Mic Mann — Creative Thinker, Visionary, Experiential Brand Specialist and all round nice guy

It is what's involved, and another guest. This is a guest I've really been looking forward to having a chat to. I've heard him chat a lot. I've seen him, but I've never actually gotten to speak to him. Who is he? He is Mick Mann. Hello, Mick. Welcome. Hi, thanks for having me. It's an absolute pleasure. Mick, before we get into the meat and potatoes of what this talk is all about, which is going to be the Singularity U Summit, give me a bit of background as to Mick Mann himself. Where were you born? Grew up, studied, those kind of things. Okay, well, yeah, so I actually grew up and was born in Bononi, South Africa, straight out of Bononi. Pretty much went to school in Bononi and then Johannesburg. Went to film school, studied, got to honours in film, and producing in direction and writing. And joined the business when I was about 18, which was man-made media with my two brothers and our private partner. And over the last 20 years, we've been creating and designing and developing brand experiences for some of the top brands in South Africa. You know, through animation, video, live events. And since we got involved with Singularity University, we really did a head dive first into the tech.

And we went and bought 3D printers and virtual reality headsets. And really, we've been getting into AR, VR, AR, blockchain, 3D printing. You know, how do we use that in our man-made business, which is a brand experience agency, as well as, you know, how do we use it to try and prove the human condition, which is our Singularity University mission. Wonderful, so somebody else straight out of Bononi. I'm also a Bononi born and bred. Although I think I probably didn't go to the same high school you did, because you strike me as a Bononi high kind of guy. I never went to, I actually, I went to, for high school, I went to Joburg. I went to King David. I used to go to Hillow in Bononi. Oh, okay, cool. Hillow closed down when I was about 11. So I moved to David Lynxfield. To King David, yeah, I know that school well. So, inventing has been a very big part of your life, creating experiences, etc., etc. Where did Singularity University come in? I mean, how did you get involved there? Because you seem to be very, very involved. Yes, so we run some of the largest corporate events for some of the top companies in South Africa. In 2015, Barclays Bank, Barclays Africa at the time, when they were still here, was having a, was bringing Singularity University for their top 80 clients for a closed program with Singularity.

I had read Ray Kurzweil's book, one of the founders of Singularity a few years ago, spoke to my brother, Shane, and said, "We have to win this event. It's going to be a life-changing experience for us." We landed up winning that event, doing that custom program in May 2015 with Singularity and Barclays. And then later on in that year, another top bank in South Africa was bringing Singularity University out again. And Singularity said, "Those are the guys we work with on the ground." Because they were so impressed by the work we did. And we landed up doing that event as well for their top 250 senior managers of that organization. And then directly after that Singularity said to myself and Shane, one of my brothers and partners, they said, "Listen, we'll offer you a discounted ticket to our executive program. It's happening in 10 days in San Francisco. Can you guys come?" So I literally dropped everything that I had and went, was it a few days later, was in San Francisco doing an executive program in Singularity University HQ at NASA Ames Research Center. Then subsequently came back, got the chapter license for Singularity, which is a non-profit part, ran the chapter and then went back again in 2016 to Silicon Valley and applied for the license to run Singularity University summits in South Africa.

And then over the last three years, we've run probably the top Singularity University summit globally out of over 21 countries. We've been rated as the top summit organizers from Singularity HQ and we've had some amazing feedback from our audiences over the last couple of years on how we've impacted their lives, inspiring them to want to do something different or igniting an idea that they've gone and they've pursued to large organizations changing their full investment strategy. And it's been a hell of a time. Sorry, let me not say that it's been a great time and we've learned so much over the last couple of years. What's also really exciting for us is we've got to go and source and find some amazing South African change makers and go get them accredited at Singularity University as faculty. So we've found 12 amazing individuals in the various different fields around exponential technologies like robotics, 3D printing, AR, biotech, as well as global grand challenges like energy or water or the future of cities. And we've gone and found these people and they have gone throughout the last two years to people all in different countries around with their expertise in their fields, which has been amazing for us as South Africans to give back to the world through our different change makers and faculty.

Wonderful stuff. Now, Mick, for people who might not know, what is Singularity University? What is the purpose of it? So Singularity University's mission is to educate, empower and inspire leaders and, futurely, apply exponential technologies like robotics or 3D printing networks and sensors or blockchain to apply these technologies to solve some of the big problems in the world. So how do we use blockchain to solve the water crisis or the food crisis and make food security abandoned for all? And that's really been our mission, is how do we, you know, improve these skills and these tools and the mindset also to make it happen? Because one of our greatest assets are our mindsets and we have a huge focus on that with Singularity University is how do we change the mindsets of individuals so that they have the confidence as well as the tools to make the right decisions and to make, you know, the right cause when focusing on a specific technology or industry or trying to solve a problem within their own organization. Wonderful stuff. Now, I was fortunate enough to attend last year's summit and I have to tell you, I was absolutely blown away. I had no idea, despite all the media coverage, et cetera, et cetera, of what I was walking into because there was a main auditorium and there were thousands of people there and you guys managed to get it to run like a well-oiled machine.

