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SESSIONS

Forty-seven sessions across eight topic areas. Search the full library, or head to the Schedule to see everything laid out by time.

Featured Session

FEATURED SESSION: IDEAS BECOME BIGGER WHEN THEY MEET

The conference's signature panel, bringing four disciplines to one stage to test the idea the whole event is built around.

11:30AM–12:15PM · Main Hall · David Adebayo, Amara Chukwu, Halima Yusuf, Bimpe Adeyemi

01 Keynote
9:00AMDay One

OPENING ADDRESS: WHERE IDEAS MEET

The conference opens with a short address on the idea underneath every other idea this week: that thinking imp…

David Adebayo
Main Hall Available
02 Keynote
9:45AMDay One

THE ARCHITECTURE OF ATTENTION

Ngozi Falade on the infrastructure decisions that quietly decide what a product's users are able to pay attent…

Ngozi Falade
Main Hall Available
03 Talk
9:45AMDay One

DESIGNING FOR THE NEXT BILLION USERS

A case for designing infrastructure and interiors around constraints, not despite them.

Tunde Bakare-Osei
Studio A Filling Fast
04 Panel
9:45AMDay One

SOIL, CAPITAL AND THE NEXT HARVEST

Two founders on what it actually takes to move patient capital toward smallholder agriculture.

Amara Chukwu, Zainab Bello
Forum Room Available
05 Workshop
9:45AMDay One

BUILD THE ROOM: A FACILITATION WORKSHOP

A working session on designing meetings and rooms that produce decisions instead of just discussion.

Kelechi Nwosu
Workshop Lab Registration Required
06 Fireside Chat
10:00AMDay One

CAPITAL WITHOUT PATIENCE

A candid conversation on the difference between patient capital and slow decision-making, and why investors co…

Yetunde Osagie
Ideas Lounge Available
07 Talk
11:00AMDay One

WHAT MUSEUMS KNOW ABOUT ATTENTION

A curator's argument for treating attention as a resource that exhibitions, and products, either spend well or…

Bimpe Adeyemi
Main Hall Available
08 Panel
11:00AMDay One

FROM FOUNDER TO INSTITUTION

Two founders on the awkward, under-discussed passage from being a founder to running an institution.

Chidi Umeh, Wale Adigun
Studio A Filling Fast
09 Roundtable
11:00AMDay One

POLICY AT THE SPEED OF PRODUCT

A roundtable on why regulation is always late, and what earlier, better conversations between policy and produ…

Folake Ibrahim
Forum Room Available
10 Workshop
11:00AMDay One

PROTOTYPING PUBLIC TRUST

A hands-on session applying prototyping methods, usually reserved for products, to public institutions.

Segun Adewale
Workshop Lab Filling Fast
11 Fireside Chat
11:15AMDay One

THE CREATIVE ECONOMY'S BALANCE SHEET

Ada Eze on what it takes to run a creative practice as a durable business rather than a series of good project…

Ada Eze
Ideas Lounge Filling Fast
12 Networking
12:00PMDay One

LONG TABLE LUNCH

An unstructured lunch across long shared tables, seated deliberately to mix disciplines.

Open networking session
Ideas Lounge Open
13 Keynote
1:15PMDay One

REBUILDING TRUST IN INSTITUTIONS

Obiora Nnamdi on what institutions get wrong when they try to win back communities they've let down.

Obiora Nnamdi
Main Hall Filling Fast
14 Talk
1:15PMDay One

THE ENGINEER'S DILEMMA

Halima Yusuf on the daily trade-off between shipping fast and building something that survives its own success…

Halima Yusuf
Studio A Available
15 Panel
1:15PMDay One

CITIES WE HAVEN'T BUILT YET

A panel on the civic buildings and public spaces that current cities still lack, and why.

Emeka Okafor
Forum Room Filling Fast
16 Workshop
1:15PMDay One

READING THE ROOM: NEGOTIATION LAB

A practical negotiation workshop drawn from fifteen years of term sheets and their aftermath.

Tobi Fashina
Workshop Lab Registration Required
17 Fireside Chat
1:30PMDay One

FICTION AS INFRASTRUCTURE

Chiamaka Obi on the stories institutions rely on to hold themselves together, and what happens when those stor…

Chiamaka Obi
Ideas Lounge Available
18 Panel
2:30PMDay One

TEAMS THAT OUTLIVE THEIR FOUNDERS

A conversation on the leadership habits that let a team keep functioning well after its founder steps back.

David Adebayo, Rita Osei-Mensah
Main Hall Available
19 Talk
2:30PMDay One

THE LAST MILE OF GOOD DESIGN

On the unglamorous final decisions that determine whether good design survives contact with real use.

Tunde Bakare-Osei
Studio A Available
20 Roundtable
2:30PMDay One

AGRICULTURE AS TECHNOLOGY

A roundtable reframing agricultural practice as a technology sector that has been chronically under-invested.

Amara Chukwu
Forum Room Available
21 Workshop
2:30PMDay One

FACILITATING DIFFICULT ROOMS

An advanced facilitation workshop for rooms where disagreement is structural, not incidental.

Kelechi Nwosu
Workshop Lab Registration Required
22 Keynote
3:45PMDay One

CLOSING KEYNOTE, DAY ONE: THE COST OF CERTAINTY

A closing argument for treating certainty as a cost to be managed rather than a goal to chase, drawn from a ca…

Ngozi Falade
Main Hall Available
23 Networking
4:45PMDay One

OPENING NIGHT RECEPTION

An open evening reception closing the first day, with no agenda beyond good conversation.

