Samsung out-doored the Note 4 in a grand fashion with a week of activities at the Accra mall. I got to host & engage with developers on day 4!

#SelfieCompetition

Participants from MEST, other developers

The homeboy//thorn-in-the-flesh Donald Ward put on the activation

Co-MC YFM family/team member Caroline Sampson

The Note 4 is the first Android device after my first iPhone (5c) that I've actually coveted...besides the Amoled display, the S-Pen was actually a joy to play with. Finally note taking on an electronic device was fun and productive. The price point for the Note 4 though...let's just hope the good folks at YFM give that early Christmas bonus.

On day 6 I stopped by to support with the Selfie Competition and ended up winning a Vodafone Mp3 Player. At least I'm getting a head start on the Christmas spirit. #GamorLegacy

Monday October 6th, 2014 was a public holiday in Ghana in honor of Eid Al-Adha. Thus, October's Accra Discourse was a Twitter Debate #AccraDiscourse with hub members: Deborah Ahenkora(@missahenkorah), Donald Ward(@donaldwardgh) & Regina Agyare(@ragyare) leading the discussion.

If you're visiting my blog for the first time, the Accra Discourse is a monthly conversation and networking event where passionate voices in Ghana connect with key drivers within sectors of leadership, business and development to have conversations that contribute to shaping the future of Ghana. The Accra Discourse, is an initiative of the Global Shapers Accra Hub, a community of the World Economic Forum. Posts and pictures from previous Accra Discourses here.

See below if you can find one of my tweets. #BlackStarsWithoutBoots #AccraBoy

As a multimedia story teller & content creator, one of the projects that brings me immense joy is the YouTube Creator's Huddles at +iSpace Foundation . *Check out vibrant online community of huddlers, YouTube Creator's Huddle GH, here*

Dusted off my photoshop skills, thanks UF #GatorsAlways

Simply put: YouTube Creator's Huddles are open, collaborative, learning space for imaginative and hardworking young people to tell stories. The platform of choice being YouTube.  It has taken a few months to take off, but it has been an amazing journey thus far... words of inspiration that always resonate whenever I host a Thursday huddle are these: amazing happens when you truly collaboratively create with others, our successful output is exponentially rewarding...

Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor, YouTube Project Manager, Google Ghana

The launch of the huddles were beautifully photographed by +Michael Dakwa, Team Lead of team1000 words.

+Timothy Adei put together this really quick yet impressive video montage, for which I'm grateful. #YouTubeGH #HuddleGH #CollaborativeSuccess #team1000words

Plenty thanks to the Vim Squad, Google Ghana team members too.

There have been lots of reports on Ebola in Africa lately.

Ebola is a rare but deadly virus that causes bleeding inside and outside the body.

As the virus spreads through the body, it damages the immune system and organs. Ultimately, it causes levels of blood-clotting cells to drop. This leads to severe, uncontrollable bleeding.

The disease, also known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever or Ebola virus, kills up to 90% of people who are infected.

There are NO officially recorded cases of ebola/anyone having contracted ebola in Ghana as of today, Monday August 18th, 2014. Trace ebola cases here.

At this month's Accra Discourse, hosted by the World Economic Forum Global Shapers Accra Hub, Joy Seanehia, a researcher at Noguchi and Kobby Blay, of Ghana Health Nest debunked myths and misinformation surrounding ebola reporting in Ghana.

Yawa, moderator, with Kobby & Joy as panelists

Attendants asking questions

Shared experiences of recent international flyers into Kotoka International Airport

Packed House at monthly Accra Discourse

Kumasi & Accra Hub members with Africa Hubs Community Manager Chidiogo Akunyili

Attendees deliberating after the panel discussion

First text message I received earlier this week caught my attention. It didn't have to do with team 1000 words photos,  the Mpwr radio show or Youtube GH video projects but rather with my personal twitter account *pause*.

The last few weeks twitter was ablaze with #OccupyGhana #OccupyFlagstaff; US Embassy Tweet versus President Mahama; & even more disturbing #HannahTetteh #HannahTettehSon #Sextape tweets.

