Incubator umbrella body to be launched

By Rodney Weidemann for BTI

Johannesburg, 16 Feb 2004

The South African incubator community will soon have its own national body - the SA Business and Technology Incubation Association (SABTIA) - which is to be launched on 1 March.

Incubators serve as a development conduit for the commercialisation of research in fields as diverse as technology and the life sciences.

Entrepreneurs are offered the opportunity to commercialise their products or services within a business incubator, while an environment of learning and sharing is created, in which information, experience and ideas are freely exchanged.

According to Nicoli Koorbanally, business development and alliance manager at technology incubator Softstart, SABTIA will serve as an umbrella body for the many and varied incubators throughout the country.

"SABTIA will unite the incubator professionals and remove the duplication of effort that is currently occurring in the country," says Koorbanally.

"The aim is to be an association for everyone, as it will include private incubators, those operated by universities and technikons and those that are part of the Godisa Trust, and will offer incubators a united front with issues such as raising funds or lobbying government."

The launch, which takes place at Cape Town`s Breakwater Lodge, will focus on the current challenges facing the business and technology incubation industry in SA, a future one year strategy for SABTIA, ratification of its constitution and the election of office bearers.

SABTIA`s objectives include developing a network of organisations responsible for creating an infrastructure and support services for SMEs, training organisations that support and assist SMEs, acting as the SA node for international business incubation entry and promoting best practices for the benefit of the business incubation community.

In other incubator news, the Softstart technology incubator - in conjunction with the Computer Science Department of the University of Pretoria - has launched a Venture Coaching Programme that will culminate in a R10 000 Business Plan Competition.

Third year computer science students have been invited to apply to join the programme to be run at the university, and which will be based on their third year group projects.

Of the groups interested in developing a business plan around their projects, five of the most promising will be selected to attend monthly one-to-two hour coaching/mentoring sessions until October 2004, with Softstart`s strategic venture coach, Ben Zaaiman.

The business plans that the groups develop will then be entered into the Business Plan Competition and the plan with the highest money making potential will win a prize of R10 000 in cash, plus four months of free incubation services within the Softstart Incubator.

A similar initiative will run at the Tshwane University of Technology.