On November 8, 2024, the PortaOne team joined together in Johannesburg with new and long-time customers and other telecom industry experts for our annual African Meetup. This year, we focused on sharing ideas and sparking conversations with a series of short, high-level talks combined with casual, wide-ranging fireside chats on topics like coding with AI, the ASP model, leveraging VAS tools, and the future of the cloud trends in Africa. Here, we present each of those conversations, along with the speaker slides, key takeaways, acknowledgments, and, of course, photos from this dynamic event.
Attendee and Speaker Overview
Our 2024 PortaOne African Meetup brought together 50 attendees and featured 12 insightful presentations and workshops led by our customers, team members, and guest experts. Attendees had a chance to hear details on unique recent innovations and projects from the PortaOne customer community, along with ideas for leveraging the latest technologies to make their business more effective. This year, we also introduced a series of casual “fireside chats” with telecom insiders who have a unique experience or perspective on a specific emerging industry trend.
Highlights and Key Takeaways
In the era of AI, it’s more important than ever to provide your customers with a sense of connection: no matter how big you grow or how efficient you make your operations, each of your customers must feel seen and heard. PortaOne CEO Andriy Zhylenko kicked off this year’s African Meetup with a video presentation on how to leverage AI to enable that connected (and even human!) experience.
Other topics we covered at this event included the future of the cloud trends in Africa (and what’s needed to prepare for it), simplifying customer engagement with omnichannel software, choosing the right PortaSwitch operational model, improving business communications with a CRM web dialer, desirable new value-added services for increased revenue, current and future trends in digital transformation and community engagement, and maximizing uptake for your cloud PBX and cloud contact center services.
Video Presentations Access
Whether you attended the event and want to revisit the insights or you weren’t able to join us in person, you can benefit from and share in all of the expertise and tips presented at our 2024 PortaOne African Meetup right here. Scroll on for the full recordings and slide presentations from each of the 12 sessions that took place at the event.
Presenter: Andriy Zhylenko
Company: PortaOne
Topic: Cloud telco in 2024
Presentation Slides
Video
Presenter: Keith Laaks & Roman Khalenkov
Company: Vox & PortaOne
Topic: Fireside Chat with Vox
Video
Presenter: Roman Khalenkov
Company: PortaOne
Topic: Divide and Rule: PortaSwitch Rental Models
Presentation Slides
Video
Presenter: Nick Adams
Company: P2P Labs
Topic: HELIOS: Omnichannel Customer Engagement Simplified
Presentation Slides
Video
Presenter: Maggs Moonsamy, Mike Britz & Klaus Khaertel
Company: ECN & PortaOne
Topic: Panel Discussion: Is South Africa Ready for the Cloud? The Telecom Perspective
Video
Presenter: Klaus Haertel
Company: PortaOne
Topic: Add-on Mart: Behind the Scenes
Presentation Slides
Video
Presenter: Satya Mekala
Company: WTL
Topic: Creating New Revenue Streams: Delivering Value-Added Services to Empower MVNOs, ISPs, and Service Providers
Presentation Slides
Video
Presenter: Andre Jordaan & Roman Khalenkov
Company: NTT Data & PortaOne
Topic: Fireside Chat with NTT Data
Video
Presenter: Karmanie Naidoo
Company: MMD Mobility and IoT
Topic: MVNO Worx: Current and Future Trends in Digital Transformation and Community Enablement
Presentation Slides
Video
Presenters: Klaus Haertel & Mike Kidik
Company: PortaOne
Topic: Cloud PBX & Cloud Contact Center Workshop: How to Maximize Uptake
Video
Acknowledgments
We want to thank all of our guest speakers for sharing their expertise, insights, and experience with their telecom peers at this event, along with all of our customers and fellow professionals who gathered with us to chat, learn, collaborate, and help plan the future of our platforms. If you have an idea for a session topic you’d like to see covered at a future PortaOne Meetup, we’d love to hear about it. Meanwhile, we look forward to seeing you in person or online at our next Meetup event.
Networking and Interactions
Want to reminisce, or feel curious about what happens at a PortaOne Meetup event? Here are a few photos of our team, customers, and speakers as we gathered for the 2024 PortaOne African Meetup in Johannesburg on November 8, 2024. We hope to see you at our next event!
Looking Forward
Our regular regional Meetups are a critical opportunity for the PortaOne customer community to come together to collaborate and share ideas, while giving our team the opportunity to meet face-to-face with you and ensure that our development roadmap is meeting the immediate and future needs of the telecom industry. Our November 2024 event in South Africa proved that value once again, and we thank everyone who attended.
Stay tuned for dates and locations for our 2025 in-person events in Europe, Africa, and beyond. We look forward to seeing you there!
