[In Pictures] NOGTECH Incubation Day 1: All things “Oily” and “Beautiful”

The much anticipated NOGTECH Incubation Programme finally kicked off on Monday, October 12, 2020, at the NCDMB Building in Yenagoa, Bayelsa.

As each of the startup teams — AirsynQ, Gricd. Fuel IntelliSense, HomeFort and KiaKia Gas360 — settled down in the training facility after treating themselves to a good breakfast at the lodge, awaiting their very first facilitator & Mentor.

Odiong Akpan soon walked into the class and immediately began indulging teams on his session “Building Technology Products for the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector”.

 Meet the Mentor

Odiong has over sixteen years of combined experience in the information & communication technology and oil & gas industries. He has worked for multinational organizations like Chevron, Ericsson, Airtel, Huawei and Schlumberger. He is very passionate about organizational learning, digital innovation and international development. As such, he loves to participate in related activities with hopes of influencing people, policy and practice – positively.

Odiong is a graduate of Electronic Engineering (BEng) from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria and of Engineering Business Management (MSc) from The University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Presently, he is a doctorate candidate studying for a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) at the University of Bradford School of Management, United Kingdom. He is an avid chess player and a landscape photographer.

During the training, Odiong unreservedly ran through the nitty-gritty of the Oil and Gas Industry, giving the startups a deep insight into the past, current and projected future of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas landscape.

Also, he delved into how startups can begin infusing deep technologies to solve critical problems in the space; while being particular about their processes; in design, products and services offered.

One major highlight of Odiong’s session was making the founders understand factors that may greatly influence their businesses, which are totally beyond their control. These, he grouped into the Political; Economical; Social; Technological; Legal / Regulatory; and Environmental factors.

While the startup had their mental fullness with Odiong’s session, there’s of course, the “stomach-fullness” awaiting patiently to give the much-needed all-round balance.

After all, all work and no food…

Shortly after Odiong released the startups for tea break; the following happened:

These:

And More …

After all sizzlers and munches, the founders returned to the final lap of the training session. This time, Odiong took a more practical approach and did justice to mind-blogging questions being thrown at it by the teams.

The session came to a wrap by 5:00pm in the evening and the teams shared a happy group picture with their facilitator.

But just when we thought it was over, something more interesting swing in; it was the birthday anniversary of Francesca, one of NOGTECH Hackathon and Incubation Programmes Co-ordinators. How more beautiful could an Oil and Gas session turn?

More that happened:

While the Programmes team gave her a surprise birthday package, everyone couldn’t wait to get a slice of photograph with the celebrant.

Shortly after the photography sessions; all activities wrapped up around 6:00pm in the evening, and the teams were conveyed to their lodges for dinner and preparation for the following day’s session and activities.