Shoko Festival’s new media and civil technology innovation awards at its annual meeting of creative minds, Hub UnConference, returns bigger and better this year.

“The 2017 programme has been revamped with changes that are meant to keep the participants captivated with six tracks running simultaneously over two days,” said a statement from the organisers.  which include the Hub Awards,

Get paid to write app reviews

The Hub Unconference is a major meeting of creative minds this year and will include the Hub Awards, TechTopia start-up Exhibition, Comexposed comic book convention, WordPress Harare Community meetup, the Afro Digital Google Digitals Skills Program and the inaugural Zim Hip Hop Summit.

As is the norm with Hub UnConference, participants will win awards and prizes for innovative tech ideas. The only difference is there is a bigger chunk of money up for grabs.

Instead of $500 per category, the prices will go up to $4000 per category.

“In the same spirit of tradition, there will be Hub Awards which are returning with $16 000 worth of prizes for new cutting edge ideas that use new media and civil tech to solve problems in their community or at a national scale. The awards seek to empower the next generation of new media and tech start-ups” said the event coordinator, Munyaradzi “Bloggo” Dodo.

In the past, the Hub Unconference has called professionals from across the world to present talks. The
professionals include tech and media experts, award winning journalists, as well as local and international startups.

This year, however, they intend to surpass that – reaching new heights in terms of reach and scope.

“This edition will surpass that record with an array of influential people which will include some of the
most influential personalities both online and offline,” said the organisers.

The participants involved in this year’s programme hail from a number of different countries, including USA, UK, South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe.