government, business, academia, and NGO leaders. We thank you all for honoring us with your presence, insight, and time.

What makes this convening unique is that it was organized and sponsored by friends of ADN who believe in our mission and vision. We give our thanks to Ms. Netty Ghezae, Ms. Hellen Fesshaie, Mr. Mussie Haile, and Ms. Asmaa Idris for working tirelessly to make the event possible. We appreciate your commitment to our shared vision. The participants, after a heartfelt welcoming remark, had an opportunity to hear about the importance of Diaspora engagement and the role that the African Diaspora Network plays in bringing our community together to share ideas and resources on innovation, entrepreneurship, youth leadership, and collaboration.

Our guest speakers included:

Mr. Mamadou Samba, Mayor’s Office, D.C.
Prof. Liesl Riddle, African Diaspora Network, Board of Director
Mr. Thomas Debass, State Department, Acting Special Representative for Global Partnerships
Mr. Ramsey Day, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Africa at USAID
Hon. Amb. Arikana Chihombori-Quao, A.U. Ambassador to USA
Mr. Mussie Haile, CEO, Moya Technologies
Mr. Zekarias Amsalu, Founder, MD, IBEX Frontier / IBEX Financial Consultancy

The insight we received from each of these speakers helped shape the fireside chat with Almaz Negash, ED, ADN and Mrs. Asmaa Idris of CEO, Inceptima Management Solutions, where they discussed in great depth the on how to harness knowledge and resource from the diaspora to how leveraging resources and promoting intra-Africa collaboration.

The encouragement and support we received from the more than 165 people in attendance behooves us to develop an East Coast-specific convening that is based on the needs of the community. Many of you have already reached out to share your enthusiastic support. In the weeks and months to come, we will reach out to some of you to gain insight and seek support on our efforts.

What is Next?

We also invite you to join us at the Silicon Valley based African Diaspora Investment Symposium scheduled for Jan 24-26, 2019 at the Computer History Museum, Mountain View.

To continue to be a part of our growing Global Community, please be a part of our online platform by registering at ADN Network.