Uche Pedro, Founder of Bella Naija joins Panel for an Evening with Leaders, Tuesday, Feb 19th 2013 at Social Media Week Lagos

Uche Pedro, the Managing Director and founder of premier entertainment, fashion and lifestyle website BellaNaija.com will be joining a distinguished panel for the an Evening with Leaders - a premium event organized by Pan-African civil society group Africa 2.0 in partnership with Social Media Week Lagos.  Other members of the panel include former Nigerian President and Chairman of the Africa 2.0 Advisory Board, H.E. Olusegun Obasanjo, Founder of Africa2.0, Mamadou Toure and Country Chair of Africa 2.0 and CEO, Sahara Energy Group, Tonye Cole.

 

 "I am very honoured and humbled to be part of such an important event, and to be able to add my voice to the conversation about growth and development of the African continent," says Uche Pedro.

"We are proud to welcome Uche Pedro to an Evening with Leaders; she is a young innovative entrepreneur who is also a respected voice among her generation, and her views on the development of the African continent are a representation of what this both event and Africa 2.0 as an organization aim to achieve," says Mamadou Toure, founder of Africa 2.0.

An Evening With Leaders which takes place on Tuesday, February 19 at the Porsche Centre Lagos from 7pm to 9pm, will be live streamed and is expected to attract a huge global audience online, mobile, radio and TV platforms. The session will be moderated by award-winning journalist and Social Media Week co-producer Nkiru Asika.

An Evening with Leaders adds to the impressive roster of 98 events - panels, workshops, keynotes, networking sessions and entertainment - that will take place during Social Media Week Lagos, the first of its kind in Africa. Social Media Week is powered globally by Nokia. Sponsor of the Business Information Technology Hub at the Porsche Centre is Stanbic IBTC and Associate Sponsor is EFInA (Enhancing Financial Innovation & Access). Other partners of Social Media Week include Galaxy Backbone, IPNX, Lagos State Government, Twin Pine, Beat 99.9FM, M-Net, Channels TV, Africa Magic, SuperSport, Channel O, Google, Moet and Porsche Centre.

Social Media Week Lagos is co-produced by Dragon Africa and AFRIKA21 and debuts in Lagos, Nigeria February 18 - 22, 2013. An Evening with Leaders will take place on Tuesday, February 19 at the Porsche Centre Lagos from 7pm to 9pm

The conference's mission is to help people and organizations connect through collaboration and the sharing of ideas and information. SMW Lagos is guided by the global theme "Open and connected," Social media week has been running simultaneously in 10 cities globally for the last five years. Other host cities for the upcoming event include Copenhagen, Miami, Milan, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Washington DC. In 2012, over 66,000 people attended Social Media Week in twenty-six countries globally.

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UCHE EZE (Bella Naija) weds Bode Pedro

Guess who just said bye bye to spinsterhood? It's none other than your favourite award winning blogger and founder of BellaNaija.com *drum roll* Please join me as I congratulate my dear friend Uche on her special day.

On Saturday, June 16, popular blogger and founder of Nigeria’s
biggest entertainment and lifestyle site, BellaNaija.com, Uche
Eze and Bode Pedro , founder /CEO of Veda Technology tied the knot at a high-profile wedding in Lagos, Nigeria.

Bode Pedro, 29, and fondly known as “Mr. Technology”, started Veda in order to inspire the growth and development of computer technology in Africa through cutting-edge
innovation and excellent solutions. In 2009, Bode received the Young IT & Telecoms Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Nigerian Telecoms Awards held in Lagos, Nigeria, and
was voted “Business Owner of the Year” at the 2011 Future Awards.

Uche Eze, 27, established Bainstone Limited in 2009 which oversees BellaNaija.com and other business arms. In 2011, Uche emerged a finalist of Future Awards’ “Young Person of the Year and in 2010 she was a nominee for “Best Use of Technology”. Uche has featured on CNN and the Oprah Winfrey show speaking about beauty trends alongside Jessica simpson and Lisa Ling. She is an Alumni of Richard Ivy School of Business, University of Western Ontario in Canada. In the same year, Uche’s Bella Naija was listed as one of the top 10 fastest rising people in Nigeria in Google Zeitgeist.

