The HeavyChef Project

We’re proud to announce that the Heavy Chef Sessions are now sponsored by Perdeberg Wines.

Perdeberg will be providing the refreshment to the evening’s festivities. Perdeberg has been extremely active in supporting South Africa’s internet community, and is following on the success of its ‘Clink to Win’ campaign by engaging with individuals in the marketing and tech sector.

This is in line with Perdeberg’s grounded and intelligent brand personality.

We are happy to be associated with Perdeberg, and look forward to getting stuck into its award winning Reserve on the evening!

[Details, dIrections and times here]

We’ve been chuckling all day over the great production that Play.24.com’s Chris, Leezl and co. did with the video of Eric and Charl’s presentations at last month’s Heavy Chef Session.

Check the video here if you can’t view it above:

Keep your eyes peeled for the next one on the 25th of this month. It promises to be another killer session. We’re changing the schedule slightly and pushing the next ‘Netrepreneur’ Session to July. This month, the focus is going to shift a little from our usual topic of profitable websites to ‘Building a Brand in South Africa’.

Sorry for the cryptic nature of this post, but we’re still confirming venue, etc.

Last night was the latest in a long line of Heavy Chef Sessions, with Eric Edelstein (above) and Charl Norman regaling us with juicy stuff from their entrepreneurial adventures.

This particular Session was interesting because we were trying some new stuff. It’s the first of a mini-series called ‘Netrepreneurs’ with successful internet entrepreneurs talking about their journeys. It was also the first with two speakers; and the first that has been filmed in its entirety - thanks to Play.24.com. It was also the longest session we’ve had: it ended at around 8:30pm. Usually we’re in straight after work and out in about 2hrs.

I was well stoked with our two speakers. Eric and Charl have two very different styles of delivery, with Eric being nicely off-the-cuff and Charl a little more methodical.

Eric gave us a fascinating insight into the ‘early days’, with failures eventually followed by great success. We got an idea of some of the twists and turns in getting premises, growth, hiring staff and whether to employ or outsource.

A nugget I learned from Eric’s talk is that if you want to launch an online venture (or any venture for that matter) there has to be a champion. Without someone who eats, sleeps, breathes and lives the business, it will surely falter. This is a wake-up call for some of our own projects in-house at World Wide Creative.

I’ll also be keeping a close eye on Eric’s latest Internet start-up SpringLeap.com.

Then it was over to Charl. I fluffed his intro royally by saying ‘mybroadband.co.za’ instead of ‘bandwidthblog.co.za‘. Eish. Leezl, please edit that one out…

Charl took us through the thinking and direction behind the social networks he and his colleagues have worked on. We got an inside look at Blue World Communities, the strategy behind the different niche groups and how traffic is driven to the sites. Charl gave us an idea of why social media is here to stay, and how the acquisition by 24.com has given them the muscle to take advantage of this exciting channel.

We were then privileged to get a sneak peak into a new project that Charl and his colleagues are working on, but unfortunately it’s top secret for now. That is, until it’s broadcast to the world on Play.24.com video of last night’s session… oop.

Special thanks to Play.24.com for sending a team through to capture us in full flight. Looking forward to seeing that video. Also, big love to Hatfields for the venue, yummy pizzas, and beer on demand.

There was a great bunch of people who attended, including Robyn and Scott from Encyclomedia; Bruce and Andrea from Cape Peninsula University; Frank and Anne-Marelle; David Murray from Cape Venture Partners; Jason; Jason; Bruce; Reg; Patrick; Chris; Daan; Patrick; Jade; Leezl; and of course, the one and only Chris Roper, who disappointingly was on his best behaviour for the night. Thanks all for coming; hope you enjoyed it!

btw. keep watching this space for a) when the video will be live on Play.24, and b) the next Heavy Chef Session.

A ‘netrepreneur’ is a special breed of techie, businessman and creative. He (or she) is someone who looks at the digital economy as the Wild West of opportunities, and has ridden out on a horse to find them.

Not afraid of all the change happening around us, these important individuals have embraced the continually evolving new technology and made some seriously successful businesses out of them. People like Mark Shuttleworth, Ronnie Apteker (founder Internet Solutions), Herman Heunis (founder Mxit.co.za) and Fiona Phillips (CEO of CyberCellar.com).

We’re excited to announce that, over the next three months, we’ve organised a handful of these rare and wonderful people to chat to us about businesses they have started, all happening at the monthly Heavy Chef Sessions.

This month, we’re joined by Eric Edelstein and Charl Norman.

Eric Edelstein:

The legendary Eric Edelstein is a veteran in South Africa’s internet sector. He started Clicks2Customers.com, incuBeta.com and TrafficSynergy.com – all three businesses having received major international success.

Not to be slowed down by success, Eric is also busy with several other ventures, including SpringLeap.com.

Eric also invests in various businesses through his private venture capital fund.

Charl Norman:

Charl Norman is the founder of Blue World Communities, which includes some of South Africa’s fastest growing and most interesting social media portals – including BlueWorld.co.za and ZoopedUp.com.

Blue World Communities has been in the news recently since they’ve just been snapped up by Naspers. Charl is 23 years old, and is gaining a steady reputation as an engaging public speaker. Charl has been featured as a guest lecturer on the UCT Graduate School of Business Nomadic Marketing Course; and is also the author of two highly successful blogs, Carblog.co.za (ranked 6th on Amatomu) and Bandwidthblog.com, which was nominated for best Tech blog at the SA Blog Awards.

Eric and Charl will be talking about their journey to succeeding in this brave new world, charting the factors behind their growth, including missteps and tipping points along the way.

Wednesday May 28th at Hatfields in Gardens, Cape Town. Phone Rowan at the World Wide Creative studio on 0861 932226; or email Rowan here.

Seats are limited. The May Heavy Chef Session starts at 5.30pm, and usually lasts around 2 hours with a bit of breeze-shootin’ thrown in at the end.

The cost: Nutting. Mahala. S’free…! Click here for more information on the Sessions.

Play.24.com will be there to film the procedings.

Also, keep your eyes and ears open for announcements on upcoming Sessions in the next 2 months. Great things are afoot.

Cheers for now!

Mike and I have been tasting the hard life down in George recently. This past week, we were camped at Fancourt to complete an online marketing analysis for a new client. Of course, we had to find appropriate means of transport on the estate.