I was so impressed with that. There must have been challenges involved in that, but then we come to this year and all of your plans must have got thrown, you know, thrown out the window at some stage, fairly early in the year. Totally, yeah. I mean, as the same as everyone, this has been the most unprecedented year, you know, in our history, you know, since I've been alive of change, of radical change and just like everything else going online, we made the call to take the summit online, which was quite a difficult position because we weren't sure if there were going to be, if live events were going to come back or not for a few months. So we made the decision to go online and what's been great about going online is that it's given us the opportunity to expand our topics and our themes because we're not bound by physical rooms and space. We are able to allow for more tracks and stages going on at the same time. So that gave us the opportunity to expand themes and this year we are focusing on exponential technologies, leadership and entrepreneurship, global grand challenges, as well as digital marketing and with a specific focus on the SME. We've made sure a lot of sessions work on how to help the SME either as an organization with SME suppliers or directly for the SME to give them some knowledge.

And we've got, you know, various workshops to be able to help the SME. There's a business risk workshop or there's an Instagram workshop. The SME just uses Instagram. You can radically improve your business by a few little tips on how to run Instagram campaigns or use the tools available for free. And it's also allowed us to create, you know, a much wider audience and to appeal to a much wider audience because you can just log in from your computer. And we've had a number of guests buying tickets from all around the world, which is quite exciting, from Singapore and Japan and Nigeria, you know, to various... We've got over 44 countries represented this year taking part in the summit, which is really exciting for us and would never be achievable unless it was this online format. So there are some drawbacks because we do believe, you know, the live experience is unique and will definitely come back in full force once we overcome this pandemic and vaccines are in play. But I think that's not going to happen for at least another year or so. So this is a great way for us to really stretch the boundaries of what an online event can be and give people a unique experience. Wonderful stuff. This is what's involved.

My special guest is Mick Mann from Mann Mann Events. And you are the co-CEO of Singularity U here in South Africa. Am I correct? Yes. Fantastic. So that's Mick's pedigree. We'll be back because I want to dive into the sort of technology side of it in just a bit. This is what's involved. We'll be back in a bit. And we're back with what's involved. My special guest is Mick Mann. So Mick, last year, as I was saying, I was totally blown away by the way the event was set up. And I was actually fortunate enough to get to interview a couple of the people that were part of the faculty, Benji Rossman, John Sarnay. And it was great. But now this year, as we've said, this COVID pandemic turned everything on its head technically because, you know, we talk about how we're going to take it online. But technically, this must have been a massive challenge for you guys. Talk to me about that. No, it's so technically, this is definitely putting on an online event has not been easier than a live event, to say the least. It's got its own set of challenges. There are, you know, certain elements you have to prepare well in advance. And it's really, you know, technically it's been all art for the last couple of weeks nonstop.

And we've gone and created four virtual stages. So we've got an Africa Arena stage, which we're really excited about, which is with a massive, massive video wall and a crowd of thousands of animated people. I mean, don't tell anyone that they'll look quite real when you're at the event. We've got an empty theater stage, which is also an incredible virtual stage. We've got a conversation studio where we will be holding live panel conversations. And we've got a workshops area where there will be over 17 workshops taking place to really help people in different topics and themes. Sorry, Nick, I think it's brilliant what you guys have done to this point as well. You had a media launch a little while ago, which I attended virtually and found myself turning myself into a little robot and floating around in outer space. And initially when I saw it, I was a bit hesitant because, you know, we don't have the greatest bandwidth here in South Africa. I thought, how are we going to get all of this sorted out? And yet, to me, it seemed to work really well. Were you happy with at least that part of it? Yes, absolutely. So with that VR media launch, we've actually custom-built those spaces. And what we've done now for the summit is that we've taken it one step further and create every evening after the summit's content ends, you can go and enjoy a drink in our virtual reality bushing experience where you can go in as one of the five big, the big five, either as a lion, leopard, buffalo, elephant, or rider, and go enter into the watering hole where you can go have a drink with other animals.

