Memoirs of Salim – A fireside chat with four of the biggest names in the African tech ecosystem
“It’s all in the details” is the only thing I remember from skimming through the first eighty pages of Kobe Bryant’s autobiography, Mamba Mentality a day before the chat. In the seven days leading up to the session, I watched more panel sessions than I had watched in the seven years leading up to that week. Similar to an athlete watching videos of their opponent’s previous games, not only did I notice the little things like how the moderators I watched sat, if they made eye contact, which hand they held their index cards (if they had any) in and how they switched between the cards (if they had multiple cards), but I also paid attention to the more obvious things like how much they listened, how they phrased their follow-up questions and how long they let each panelist answer their questions. For a random kid from the random streets with an empty pocket and a bag of dreams, this chat was special, and I was hellbent on preparing as much as I could to make sure I nailed it.
A week before the session, on my way back from the mosque, I texted Ridwan Ganiy and Yomi Kazeem. Kamal had told me that RG moderated one of the best panel sessions he had ever witness and Yomi is someone I was confident could help so for sure, I wanted to hear from him. I expressed how nervous I was feeling about the session, and asked if they could help with any form of tips or guide for the session. Both of them came through to say the least. Yomi simply told me it’s all in the prep. He stressed that me curating my conversation theme and questions for each person under each theme would help me guide the flow of the conversation properly and across the entire panel. RG on the other hand made me realize that not only am I obliged to be the most attentive person in the room but even more than that, I needed to understand that anything along the lines of “Wow, that’s interesting” is not an acceptable response from me throughout the session.
With a lot of things I do, I have always relied on the feedback of others whenever I did them. Whether it is with my writings, my projects or a presentation, I am always looking out for anyone willing to give me an objective evaluation of my work. With this one, since I got off the stage, I have gotten a flurry of praises, with many particularly commending how conversational the chat was. Kamal whom I am so glad came in person to support me and provide some feedback in the form of constructive criticism (I love constructive criticism) said I had this chemistry with the panelists that made it seem like I had known them before now. Of course, I knew them really well before the chat. Although I had not met any of them (except when I listened to Ruth speak two weeks ago at the Microsoft ADC Office) in person before the event, the fact is that when you stay up till 1am scrolling away at someone’s tweets, you get a lot of contexts as regards who they are. But even with that, you can only get so much from the internet, and I did not want my interaction with the panelist on the stage to be our first. This was why I made sure to meet them all in person before the chat started. I introduced myself, asked for the correct pronunciation of their names and how they’d prefer that I refer to them on stage. Also, I made sure to leave an impression. You know, I figured a random joke here and there would help me stay calm. As a matter of fact, across the entirety of the event, I’d like to think I was deep in my bag with the witticism. Can someone tell Dave Chappelle to call me?
At about 1:10pm, I walked up the stage, introduced my panelists in the order in which they sat and got the ball rolling. From watching multiple panel sessions during the week, I already understood how important getting the introduction right is. Also, Yomi Kazeem used to host a morning show back when he was an on-air personality on radio, and I remember him once touching on how crucial the first couple of minutes of every show is. Usually, a great beginning often meant a great show and I knew that applied to this as well. So, the challenge for me was making sure I started well. Realizing that my starting comments are so important to the success of the discussion, I wrote out my talking points and/or scripted my welcome and introductions, practiced them so I was comfortable enough with the content and so I won’t have to read it word for word and then, I went for it. As some of sort of icebreaker, I managed to slip in a joke inspired by a panel session at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from six years ago when Walmart President and CEO, Duog McMillon led a conversation with the then Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi. While the premise of Mr. McMillon’s quip was with Indians and Cricket, mine revolved around the credence of the “softness” of the life of one of the panelists.
Few minutes before the chat, it was me alone in the restroom and everything slowed down. At this point, I was becoming really nervous and restless. I looked in the mirror, took a deep breath similar to what George Mumford talked about in his book, The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to pure performance. Mr. Mumford emphasized that if you want to conquer the anxiety of life, you have to live in the moment and live in the breath. This was important because if approached consciously and with awareness, our breath helps us relax, release stress, and align us with our quiet, still center. I felt better and confident afterwards.
The equanimity that offered me would come in handy when Solakunmi slipped me a note as I approached the end of the session. The note said “Hey, OAU students are about to leave, can we move to the Q&A from the audience?” I still had questions but apparently, time wasn’t my friend at the point. Throughout my preparation, I was more concerned about having too much time without enough questions but never considered this possibility. I did not like this because I knew how much I hated people who spent more time than they had to in general. I had to make a decision — ask my questions or respect the time of students who had travelled across three states to be here? I did both, I think because I still managed to get Ruth to detail out the process to becoming a GitHub Star, and the students left in good time, nonetheless. But here’s my angle: I think I was super engrossed with the conversation that I completely lost track of time. In my experience, that would usually mean the conversation went great.
With what I thought would be the end of the session, I asked a question that had not been sent to the panelists prior. It was a personal one for me and if you are familiar with my game, you would know how interested I am in Artificial Intelligence. I knew I would not forgive myself if I had an hour-long conversation with these wonderful individuals without getting something on what they thought about AI so I asked if they thought AI would take our jobs, and boy, did I love their answers! On a personal note, one thing I loved about the chat is that at the actual end of the chat, Yoma, one of the panelists indicated that she would like to ask me a question. She asked me what I am currently studying in school as well as how my experience with my training as a GitHub Campus Trainee has been. I liked that. No, I take that back. I loved that.
In the morning before leaving my hostel, I had watched random parts of Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture which I have grown to love over the last nine months. This helped me because whilst I know my charisma was just fine, I also knew I could not go wrong with borrowing some of Randy’s aura. As I listened to the lecture whilst pressing my clothes, I heard a message notification buzz from WhatsApp. Tobi, my secondary school seat partner for two years sent a subtle “Go get them champ!” in response to my “It could be today, grandma.” post, and boy, did I get them!
PS: Yes, I know I did not go into details as regards the actual chat. That was intentional in a bid to make sure this piece does not get too long.
