The Ajegunle-Apapa Community was agog recently with the cutting edge capacity building conference organised by a leading IT firm in Lagos, Nigeria, BROWSEDOTCOM with support from world leading internet search engine giant, GOOGLE. A mixture of senior industry practitioners, developers, students, entrepreneurs and IT enthusiast who attended the high-powered event were serenaded with information on how to start their business online and the numerous Google tools which are aimed at making life and business run efficiently.

The Browsedotcom Conference 2012 had several speakers Like Gbenga Sesan of Paradigm Initiative of Nigeria; Emeka Afigbo, Google Program Manager sub-sahara Africa; Adetoun Coker, GNBO PM; and several staff of Google at the event.

As early as 9:00 am, participants were already converging at the event ready to learn something new and different. Some came with their laptops as free internet facility (wi-fi) which was promised, was provided for all.

The event kick started after other preambles have been observed with an opening speech by the Program Co-ordinator, Olatunde Wealth. Gbenga Sesan spoke about the use of “Social Media and the 21st Century”. Emeka Afigbo spoke about Google Apps and the many benefits of Gmail and Gmail SMS in a practical session that thrilled the audience. Jola, a staff of Google spoke youtube and Google Places. Olatunde Wealth also came up to teach the audience “How to Start an Online Business” by using some of the Google tools that was unknown to them. He also taught them with practical examples, how they can leverage on the internet to drive their existing business and move it to the next level. Toun Coker and Taiwo Kola-Ogunlade later came up to demonstrate how to use Google trader.

There was also “AJ’s Got Talent” competition co-ordinated by Taiwo. Some of the participants who were randomly picked displayed their talents in songs, dance and comedy. The winners got home with some valuable gifts.

Commenting about the BrowseDotCom Conference 2012, participants were grateful and extremely happy to be part of it. In his own words, Toluwalase Benson, the chairman of NUT, Ajif Branch, who also attended the event noted “I am indeed very happy to have attended this conference. I dont know much about computer or the internet but I had to send for some of my children to quickly join us while the event was going on. I have been exposed to a lot of things and I wish I knew this was how the program was going to be like, I would have sent an invitation to all the teachers under me.”

Another excited participant who simply gave his name as Christian for a press interview was so full of appreciation for BrowseDotCom for holding such a great conference without charging a dime for it. He looks forward for other events from BrowseDotCom.

Onyinye, a young entreprenuer who attended the event just to make her business grow, sent her testimony few weeks after. In her words, “After the conference, I put all i learnt into action and am so happy that my business has grown by at least 300% and I have been able to start a new online business from what i learnt”.

It was observed from participants’ feedback that this was the best program they have attended recently and they want it to be held regularly. Some of them even suggested that other great companies should also co-sponsor the BrowseDotCom Conference.

Speaking to the press, BrowseDotCom Conference Convener Olatunde Wealth noted-“We are happy that the conference was a great success even more than we envisaged. We appreciate Google for their support and the speakers too. We are already planning for the next conference and it promises to be greater. The purpose of our events is to drive the development of business, technology, mobile and internet ecosystem in Nigeria. We aim to achieve this of course with support from important stakeholders and corporate bodies.”

About BrowseDotCom

BrowseDotCom is a professional Web Media/IT Company based in Lagos Nigeria. They help start-ups, small businesses, large companies and non profit organizations take advantage of the Internet to drive up sales, increase brand awareness or reduce operational costs by creating a web solution that will assist them in meeting their business objectives at an accelerated pace. Some of their services include web design and development, mobile application and software development, social media marketing, etc. More information about them can be found on their website http://www.browsedotcom.com . Store.com.ng , an ecommerce platform that allows Nigerians to quickly shop for what they want online and get it delivered at their doorstep is also one of their sister company.

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More pictures of this event can be seen at the BrowseDotCom fan page  here