And you can also go to the boomer where you can enjoy some music that will be playing in the VR bushing experience. Or you can go to the Bay of Bab Forest and meet new people. And it's really just our way, these VR experiences, what we're so excited about. It's a new way of connecting in a much, in a quite a fun and immersive experience through virtual reality where you don't need a headset required. So for the summit, you'll actually be going into the bush. We couldn't, you know, we couldn't go there in real life. So we're going there in virtual reality. And that's to me also something amazing is that we don't, you've created this environment, but we don't need the headsets to go and explore the environment, which it just, it makes that technology seem so much more accessible to us. Mick, tell me, the summit kicks off next week, am I correct? Yes, yeah, we kick off on the 13th of October. We will have, I guess we'll have access to the platform to be inducted, look at the network, the expo areas. We've got a lot of digital expos as well as you'll be able to network. So this platform we've chosen is Hoppin and it's got a great networking feature. One of the biggest things that have been missing for us in these online events is networking.

So with this platform, you can go and you can click ready and you can have a three minute speed date with anyone else attending the summit. Who's also click ready and since it's a great way of getting in, you enter into like a private Zoom room with them and you have a three minute chat and it's a great way to meet new people. What we're saying to everybody at the summit this year is smile. And because, and also, so firstly, sorry, what we're saying to everyone at the summit this year is dress up because we want you to look good and we want you to smile and put your cameras on and meet new people. Ah, no more pajamas and slippers when you're doing this. Hey, that's brilliant. We want people to look good. You want to be looking your best and so that you are excited about putting on your camera and meeting new people. So on the 13th, you're going to get the chance to go to the expos and do the networking and then we will have an opening ceremony which I'm really excited about where we're going to be revealing our Africa Arena stage and kicking off the summit as well as we'll be entertained. We'll hear from some of our partners that some of our sponsor partners and then we will be entertained by black motion of local South African artists as well as Kishi Bashi, an internationally acclaimed artist from the States.

It sounds incredibly exciting. Mick, tell me in terms of the lineup, you've given me a broad overview, but who can we expect some of your headline speakers to be? So this year what's also the online format has given us the opportunity to expand our speakers and we've changed the format to keep it a lot shorter and sharper the content, almost like you're listening to lots of different podcasts in one sitting, you know, and it's called contextual learning where you get to experience many different topics in one sitting and gives you a great context because you see the similarities between all knowledge. So some of the big hitters we've got where we're going to be opening the summit with Peter Diamandis, which is really exciting, one of the founders of Singularity University. We've also got some great speakers like M. Colisium Khudjo from the CEO of Vixoro. Talking with Paul Fissimo about the changing dynamics of the work environment. We have Divya Chander, who will be talking about augmentation and evolution rewiring the humans from the inside out. We've got the new CEO of Singularity University, Steve Leonard, talking about how to grow communities for impact and a fireside with myself.

We've also got Michael Jordan and Adam Vulcan, talking about where to invest in the future, which are two great investors. Then we also have Kathy Wood, who will talk about investing in disruptive innovation and was recently featured, I think, yesterday in a Forbes article about how Kathy beat Wall Street with her predictions on Tesla. And she came to our Exponential Finance Summit last year, Kathy, and spoke about how Tesla was going to rock it up and a lot of the investors in the room thought she was crazy. And if we look flash forward to today, just 18 months later, Tesla has seen incredible exponential growth and putting Kathy in such a great position. I'm so excited to hear what she's going to talk about at this year's summit. We then also have a great talk from a fireside chat on building up resilience through adversity with Adam Pantanovich, one of our local faculty. Godfrey Nazareth and Tillie Lockie, who are three incredible individuals who have shown such a great leadership qualities overcoming adversity and being an inspiration to millions around the globe. Then we have some great tech talks on robotics with Thomas Villaman from Gobi Robots. They created those robots that would go into the hospitals and check for COVID-19.

We also have Vivian Ming, who talks about AR makes better humans in the AR category. He's one of the leading experts in AR. Prof Marwala, who's the head of the 4R, the chairman of the 4R in South Africa, having a discussion with Martin Svensson, who's the head of the Sweden AI Institute, and Ndile Ndaba, who's the chairman of convergence partners around what we need AR for governance. How can AR create better state systems and how do we invest and scale AR to make sure that South Africa is future-proofed and thrives in the future because of artificial intelligence capabilities. We have Norm Drude talking about AR at the edge of digitalization, and Norm was the CTO for Microsoft for over 20 years, at Microsoft over 30 years. So he's going to talk to us on that. We have such a great lineup. It's just incredible. I could go on for days, but we've got over 125 speakers that will be talking. And we end off day two with an amazing talk by Navin Jain, who's on the board of Singularity, one of the initial investors, talking about moonshots and moonshot thinking, which is a really inspiring one. I would encourage everyone to go watch that. Wonderful stuff. My special guest is Mick Mann from Singularity to You and Man Made Events.

