On Thursday, 15 September 2022, the inaugural African Digital Creator Summit (ADCS) which is set to be Africa's premium event for the continent’s digital creator ecosystem, will launch in Johannesburg.

A one-day summit, it aims to be an educational platform, to equip and empower content creators and marketers in building a thriving creator economy. Attendees can look forward to engaging with experts from TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, and many more to be announced.

Catering for an ecosystem beyond influencers

While many may think of creators as the influencers we see selling their lifestyle, products, and tutorials, beyond that surface is an entire ecosystem made up of creators (independent writers, artists, social media influencers, videographers, gamers, podcasters and more), the platforms they’re native to, brands collaborating with them, and the (multiple) solutions they’re optimising to turn creation into careers. This is the collective #TheADCS will bring together.

“Through a series of curated content, the summit will present the landscape and size of the creator economy, as well as identify current and future opportunities and how to access them,” shares Naledi Mosieane, Managing Director at Oviedo Media. 

“It’ll help those who’d like to break into the sector and those who are already active, directing them on how to level-up to create sustainable careers and businesses. For marketers, it’ll be an opportunity to delve deeper into developing meaningful relationships with creators, centred on co-creation that is authentic and valuable in meeting new customer expectations. And for startups, it’ll be a chance to not only showcase their solutions, but also to identify the gaps in them, and perhaps even find new creator needs to cater to,” she adds.

Harnessing the creator economy to rewrite the fate of Africa’s youth

It's not surprising that young people who grew up with technology and the Internet (namely Gen Z), are at the forefront of this emerging economy. In a time where consumer tech, like smartphones, is democratising digital content creation and social media is giving users a platform to instantly share their content with a global audience, this generation is capitalising on its differentiated talents – and in turn disrupting the job landscape of the future. And on a continent facing a youth unemployment crisis and an education system ill-fitted to keep up with a fast-changing world, this kind of disruption is essential.

Included in #TheADCS’s event tracks is content focused on the potential of the creator economy to remedy the enormous unemployment problem, deliver accessible education, and democratise entrepreneurship, which organisers hope will help mobilise and energise young Africans to reshape their economic futures.

The challenges of being a creator in Africa

While the global creator economy is booming, and African creators make up a sizable portion of it, being a content creator on the continent is hard. Payment platform issues, a lack of tailored financial products, the economic realities that make monetising African audiences tricky, and creator solutions being predominantly built for Western economic and cultural contexts, are just some of the challenges facing creators.

“While the creator economy is a global phenomenon, as far as we’re concerned, it’s the African continent that stands to profit from it the most. But in order for that to happen, we need to (openly) have critical conversations about this ecosystem. Our hope in launching the ADCS is that it’ll be a platform to engage with the next generation of entrepreneurs and the platforms, brands, and startups enabling them, so we can collectively create the solutions the African creator economy needs to grow exponentially,” Mosieane concludes,

In a nutshell, below are the essential details that have been released at this time:

• Date: Thursday, 15 September 2022
• Venue: Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
• Hybrid event: Physical and Online attendance
• Ticket Price: R850
• Online attendance: R700