Open networking session
Ideas Lounge Open
24 Keynote
9:00AMDay Two

MOMENTUM: A FRAMEWORK FOR SECOND DAYS

Chidi Umeh opens the second day with a framework for carrying momentum from a good first day into real change.

Chidi Umeh
Main Hall Filling Fast
25 Talk
9:00AMDay Two

SYSTEMS THAT DESIGN THEMSELVES

On engineering systems flexible enough to absorb decisions their original designers never anticipated.

Halima Yusuf
Studio A Available
26 Panel
9:00AMDay Two

PUBLIC MONEY, PRIVATE AMBITION

A panel on where public funding and private ambition align, and where they quietly work against each other.

Folake Ibrahim, Tobi Fashina
Forum Room Filling Fast
27 Workshop
9:00AMDay Two

WRITING FOR ROOMS YOU'LL NEVER ENTER

A workshop on writing briefs, decks and documents built to travel and persuade without you in the room.

Ada Eze
Workshop Lab Registration Required
28 Fireside Chat
9:15AMDay Two

THE SLOW DEATH OF THE ORG CHART

A conversation on why formal organisational structure keeps losing ground to informal networks of trust.

Obiora Nnamdi
Ideas Lounge Available
29 Talk
10:15AMDay Two

WHAT NATURE OPTIMIZES FOR

A researcher's argument that natural systems consistently outperform engineered ones on the metrics that matte…

Segun Adewale
Main Hall Available
30 Panel
10:15AMDay Two

INTERFACES FOR PEOPLE WHO HATE INTERFACES

A conversation between an architect and a product leader on designing for people who'd rather not notice the d…

Emeka Okafor, Ngozi Falade
Studio A Available
31 Roundtable
10:15AMDay Two

THE COMMUNITY THAT OUTGREW ITS FOUNDER

A roundtable on the discomfort, and necessity, of a community becoming bigger than the person who started it.

Wale Adigun
Forum Room Available
32 Workshop
10:15AMDay Two

LAND, LAW AND LIVELIHOODS

A working session on the legal mechanics of land tenure that quietly determine whether farming families can pl…

Zainab Bello
Workshop Lab Filling Fast
33 Fireside Chat
10:30AMDay Two

CURATING A PUBLIC ARGUMENT

Bimpe Adeyemi on building exhibitions structured as arguments rather than surveys.

Bimpe Adeyemi
Ideas Lounge Available
35 Talk
11:30AMDay Two

TEACHING WHAT CAN'T BE TAUGHT

An economist on redesigning curricula for skills that resist being written into a syllabus.

Ifeoma Chukwuemeka
Studio A Available
36 Panel
11:30AMDay Two

THE ECONOMICS OF ATTENTION SPANS

A panel on what shortening attention spans mean for how products, media and even meetings should be built.

Yetunde Osagie
Forum Room Available
37 Workshop
11:30AMDay Two

BUILDING A PERSONAL BOARD OF DIRECTORS

A workshop on assembling the small group of people whose judgement you deliberately seek out before big decisi…

Rita Osei-Mensah
Workshop Lab Registration Required
38 Networking
12:30PMDay Two

COMMUNITY TABLE LUNCH

A second day of shared tables, this time seated by topic rather than discipline.

Open networking session
Ideas Lounge Open
39 Keynote
1:30PMDay Two

THE NOVELIST'S GUIDE TO STRATEGY

A novelist's case that narrative structure is a better model for strategy than most strategy frameworks.

Chiamaka Obi
Main Hall Available
40 Talk
1:30PMDay Two

HARDWARE IS HARD, TRUST IS HARDER

On the trust systems, not just the engineering systems, that hold up when hardware ships at scale.

Halima Yusuf
Studio A Available
41 Roundtable
1:30PMDay Two

REGULATING WHAT DOESN'T EXIST YET

A roundtable on the specific difficulty of writing policy for technologies that haven't finished becoming what…

Folake Ibrahim
Forum Room Available
42 Workshop
1:30PMDay Two

FINANCIAL MODELING FOR FOUNDERS

A hands-on modelling session for founders who have been avoiding their own spreadsheet.

Tobi Fashina
Workshop Lab Registration Required
43 Talk
2:45PMDay Two

WHAT FOUNDERS GET WRONG ABOUT GROWTH

Chidi Umeh on the growth metrics founders chase that quietly damage the thing they're trying to grow.

Chidi Umeh
Studio A Available
44 Panel
2:45PMDay Two

SUSTAINABLE BY DEFAULT

A panel on designing systems where the sustainable choice is the default one, not the effortful one.

Amara Chukwu, Segun Adewale
Forum Room Available
45 Talk
2:45PMDay Two

THE QUIET DISCIPLINE OF GREAT TEAMS

David Adebayo closes his conference contribution with what the best teams he's studied quietly have in common.

David Adebayo
Main Hall Available
46 Keynote
3:45PMDay Two

CLOSING KEYNOTE: IDEAS MEET HERE

The conference closes where it began, with two of its opening voices returning to ask what should travel home …

Ngozi Falade, David Adebayo
Main Hall Available
47 Networking
4:30PMDay Two

CLOSING RECEPTION & IDEAS EXCHANGE

A final open reception structured loosely around trading one idea for another before the room empties.

Open networking session
Ideas Lounge Open