This is what's involved. Back with more of Mick in just a bit. And we're back with my special guest, Mick Mann. Mick, it sounds so, so exciting what you guys have done. I cannot imagine the amount of work that has been put in. You've got some great speakers. The question is now, who is the summit open to? So the summit is open to anybody who wants to attend. We are open to anyone globally that wants to attend, or anyone who's interested in making a positive difference in the future, as well as wanting to learn about all these different technologies and these different industries. And we've got quite a large contingency of students that are attending this year, as well as, you know, I think we're on over a couple of thousand guests. So really for anyone that wants to learn, we don't have an age bracket. We're not limited by what age you are. We really focus on this concept of lifelong learning. So even if you're, you know, my grandfather, who was 99, he was 100 actually last year. He attended the summit and he watched it from a stream from home. So it's really for anyone that has a thirst for learning, that is curious about making a positive difference in the future. Wonderful stuff. Now, price wise, do you have different pricing categories?

Where do we go about getting tickets? How does that work? So everything's on the SingularityU South Africa Summit website. We can see the different pricing categories. If you're calling, if you're buying from overseas, there's a conversion for you to dollars and pounds and any currency. Because it's online, we've really, the process is decreased dramatically. And what we've really tried to do is give maximum value to everyone. And that is why there's such great content, because we understand that it's a different experience and not their love. So how do we create maximum value in terms of giving people the best thought leadership and innovation from around the world over the two days? And what we've also done is we've created a really live experience. So the last day of the summit, you can go and watch any of the talks without having to be their love. So that will be able, if you miss anything, because there is too much to see and you have to pick your schedule and Dara is what you want to watch. But if you miss anything, you can go back and you can watch in the real of experience. That's some good news, because I've been sitting looking at everything that's happening. And I was I was thinking, I just don't have enough hours in the day to be able to attend everything I want to make.

You spoke about this year's focus being on the on the SME sector. Why would somebody in that sector need to attend this summit? So I think the big thing is that we need to try and empower people that are in the SME sector with new knowledge and new skills so that they can get through this this harsh time and then ultimately thrive in the future. So how do they rebuild their businesses when everything has changed? So we've really tried to focus on certain discussions and certain workshops and panels that can enable those people to to to improve their businesses and possibly they weren't doing those things before. So what we've also done is if you're an organization dealing with SME, those those talks and those panels and those workshops will also be relevant to you because you can you can pass on that knowledge. You can pay it forward and share with the SME what you think they should do and how you can help them survive and thrive. Which is wonderful. And I speak from my experience of last year, I would highly recommend if you are listening to to the broadcaster or maybe you're listening to the podcast, get yourself some tickets. It kicks off. You said on the 13th. It kicks off on the 13th of the opening ceremony and then it will be live on the 14th and the 15th.

From 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. we are open with the expos and the networking each day and the workshops and all the workshops will be running from early in the morning. And then on day two, we started 9 a.m. with the workshops. And then from 1 to 6 6 30 p.m. we have the content that will be playing on the five different stages and channels. And then we will be having our Bush experience from each evening when the summer ends. And then the real of experience is on the 16th. Wonderful, wonderful stuff. Nick, I know you guys are very busy. I know it's frantic at the moment. But a question for you, where next for Singularity U and specifically for you guys at Manmade? Because I know a bunch of people in the events industry, their lives have been totally turned upside down. What's what's up next for you? What's what's next for us? Well, we're looking forward to throwing one of the best summits in the world. And then we do have a number of other online summits we will be releasing for early next year as well as we will be hoping to do the summits as a hybrid next year. So it'll be a combination of love and online. Wonderful stuff. Give us that address again, Nick. If anybody wants to go and find out some more information, wants to get involved.

www.singularity.eu - southafricasummit.org Okie dokie. There we go. Well, we wish you all the best. I know I've taken up a lot of your time already. Nick, all the best. I am so looking forward to the summit and well done to you guys for everything that you've done. No, thank you so much. We'll see you there. Hopefully in a networking session. Fantastic stuff. That was my special guest, Mick Mann from Manmade. Also the co-CEO of Singularity. You South Africa get to that event if you possibly can. I think it is going to be absolutely brilliant. I've booked off blocked off those couple of days so that I can check it out as well. Also got some of the guests that are going to be speaking at the summit. We're going to be interviewing a couple of them as well. Really looking forward to that. Until next time, this is what's involved. Thank you for listening.