Yep, you guessed it, the Minister for Affairs, Hon. Hannah Tetteh responded to tweets about Occupy Ghana, here. Most who who participated felt her tweet on #OccupyFlagstaff was condescending. Hon. Tetteh chastised the US Embassy's tweet here and shortly after, twitter erupted thanks to two leaked sex tapes of students: one featuring Hannah Tetteh's son, oopsie!

I digress, but you can empathize with my anxiety though right? Twitter in Ghana seemed fixated on the scandalous, anyone would have reason for caution. Gratefully here's the image of the text message I received below: listing under New Media: Emmanuel Gamor & my @itakephotos1985 twitter account as one of the 100 Most Influential People on Twitter in Ghana:

Notable honorees include: 

POLITICS/GOVERNMENT/BIZNESS
President John Dramani Mahama, @JDMahama; Hanna Tetteh, @HannaTetteh; Samia Nkrumah, @samiankrumah; Nana Akufo-Addo, @NAkufoAddo; Ozwald Boateng, @Ozwald_Boateng; Alan Kyerematen,@Alankyerematen....

MOVIE INDUSTRY (GHOLLYWOOD)
Yvonne Nelson, @yvonnenelsongh; Freema Agyeman, @FreemaOfficial; Peter Mensah,@PMensahOnline; Boris Kodjoe@BorisKodjoe....

CHURCH
Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, @ArchbishopNick; Sam Korankye Ankrah, @SamKorankye; Charles Agyinasare, @Cagyinasare; Dag Heward-Mills, @EvangelistDag...

MUSIC/COMEDY
Sonnie Badu, @SonnieBaduuk; Sarkodie, @sarkodie; Mildred Ashong, @Eazzyfirstlady; Paedae da Pralem (Faisal Hakeem) and Mugeez (Rashid Mugeez) – @r2bees; Sarkodie,@sarkodie; Joey B, @1RealJoeyB; Shatta Wale, @shattawalegh...

SPORTS
Asamoah Gyan,@ASAMOAH_GYAN3; Michael Essien, @MichaelEssien; Afua Hirsch, @afuahirsch; Kwadwo Asamoah,@Asabob20...

LITERARY
Ama Ata Aidoo, @AmaAtaAidoo; The Writeous One, @KwesiiAsomadu; @Kwabena;Kinna, @kinnareads; Crystal Svanikier,@nautyinaccra; Adjoa Ofoe,@adjoaofoe; J.B. Amissah-Arthur, @jbshakes; Nana Kofi Acquah...

PRINT MEDIA
Kenneth Ashigbey,@EdemAshigbey; Fredrick Gyan-Mante,@Freddie_GH; The Writeous One, @KwesiiAsomadu; Manasseh Azure Awuni,@Manasseh_Azure...

BROADCAST MEDIA (TV/RADIO)
Richard Sky, @RichardDelaSky; Michelle Attoh, @MichelleAttoh; Sammy Forson, @sammyforson; Ama K. Abebrese, @Ama_K_Abebrese...

NEW MEDIA

Kajsa Hallberg Adu, @kajsaha; Emmanuel A. Gamor, @itakephotos1985; Ameyaw Debrah, @ameyaw112...

Full list of Ghana's 100 Most Influential People on Twitter, link.

After the Ghana Blackstars had a disappointing run at the World Cup, +The Global Shapers Accra Hub decided to invite two sports journalists to dissect Ghana's campaign accordingly.The Global Shapers hosts an Accra Discourse at La Villa Boutique hotel every first Monday of the month:

July speakers: Sam Fifi Bartels- a Lawyer and Sports Journalist (CITI FM & BBC News) and Nutifafa Atta is a well known Sports Presenter and Analyst on TV3 | Topic: "Football and National Branding in Ghana"

Yawa Hansen-Quao moderating the session

Question & Answer session on the state of football in Ghana

Panelists:  Sam (Left) & Nutifafa, sports journalists 

Fred Deegbe out-going curator handing over to Deborah Ahenkorah

More pictures here:

A few minutes before the #GHA & #USA match, and I'm intermittently peering up from assignments at all the Ghanaian produced World Cup songs I can find on +YouTube . I need to keep my vim levels high! #turndownfawhat?!

