Apologies for cross-posting *Apply to Launch at DEMO Africa* Six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies over the past decade are in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, Internet usage across Africa has grown faster than on any other continent in the world.* *The awakening of the African economy provides an opportunity for global and African entrepreneurs and enterprises to forge partnerships for mutual economic prosperity. DEMO Africa, which takes place October 24-26 in Nairobi, Kenya is an initiative of DEMO and the LIONS@FRICA initiative, seeks to capitalize on this growth and create new opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa by providing a platform designed to inspire and challenge African innovators and entrepreneurs. This partnership will provide African companies seeking to launch their product with capacity building and training in business development, provide connectivity to global innovation grids, promote access to capital, create opportunities for partnership, and showcase best practices and successes in African-led innovation solutions. DEMO is the launch pad for emerging technology and trends. Each year over 2500 people from around the globe attend DEMO to experience innovation at its birth. At each event, a hand-selected class of new products are introduced to the world for the very first time to global press and prolific bloggers; investors; corporate acquires; strategic partners and buyers. Throughout its 21 years of existence, DEMO has earned a reputation for consistently identifying new innovations that are most likely to disrupt the markets they serve and change the way we use technology overall. Take your chance to be on the DEMO Africa stage and launch your product in front of entrepreneurs, investors, global media and buyers. This is where most of the global technology companies first launch. More than 50 demonstrating companies were acquired in the last four years alone by tech giants including Cisco, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Symantec, HP, SAP and Yahoo! They have all gone to the well more than once, acquiring multiple DEMO companies. If acquisition is a measure of success, the DEMO list is long and impressive. The DEMO experience has helped introduce new products and services that have become well-known brands in both the business and consumer markets, including Adobe Acrobat, WebEx, Salesforce.com and Tivo to mention just a few. Application to launch at DEMO Africa is free. Applications will be vetted by an experienced team of DEMO Africa judges, who will be looking for the “next big thing” coming from Africa. The judges will be looking at solutions that solve real problems, are innovative and have a chance to change the world. Companies launching products at any DEMO event are provided with presentation coaching, a dedicated DEMO public relations team, a turnkey exhibitor station with signage and online hosting of their six minute launch video and profile on demo-africa.com and cio.co.ke. Scholarships are available for bootstrapped, angel-funded and student run companies. Application deadline is August 17th 2012 To apply, follow this link: http://demo-africa.com/launch/apply-to-launch