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| 'Poju Oyemade |
‘Poju Oyemade comes across as a deep person. The more you know him, the more profound he is. But one thing that most people can agree about is that he is passionate about developing the human and spiritual mind. Some people may know him from his pastoral teachings from the pulpit every Sunday at five different services (He is the Senior Pastor of Covenant Christian Centre) or from the television programme “Insights for Living” that airs on TV stations in Nigeria and United Kingdom or from the numerous outreach programs that dot the annual calendar which includes “The Platform Nigeria”. The Platform Nigeria is an initiative where global, prominent business men and women (that are believers) share how they thrive in their industries using and applying principles founded in the Bible. The next edition, “The Platform 8.0” - which comes up on the 7th of May 2011 is aptly themed “Thinking outside the Box”. This will bring together some of the most influential people to discuss some thought provoking related issues that will transform the way people think, feel and see issues.
The prominent thought leaders gracing this edition of the platform include the following:
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| Jared Cohen |
Jared Cohen - Jared Cohen is the Director of Google Ideas, an adjunct fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations focusing on counter-terrorism, counter-radicalization, and 21st century statecraft. He previously served as a member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning staff from September 2006 to 2010. There he acted as a close advisor to both Condoleezza Rice and later Hillary Clinton. In September 2010, Cohen was named by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 game changers of the year and by Devex as one of the top 40 people under 40. Jared Cohen will be giving and extensive teaching on “Understanding the technological revolution” at the Platform
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| Leke Alder |
Leke Alder – Leke Alder will be sharing thoughts on a topic coined “Tabula Rasa: Stories from an Empty Box”. He is the founder and principal of Alder consulting, an ideas and branding corporation. He has consulted on policy formulation for the Federal Government of Nigeria, Federal Ministries of Information and Communication, education, Foreign Affairs, as well as Solid Minerals development.
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| Sam Graham-Felsen |
Sam Graham-Felsen – Samuel is an American blogger and journalist who was the blog director of the presidential campaign of Barack Obama in 2008. As the blog director of the New Media Committee, he wrote for and oversaw BarackObama.com/blog, worked with key national and state bloggers to promote the campaign’s message, helped direct the campaign’s online rapid response operation, and produced and collaborated on dozens of online videos for the campaign. Sam Graham-Felsen will be discussing his record-breaking blueprint on “How we did it: The story of President Barack Obama’s Online Strategy”.
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| Sarah Lacy |
Sarah Lacy – Sarah Ruth Lacy is an award winning American technology journalist and author. She is a senior editor at TechCrunch.com, the largest blog on tech entrepreneurship in the world. Before that, Sarah was a staff writer for BusinessWeek and the founding co-host of Yahoo! Finance’s daily show “TechTicker”. She is the author of the critically acclaimed “once you ‘re lucky, Twice You’re Good: The rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0. Sarah Lacy will be sharing at the Platform the fascinating and propelling thoughts of one of her bestslling books; “Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky: How a new breed of Global Entrepreneurs is changing the planet”.
Others speakers include
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| Pastor Tony Rapu |
Pastor Tony Rapu – Pastor Tony is a medical doctor by vocation and the founder and Senior Pastor of THIS PRESENT HOUSE. He will be talking on “The Changing Paradigm”
Anand Giridharadas – Anand is a columnist for The New York Times and its global edition, the International Herald Tribune. He will be talking on the concept of “Hardship Innovation: Gandhian Engineering and the Changing Geography of Bright Ideas”. He will be answering questions as to; How Indian companies built the world’s cheapest car for $2,000 and created the world’s cheapest cellular cars? Why are Kenyan firms at the leading edge of mobile-banking and crisis-mapping technologies?
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| Anand Giridharadas |
Lanre Olusola – Lanre Olusola is Nigeria’s Number one Peak Performance Catalyst, Mind, Health and Life Coach. He has worked extensively in various capacities as Consultant, Advisor, Strategist with the UK Government through the Department for International Development (DFID), the Nigerian Givernment in education, Health, Commerce and Industry. He will be expounding about “The Power Within”.
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| Lanre Olusola |
You can get more information about “The Platform 8.0” at http://www.theplatformnigeria.com. Registration for the event starts online on the 24th April 2010. Attendance is free but restricted to registered participants. It will also be broadcast live on the internet too. It is truly an event you cannot afford to miss if you are in the innovation space.