My fav #WordCup2014 song from Ghana's own +Noella Wiyaala':

There is Shakira's unofficial #WorldCupSong2014 submission from her self-named album Shakira:

I also found lesser known Puerto Rican Wisin, David Correy & Paty Cantu's catchy tune:

The world is ours indeed. Go +GFA TV (Official Channel Of The Black Stars) #Blackstars

My least favorite, and the officially Official #WorldCup2014 song which undoubtably helps +Pitbull, J-Lo's career and only guest features Brazilian beauty Claudia Leitte:

We Are One until somebody/one team, wins it all. #theshade

Noteworthy is my all time favorite World Cup song from +KnaanVEVO, Waving Flag:

As I told my colleague +Ryan Michael  before tonight's Ghana's first game in Brazil against the USA: may the best team win. #MoreVim

At the office, reppin' our respective countries #MoreVim

I'm so psyched for Ghana's national football team's performance and success at this year's Fifa World Cup in Brazil! My VIM dey so much so that I have neglected to acknowledge or event pay attention to some of the facts:

• The Blackstars starting goalkeeper, Fatau Dauda is a suspect when his feet aren't grounded.
• No African country, including Ghana has gone to the semi's in the World Cup competition before, ever.
• Though we have returning strikers, midfielders and players; most (except 1 player) who play in international competition, we do not have a break out top 10 world class play maker/scorer: Messi, Christian Ronaldo, Neymar, Bale to name a few. Asamoah Gyan, Kevin Prince Boateng notwithstanding. 
• Team chemistry is key to progressing during the World Cup and the friendlies I have seen thus far (yes they are Coach Appiah's experiment's on individual performance) has lacked overall display of strong team chemistry.

Nevertheless I'm so excited about the Blackstars that I'm taking pictures of Ghana Flags with my phone at work, spending Youtube time checking out the latest highlights of teams we're playing Portugal Germany and USA in the Group of Death. Pah, victory is sweetest with a formidable foe abi?

Ghana Osee Yee!

At work, I take pictures of flags/any patriotic paraphernalia to counteract my colleague +Ryan Michael's consistent prayers for America's victory during our first match in the competition. Tweeaa! 

I resorted to posting this fantastic sketch I found on Instagram of Michael Essien, Asamoah Gyan and Kevin Prince Boateng celebrating victoriously (you see my foreshadowing tings) on all my social media accounts for good measure. After scoring 4-0 to an unorganized South Korea, we're heading to Brazil with a winning attitude; turn down for what?! #MostVim

Thanks to +Amma Aboagye's timely email last year on Google Africa Connected competition, I was fortunate to share as one of the 20 success stories of young Africans powered by the web. +Funmbi ogunbanwo  & +Dan McCain  flew into Accra to record my story. I shared the video Mama Esi and my sisters they couldn't be more proud :



Google Africa Connected was an opportunity for the camera and crew to meet some amazing entrepreneurs in Accra: illustrators, coding geniuses, marketing gurus, broadcast & film makers. Through strategic collaboration, we get to use the +Mpwr  show as a springboard for #CollaborativeSuccess #AfricaRenaissance

Of the many hats I wear, the most important one to me is interacting with young people and sharing our collective challenges and triumphs together. I was blessed to have "adult" conversations with my father at a very young age and my fondest memories of us are the lessons I learnt by spending time with him.
Sesamu Otinibi was a project with the Global Shapers Accra Hub and the Rotaract Club of Adentan's newly commissioned library at the Otinibi Basic School. The entire project was an opportunity to spend a school day (Wednesday March 19th) getting to know and imparting knowledge with the JSS students. It was really rewarding to see the volunteers and mentors at ease with teaching/sharing/admonishing/encouraging the students.

Big thanks you's to Aquatork mineral water, Enda Restaurant, Mpwr Show on Y 107.9 FM Golden Baobab for refreshment, media and resource sponsorships respectively. They responded when many others did not.

