Vodacom Business has just launched Fast Forward Series Season 2, the next series of industry events, interactive workshops and collaborative sessions, focused on driving growth and accelerating positive changes within the business landscape of South Africa. However, let’s rewind and look at what some of the attendees thought of the first Fast-Forward Series .
Reishina Boodhoo, CEO of RSVX Holdings, a women-led BEE Level 1 company that works collaboratively with entrepreneurs to achieve greater value from their business, attended the Fast Forward Season 1. Based in Johannesburg, Reishina first heard about the Fast Forward series from a Vodacom employee that told her about an amazing business learning opportunity.
Reishina attended the Fast Forward Series because she has heard that Vodacom Business is actively empowering entrepreneurs, which is aligned to her businesses vision of creating 100 000 entrepreneurs within South Africa.
‘I felt like I needed to understand what the series was about as I cannot recommend something to others unless I have experienced it myself. I don’t have all the answers when it comes to business and when it comes to my work, so I try taking every opportunity to empower myself and hopefully others.’
While at the Fast Forward Series, Reishina attended two of the workshops. The Business Doctors and Google workshop, where she attests to have been blown away by the presentations.
‘I found the workshops fabulous. Absolutely fabulous! I was sadly only able to attend two of the sessions and not the full series, but I felt it was very empowering from a business perspective which I will be taking forward.’
The sessions that Reishina attended gave her new insights into her own business which has led her to make changes.
‘In my business, I can look around the room and I see tons of successful businesspeople. But what I realized while I was there, is that there is so much that we still don’t know. I was able to get that information at the Fast Forward Series that literally led us to embark on a mission to run our business differently.’
Some of the key take-outs that Reishina gained included adopting technology in her business, an understanding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and some of the benefits it brings to business owners such as improved efficiency, an increase in profits and scale of business.
‘I am not a ‘tech-guru’, but what the sessions showed me is that businesses aren’t embracing technology going forward. From the group itself, many people were traditional thinkers, and what Vodacom Business did was to show us the need to upscale people’s knowledge about technologies and its benefit in the marketplace.’
Reishina was also extremely impressed with some of the experts who conducted the workshops and sessions. So much so that, this was her favourite part of the experience.
‘My favourite part of attending was the fact that these were experts training us, and the fact that it was free! For people with that kind of experience to train us would have cost us a fortune. We were all entrepreneurs in the room with limited time on our hands, but I can say the time I spent there was well worth it!’
‘What Vodacom Business did was they hand-picked every strategic empowerment session for an entrepreneur. They really thought the Fast Forward Series through, understood everyone’s needs and still brought in a valuable technology aspect.’
Reishina’s only regret from attending the Fast Forward series was that she couldn’t attend more sessions and workshops. However, she would like to attend the full Fast Forward Season 2 and will be bringing her colleagues from RSVX Holdings with her.
