Silicon Valley Geeks meet Nollywood stars and stakeholders in Lagos

A group of curators from Silicon Valley, San Francisco, US recently met with some of Nigeria’s movie stars and stakeholders in Lagos.

Captioned “Geeks Meet Nollywood,” (GMN) the meeting was a part of a three-day “Geeks on a Plane” tour of Silicon Valley angel investors to investment potential countries.

The Lagos tour was organized to evaluate strategic areas in which technology can be used to disrupt traditional methods of business engagement in the entertainment industry.

“Nollywood, irrespective of how bad the Nigerian economy is doing, is a major export product” a member of the team led by the Chief Executive Officer of 500Startups, Mr Dave McClure told newsmen during a press conference.

“And in the entertainment space”, he said, “we are not only looking at the challenges with physical theatre, physical distribution and piracy, but we are also looking at the opportunity for digital distribution and how that can be utilized to solve most of the problems”.

Speaking about the challenges with broadband data system, he said, “The challenge with broadband is an opportunity for some of the markets like entertainment and content development to create new business models that will drive broadband efficiency in the country. We will be looking at how to get around these things.”

The curators were also treated to a star-studded event held at the Filmhouse IMAX cinemas in Lekki and organized by Stephen Ozoigbo, CEO of the African Technology Foundation in partnership with Chioma Ude the founder of Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) and hosted by Kene Mkparu, the Chairman and CEO of Filmhouse Cinemas to showcase Lagos, as a vibrant technology and creative hub with latent investment potential in Africa.

“Technology has become the new gateway for entertainment, disrupting not just the global entertainment industry, but Nollywood as well”, The Regional Partner, African Technology Foundation, and compere, Oluseye Soyode-Johnson said.

“Events such as this play an important role in bringing top stakeholders from both industries closer together, to build important relationships and solutions for the future,” he added.

Also speaking at the event, CEO, Filmhouse Cinema, Mr Kene Mkparu highlighted the areas of investment engagement in the entertainment industry, stressing the significant impact of the recent development in the cinemas.

He also announced a soon-to-be launched Television Viewing On Demand (TVOD) platform which will allow Nigerians to enjoy the cinema-experience on their mobile phones.