Esi asking the dreams and aspirations of the students

Favorite book: Computer Science

Library session

Presentation to the JSS 3 students

JSS 2 Students

JSS 1 Students

Mentors & Volunteers

Even more pictures:

A positive habit I picked up in college was to channel negative circumstances to positive, do-good energy and this year I made a conscious effort to participate in Rotary/Rotaract activities: Fellowship through Service.
My Presec schoolmate, Samuel Darko invited me to visit the Rotaract Club of Adentan, he previously presided over, to work on a "Blood Drive" earlier this year; and I stayed around long enough to be end up getting inducted. Adding on to my positive, doing-good is a chance to travel to local and international clubs by performing Fellowship through Service starting with Catholic University College, Sunyani. My first time in Sunyani, an amazingly warm experience with fantastic people, take a look for yourself:

It has been an uber busy past few weeks. There have been events that I wanted to blog about, which I still will...posts that I need to catch you all up very soon. From the growth of the Mpwr Show, to Team 1000 words and the wonderful new and engaging website and attending proactive events such as the Accra International Marathon ....well and to random moments of bliss such as this... there is so much to share. Be prepared for a blitz of posts soon.

Burna Boy, for those who aren't on his music yet (check out: Burna Boy official site), we feature his music weekly on our PWR Mix segment of the radio show, came by Y FM's studio fresh from Nigeria for an interview. I had one of my cameras in the back of the trunk, whipped it out to get some celeb pictures in. I'm a fan for good afro fusion music and when it has reggae and jazzy nuances that pleasantly surprise, sign me up!

Burna Boy on the Dryve of Your Lyfe with Nana Kwame

Signed copy of Burna Boy's "Life" CD with DJ Champagne

In-studio session for Y 107.9 FM drops

Burna Boy & E. A. Gamor

We've been working on a top secret, not-so-secret pilot for a new show; and I've gotten a chance to attend a few exciting events concerning tech over the past few weeks.

Aunty Dorothy (Dorothy Gordon) hosted Innovation Week at Kofi Annan ICT center in Accra. The event was pretty decent and the overall goal of nurturing a framework for technologists to be efficient and thrive was met with the launch of Hackerspace.

Honorable Victoria Hammah, Deputy Minister of Communications

Attendees at the conference.

P.V. Obeng, Chairman KNUST council

Dr. Dorothy Gordon, Director - General, Kofi Annan ICT

Leti Games an amazing tech start-up out of the MEST Incubator in Accra, launched the Kwaku Ananse game series at the British Council.  Eyram Akofa Tawia shared the goals of the company to expand corporate branding for Ghanaian companies in games, similar to ad placement in popular EA Games jerseys for FIFA football/soccer games. Pictures below:

 

A new venue that supports creatives, techies and young professionals is iSpace. Fiifi Baidoo and his crew have the work space setup for group work, group meetings, space rentals and internet use. iSpace is in the same building as Hello Food by Oxford Street in Osu. The soft launch for us 'insiders' was an eye-opener to what iSpace will be offering both in terms of business & community engagement. Pictures below:

One of the amazing things that inspires and continues to encourage me while in Ghana are the brilliant, absolutely ingenious young entrepreneurs in the country. From the first week I landed, I reconnected with my old schoolmate from Presec, Edward Tagoe, met his partner Kwame Pocho (with whom I've eventually partnered with on Team 1000 words) and the amazing Anne Amuzu. Anne is the the CEO of Nandimobile and after my contract with MEST was over a few weeks ago, I was excited to cross over the bridge to MINC & work on client testimonials for their soon to be relaunched website.

To brave, ambitious and successful Ghanaian entrepreneurs who support each other. We are who we've been waiting for:

Client: FC Beauty
FC Beauty - Nandimobile Testimonial from itake photos est. 1985 on Vimeo.

Client: Agape House New Testament Church
Agape - Nandimobile Testimonial from itake photos est. 1985 on Vimeo.

Client: HotJobs Africa Ltd

HotJobs Africa - Nandimobile Testimonial from itake photos est. 1985 on Vimeo.

It is astonishing how quickly kids around you grow up. If you are introspective, as I get sometimes, you'll look at your younger siblings, cousins...and look at the older family members and wonder if they are as tickled about your growth as you are of the younger ones.

My cousin, Queenie (named after her mother) celebrated her birthday and it was an opportunity to reconnect with family members I hadn't seen in about a decade. At her party I found out that her dad, my mother's older brother used to take pictures of my mom when they were younger. Decades later, here I am taking pictures of his daughter. Who said history doesn't repeat itself?
To youth, legacy and teenage birthdays!

Queenie

The group of friends who are "fresh"

Chop Time...no friend.

2nd generation of Benneh-Amoah

Queenies!

The birthday girl's mini photo shoot