Wits eLearning and the AVOIR Stand at the 5th ICIDET.

30 May 2010

The AVOIR team at  the 5th International Conference on ICT for Development, Education and Training (ICIDET), in Lusaka, Zambia, packed-up their exhibition materials  at the end of 28th  May, 2010, when the conference came to an end. Not surprising, there was little to pack, as most of what we carried had been given to attendants, moved like hot cakes. With an imposing Chisimba banner at the AVOIR stand, capturing the attention of every passer-by, attendees could not help coming over to know more about what it was all about. Even veteran Chisimbians came.

In case you are wondering, Chisimba is our flagship product for elearning. Those who asked 'good' questions earned themselves the coveted Chisimba T-Shirt. Within a short time, world quickly spread about the Chisimba T-shirt. We had to 'raise the bar' for the limited T-shirts, only those who really asked 'very good' questions earned them. Every person who visited our stand  was educated on what Chisimba is all about, the big milestones we have made in elearning, and was given a Chisimba CD, a sticker and flier. One visitor, was so impressed by Chisimba, he declared he would not leave the stand until we installed it on his laptop. In between attending the stand, I managed to get him the latest eLearning setup running.

At the stand were teams from University of Witwatersrand and the University of Western Cape. Some of the members from the two universities were speakers and delegates at the conference, and kept the audience impressed. Among  other exhibitors, we had a good discussion with the vendors of eInstruction smart whiteboard, we are keen to programmatically integrate it into Chisimba.  Although  we had rough time getting the big 50th inch LG screen we had rented to work at the beginning of the conference, we eventually figured things out, at which point people were treated to a live Chisimba entertainment, all starting at chisimba.com. It was, a good opportunity to tell Africa and the world about our innovative contribution to elearning.  Afterall, ICIDET is the largest gathering of eLearning and distance education professionals in Africa.