We hope you’ll nominate yourself to join the IndabaX steering committee, which is the leadership team that oversees the IndabaX programme. We are seeking 4-5 new members to join the IndabaX leadership. Nominations due by 31 October 2021. To nominate simply send an email answering a few questions (see below).

IndabaX and our Community’s Health

The IndabaX is one of the major programmes of the Deep Learning Indaba. The IndabaX events are locally-organised Indabas (i.e gatherings) that help develop knowledge and capacity in machine learning and artificial intelligence in individual countries across Africa. Whereas the annual Deep Learning Indaba (in normal times) brings everyone together in the same location, the IndabaX gives focus to individual countries, its needs, and the specific support and development needed at a country-level. 

The IndabaX steering committee is the bridge between all the individual IndabaX events, sharing experiences between them, and ensuring the health of local communities across our continent. We seek to add 4 new members to the team. If you have been a lead of a previous IndabaX in your country, we encourage you to now take on a role in shaping the IndabaX at the continent-scale.

Roles and Expectations of the Steering Committee

In general, all committee members:

  • Are passionate about strengthening African Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
  • Able to volunteer time to develop IndabaX communities across Africa.
  • Have some experience organising communities and understand the challenges faced by the general tech community.
  • Come from across our African continent and beyond, and from all backgrounds, i.e. from any country, and can be students or academics, working in industry, public sector, etc.
  • Work within the codes or practice of the Deep Learning Indaba, driven by values of Ubuntu and a strong ethical compass. 

Specific tasks you will be involved in as an IndabaX steering committee member are:

  • Develop calls for hosts and future leaders.
  • Support individual IndabaX communities and help them best develop their programmes.
  • Review applications and budget allocation to different communities
  • Report progress of the IndabaX and the health of the African ML community
  • Work on new ways to improve the IndabaX programme overall.
  • Help support fundraising, communications, and maintain the integrity of the Deep Learning Indaba.
  • This is a volunteer role, i.e. not a paid role. We do not expect committee members to incur any expenses in supporting this role, although where expenses might be incurred, these will be covered. 
  • Take a role on the committee for 2 years. 

The intended structure of the committee for 2022 is to have with a committee Director, a deputy-director, and 3 other members (tech lead, social lead, and finance lead). The Indaba aims to develop leadership within the group, with the deputy director of one year becoming the director the next year, and the director moving to a position on the Community Advisory Board. 

Please apply by sending a nomination to indabax@deeplearningindaba.com. Please use [IndabaX2021] Call for organizers as subject. Your email should answer the following questions:

* What motivates you to join the IndabaX steering committee?

* What is your past experience with IndabaX?

 * What challenges did you face in organizing your previous event(s) and how did you overcome them? 

* What are you particularly proud of when you think back on your previous event(s)?

* Can you provide the names of 2-3 other people (e.g., IndabaX organizers, other community group members, mentors) who can support your nomination? 

 If you have any questions or want to know more, please get in touch using indabax@deeplearningindaba.com.

What is the IndabaX

The IndabaX programme started in 2018 as an experiment in strengthening our machine learning community beyond the annual Deep Learning Indaba, to allow more people to contribute to the conversation on artificial intelligence and machine learning – as a different way to join hands across our beautiful continent and

In 2018, we supported 13 IndabaX events that were run locally in different countries across Africa. In 2019,  the IndabaX grew to include 27 countries! In 2021 there were 25 IndabaX meetings. The events range from roughly 50 attendees per event, up to some of the larger ones which exceed 300, allowing our community to grow to several thousand attendees.