Impressive huh? No wonder they're a perfect match. We constantly wonder if love exists and if it does, how do we know when we are truly in love with someone? If we’re still asking these questions we’re not in love because once we are, we know for sure that true love exists. I wish Uche & Bode every good thing life has to offer. May their love and joy know no end.

click to enlarge image(s)

Photo Credit: Onobelle & Uche Eze

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BUZZ & EXCITEMENT AS THE FUTURE AWARDS SEASON 7 LAUNCHES IN LAGOS

The Central Working Committee of The Future Awards has announced the start of Season 7. The event will launch on Democracy Day, May 29 at an invite-only media and VIP event at The Coral Reef, Lagos. Referred to by the World Bank as “The Nobel Prize for Young Africans”, The Future Awards continues to remain the most influential and popular youth platform that identifies young people who have excelled at their work, celebrates their achievements, and showcases them as role models to inspire a generation of Africans to believe in themselves and the future of their countries.

“There is a reason why, when you Google for “Nigeria’s biggest youth event, The Future Awards is the result that turns up,” says the head of the CWC Ohimai Atafo. “Over the past seven years, we have taken seriously our mandate to inspire leadership and build enterprise and nothing excites us more than the experience of presenting the over 1000 Positive Role Models (especially outside of entertainment) to young Nigerians and Africans.

“Through the very success “I am the future”, “I represent Naija” and other campaigns, these awards have led the charge to restore faith in country amounst young people, fundamentally altered for good the way young Nigerians are viewed as leaders, innovators and entrepreneurs, become a launch-pad for change projects, businesses, ideas and collaborations across the country, gotten more young people involved in leadership and governance, and in pioneering the merging f pop culture with development and advocacy, has made it cool for young people to get involved in their country. We are excited to be on that journey again.”

At the event, the Committee will unveil the campaign for this season, the judges, the process, the categories, and the schedule of activities including the town hall meetings across the country’s six geo-political zones. There will also be an exclusive interactive session with organisers, winners and associates of the awards. The Future Awards 2012 will hold on August 26, 2012. More information on this year’s event can be found on www.facebook.com/TheFutureAwards. Official media partner is Y! (www.ynaija.com).



ABOUT THE FUTURE AWARDS

Referred to by the World bank as 'Nobel Prize for Young Africans”, The Future Awards continues to be the most influential and popular youth platform on the continent. It identifies young people who have excelled at their work, celebrates their achievements, and showcases them as role models to inspire a generation of Africans to believe in themselves and the future of their countries. With outreaches to Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa and having visited at least 24 states in Nigeria, The Future Awards has also been described by respected leaders as “Africa's biggest youth event” and in seven years, has produced 126 winners and over 1,000 nominees. Our mission is to inspire leadership and build enterprise.

To this end, The Future Awards has created authentic made-in-Nigeria superstars, outside of entertainment, fashion and the media. Winners include female farmer and face of youth entrepreneurship in Nigeria, Mosunmola Umoru; international author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, NASA scholar, Tosin Otitoju, founder of the Dustbin Estate Children’s Foundation Tolu Sangosanya, investor of the 1-second power change-over based in Ajegunle, Otejiri Oghoghorie, and the 2011 winner for Young Person of the Year, farm technology entrepreneur and Rolex Award winner, Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu. This is a critical mass of young people that are positioned as leaders and whose collective influence can change the leadership equation for an evolving nation.

The Future Awards, and its sister brand, The Future Project have thus become known and respected across the continent for being in the forefront of inspiring a new generation of leaders/leadership for Nigeria, working with the Africa Union, the US Government, the British Council, the Ministry of Youth Development, the Nigerian Presidency amongst other organisations.

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