Digital Innovation Weeks

Workshops, panel discussions and product launches. Live podcasts, hackathons, presentations and company visits: Digital Innovation Week (DIW) is diverse. From health technologies and research platforms to the launch of ground-breaking innovations, the annual event showcases how vibrant and dynamic the digital landscape is in Ghana.

The week is co-created and co-owned by actors from private sectors, academia, policymakers, development partners, and civil society organizations with support from the relevant Government agencies and Ministries to promote digitalisation, innovation and cooperation at national level.

In the spirit of inclusion, DIW also offers “The Road to DIW” events outside of the designated national venue. Not only are individual regions to be included and represented, but the events also offer the opportunity to promote measures and solutions that are specific to these areas.

As a pioneer of Digital Innovation Weeks, Ghana launched the initiative in 2021. With more than 9000 participants, 150 exhibitions and 100 mini-events, the 2021, 2022 and 2023 events attracted participants from more than 15 countries. The initiative acts as a comprehensive platform to foster discussion and collaboration. All discussions and insights are summarised in a unified vision or action plan. This plan outlines strategic milestones and actions that prioritise and assess the country’s progress in its digital innovation landscape.

To implement a similar event:

1. Develop an ecosystem map of the digital and innovation actors.
2. Identify national or local events in this space that can be engaged. Should we start a DIW or should we support an existing local event to scale to the level of a DIW?
3. Identify a key implementation partner to develop the concept with and identify the key objectives and target market.
4. Choose the style of program development through stakeholder engagement – either organiser-led or ecosystem-led.
5. Determine the scale of the event. This should be based on the available resources, level of experience of organisers, and partners on board.
6. Work with local partners to determine the objectives of the DIW.
7. It is important to communicate the DIW as more than a conference to attract the relevant attendees.