Conceptualee’s African, Global, and Emerging Markets (AGEM) Partnership Engagement Platform, announces the AFRIMERICA bilateral business, trade, and investment initiative with the World Trade Centers Africa Initiative. AFRIMERICA facilitates opportunities to do business and trade in Africa through partnerships formed between American and African businesses. The platform is designed for American firms, and their African counterparts, who want to develop new market opportunities.
The AFRIMERICA bilateral channel connects American firms with businesses in African countries, including South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Zimbabwe, and others. Parallel bilateral initiatives, e.g., AFRIBRAZIL, AFRISPAIN, AFRICHINA, AFRIRUSSIA, give American firms the opportunity to find partners across regions to do business in Africa. Also, since AFRIMERICA focuses on mutual, two-way partnerships, partners gain entry to not only Africa but potentially to each partner’s home country. So, if you form a partnership between an African firm and an Indian firm to do business in Africa, you would gain entry into an African country and India simultaneously.
The first AFRIMERICA partnership event in 2012 is being held July 11-18, 2012 in Johannesburg, South Africa. It will bring together businesses seeking partnerships for doing business, trade, and investment in Africa. Delegations from over 10 African countries, as well as all the bilateral initiatives, e.g., AFRICHINA, AFRIBRAZIL, will be present.
The partnership event is held as part of the Future of Trade Africa 2012 Conference, hosted by the WTC Africa Initiative at the largest trade expo on the African continent, Southern African International Trade Exhibition (SAITEX). SAITEX draws more than 15,000 people annually from the continent and elsewhere. SAITEX draws traders, exporters, importers, agents, etc. from around the world to one place.
AFRIMERICA is distinctive from SAITEX, however. We focus on partnerships between American and African businesses to develop profitable ventures not simply import and export scenarios. We work with our full package clients for an entire year to help them implement successful partnerships. We also structure and develop projects ourselves to allow our clients to more readily engage opportunities in Africa.
This AFRIMERICA partnership event focuses on the following sectors this time around:
- Construction and infrastructure
- Agriculture, agribusiness, and food
- SMEs and entrepreneurs
- Energy
- Light industrial and small-scale manufacturing
- Small-scale mining
The AFRIMERICA 2012 schedule includes two days of private group meetings with key agencies and firms (e.g., Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation, Trans Africa Invest) to plug you into partnerships, platforms, and projects on the continent. These are action planning sessions not briefing sessions. The expected outcomes are opportunities that firms can immediately participate in.
In addition, AFRIMERICA partnership meeting participants get to engage with other commerce exchanges at the Future of Trade VIP pavilion at SAITEX. AFRIMERICA, and its sister exchanges, AFRISPAIN and AFRIGERMANY, will work together to develop opportunities in Africa and through these channels to other global regions.
The proposed schedule for July 11-18, 2012 is as follows:
| Date | Description |
| Wednesday, July 11 | Arrive and settle in at hotel |
| Thursday, July 12 | Private group meetings about executable project opportunities (e.g., senior representatives from Trans Africa Invest, IDC, Pan Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry involved) |
| Friday, July 13 | Private group meetings about executable project opportunities (e.g., senior representatives from Trans Africa Invest, IDC, Pan Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry involved) |
| Saturday, July 14 | Excursion |
| Sunday, July 15 | Future of Trade Pavilion and SAITEX open |
| Monday, July 16 | Future of Trade Conference |
| Tuesday, July 17 | Future of Trade Pavilion and SAITEX continues |
Download the full brochure and registration form here. For further information and to register, email [email protected] or call +1.202.379.2922.
About African, Global, and Emerging Markets (AGEM) Partnership Engagement Platform
The African, Global, and Emerging Markets (AGEM) partnership engagement platform, provided by Conceptualee, Inc. and its strategic partners, focuses on facilitating business, investment, and trade opportunities in Africa and through Africa to the world through strategic partnerships. It is focused on existing SMEs looking for new market opportunities. (For others, Conceptualee offers other platforms to serve them.)
While there are many platforms to assist in doing business in Africa and elsewhere, partnership engagement is our specialty and a stronger model for global business. Our partnership engagement process does include profiling suitable, potential partners and matchmaking, but has a more robust follow-up process to assist members in engaging partners more effectively.
AGEM members have the opportunity to form mutual, two-way business channels. For example, if you partner with a business person in Nigeria who opens the market to you there, you will serve the same role in your home country for him or her.
Also, because AGEM has partners or affiliates in different global regions, you will simultaneously have opportunities to partner with people from other regions to enter African markets and tap their markets as well as African markets. For example, if you are from the United States and partner with AGEM members from Germany and Kenya to enter an African market, you have access to both German and Kenyan markets.
AGEM is open to businesses and entrepreneurs who will commit to business models which incorporate developing ventures in African countries not just exporting or extracting. AGEM helps you formulate “partnerships” to do business in new markets not just sell or distribute “products” to new markets.
AGEM has five areas of service:
- Partner Liaison – This is our core service which is embedded throughout all our offerings. We work alongside with your partners (potential, emerging, and existing) and you to ensure ventures get executed. A partner liaison serves as part of the glue between partners in their early stages as this is often the most difficult time to navigate these relationships. This role starts from the time you become a member, continues through matching partners with a business opportunity, and up to a year of follow-up to increase the likelihood that the venture will get executed effectively.
- Partner Positioning – While you are expected to provide a standard profile as a member, we also look to develop a unique position profile which more readily highlights the value you bring to the table. This process involves a survey and interview with a partner liaison. We suggest this occur on an annual basis to keep everything up-to-date.
- Partnership Meetings and Forums – AGEM also hosts partner meetings in Africa and elsewhere to give you the opportunity to meet many potential partners in one place along with supporting institutions who can help you navigate implementation . Typically, these meetings will be run alongside trade, investment, and business events hosted by our partners to give you exposure to those in our network and outside of the network.
- Partner Online Platform – After you become a member and your profiles (standard and unique position) are completed, you have access to our partner online platform which works like LinkedIn to allow you to identify and initiate discussions with people and organizations you believe there might be a fit. It will also help you manage activities and meetings around partnership meetings. In future, it will have tools to help you follow-up with your partner liaison and partners.
- Pathing – This is the process for finding a unique path to take advantage of a business opportunity. This unique path is discovered by bringing together the right partners, resources, information, and even capital. Conceptualee has a methodology to assist members in finding a unique path based on developing an appropriate business model.
When you sign up to participate in a partnership meeting or forum, you get access to a partner liaison* who will assist you with upfront tasks like completing a profile, identifying your unique value proposition to AGEM members, and getting set up on the partnership online platform. The partner liaison will work with you before and during, as well as follow-up with you for a year after the event. (Pathing is a separate offering with additional fees.)
*Your partner liaison will execute a core set of services for you. Any additional services may involve fees.
