Sunday, June 01, 2008

Business and Fun Trip To Douala

Yesterday(May 31st 2008( I had a good trip to Douala where I met soo many interesting friends of mine, including FEE ( kerawa.com ), Enstine Muki of Njangi Host Cameroon ( betterplanning, enstine.net njangihost) , DJ Rene Cool ( So Sound Records), Mr AkoAkere Che Mone ( MTN Cameroon ), Mudjock Judith ( weboptimal.net), Suh Calvin ( a friend and prospective software developer ) and a couple of 'passerbys' who are always present in every city here in Africa.
The travel was initially intended to sign a partnership agreement between WebOptimal Cameroon ( www.weboptimal.net) and AfroVisioN Group ( www.afrovisiongroup.com ).

I got up from bed at 6 am after working on some codes for www.studentnetworks.in overnight till the early hours of the morning. So I had to continue coding till about 10 am, because I knew while in Douala, the day will go by without me working on any codes ( trying to maximise the day business wise ). After that I went online to check out a couple of mails and also meet Nino ( http://nino.akopo.com ), so we talk out some business regarding some projects we are working on.
After that, I took my bath, and got dressed up in a white shirt and pair of jean trousers (blend of young and responsible haha ).
Called my friend Steveslil ( www.steveslil.com) because we had to travel together, handling business you know how it is. After that I made a couple of calls to some guys and finaly my girl friend ( Wenie Taila -unfortunately she has no web blog or personal site, she is into the medical stuffs and far from computers)
The next thing I can remember is seeing myself at Web Optimal offices, where I had a long and very interesting discussion with Mudjock Ouafo ( which made Steveslil leave us to watch his football Match Cameroon vs .... ) and we had concrete terms on how our partnership will go along ( hey I cant tell you more than that :D).
After the business talk, she accompanied me to meet FEE, who made me stand for about 25 mins infront of his office waiting on him to come meet me down stairs but he was in another building, so he had to take a cap to join me and the rest is history.
We had to walk around Dla with FEE ( 'promene' comme on dits en francais ), where we talked on topics like African entrepreneurs and internet, building a startup, less is more, introvert, nairaland - yes we talked about nairaland.com vs blueworld.co.za but I will save it for another post.
Most of the talking was in his office, after that I recieved a call from Mr Che Mone asking me to meet him at his place. At his place it was fun and chat and fun and chat again with FEE making a reunion with his high school pals. After discussing for about an hour or so, men we had to 'sqwalleee', and meet Steveslil at Rond point, Deido. From rondpoint had to go meet Enstine Muki at his place in "Bonamoussadi".
Men the table infront of me was filled with a blend of fish, soft drinks and technology talk; very very interesting. I am not the outgoing type but I think if I go out with Software / Web developers its much fun.
The most interesting topic and center of the table ( Enstine, Myself, FEE, Steveslil) was 'information technology in cameroon and web business'. The difficulties and the work arounds, man I must say we need an official gathering like that where web developers and entrepreneurs can meet and make contacts here in Africa.
Then FEE left us because he had to go Cinema with someone. later we went to meet D J Rene, where Enstine left us but Suh Calvin was with us at this point. We talked some business with DJ Rene and he made me realise how the music industy in Cameoron was in need of serious music promoters and marketers. In his words " the Music industy in Cameroon be it Makossa, Hip Hop, Bikutsi needs marketers soo badly and the fake marketers here have no network..." but he concluded that it was better in Nigeria than Cameroon which we all accepted.
Finally we hit the road back to Buea.
The trip to Douala and back lasted about 8 hours but soo many things happened that I cant recall all.
Thanks Judith, FEE, Enstine, DJ Rene, Calvin for the wonderful time you made me spend alongside Steveslil.
"Piss Out"

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's quite a Barcamp !
So, where are the pictures???

Nothing for the posterity ?

Mambe Nanje said...

sorry NINO, we didnt take pictures, and I complained that night because we needed picture. maybe next time we will take pictures for you ;)

Anonymous said...

Hey Church

It was quite gud having u here though we had just no time to dig deeper. you had many "fishes to fry" for that one-day trip.

We should have a biz inclined meeting soon. Will see into it with FEE