Early last month 79 Global Shapers community members from across Africa and I were invited to the +World Economic Forum  on Africa in CapeTown, South Africa June 3rd - June 5th, 2015. Besides it being an all-expenses paid trip to a country I hadn't been before, it was an opportunity to learn, engage and participate on my first panel on "Digital Revolution" at the Forum on Africa. My +Global Shapers Accra Hub colleague +Kow Essuman and I presented a day-by-day report here.

Signed-up with badge access.

Emmanuel Gamor (with) Top Left: Jacqueline Musiitwa, Bright Simons Bottom left: Ashish Thakkar & Biola Alabi

Private Session Global Shapers with Prof. Schwab, Emmanuel Gamor and Global Shapers

Thinking Ahead: "How will Africa’s countries bridge data gaps to achieve the sustainable development goals?"

Moderator: Clare Akamanzi Panelists: Jamie Drummond, Daniella Ballou-Aares Helen Hai, Dr. Ernest Darkoh and Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor 

BBC Focus on Africa feature: Emmanuel Gamor, Global Shaper, WEF

I arrived in CapeTown, Southern Sun Waterfront Hotel a few days before the conference and left for Johannesburg the following weekend to catch the DSTV Food Show featuring Chaka Khan #ThroughTheFire #DancedTheNightAway

Reconnected with old friends & made new ones

Pictures of my escapades on the new Google Photos here. #ExcuseToTryANewGoogleFeature

Sadly, the #AccraFloods happened while I was away but enough to affect me while I was speaking on the "Data Revolution" on the continent and what is needed.

Deeper:  While in CapeTown, I was sent pictures of the devastation that ensued after the Accra Floods. I also came back to a flooded home and flooded car: pictures on IG here. I am usually honest with family & very close friends, but the psychological and financial shake-up lingers on in my life & it has been almost month later. I am one of the lucky ones. Our city & its folk (especially on the bottom tier of the economic ladder) are victims to this and other needless & preventable tragedies almost annually. There MUST be a better way. I'm determined to help find it. #AccraLabs #UrithiLabs +Urithi Media  

Saturday May 16th, turned out to be a packed day! After being a guest at many a MESH Confab, I was invited to speak at May 2015 edition and I was humbled and nervous at the same time. The last confab I attended, featured fellow  Ɔdadeɛ +Jayso Skillions, +Nicole Amarteifio  and +Yaw DK Osseo-Asare as speakers. It was insightful, informative and inspirational.

This year +Aisha Obuobi & +Joe Osae-Addo and I got to exchange ideas and engage with the MESH creative society.

Even though I was billed as a "YouTube Expert" I focused more on my personal storytelling journey as a multimedia journalists and made a case to encourage more digital Ghanaian content through collaboration.

A big shout-out to +Sed Tsegah  for taking this picture #MeshConfab2015

--

After 5pm I dashed back to Legon to join in on the #DumsorMustStop vigil. I got to Tetteh Quarshie a little after 6pm to join in on the +yvonne nelson & other Ghanaian movie stars and celebrities led non-partisan protest to the country's electricity crisis.

                          

Wanlov "was there some"

Placards demand for a solution to #dumsor

Van Vicker, DKB and D-Black in attendance

Young professionals lamenting the electricity situation

Mr. Sam Mends (Omni media/Citi FM) speaking with the media

See boys.

Fellow Ɔdadeɛ 

Abidjan is a lovely city and on my first trip ever to this Francophone pearl I was impressed with the city planning, reception and general vibe of Ivory Coast.

One of my resolutions in 2015, besides digging deeper in getting things done; is to go regional. Break out of the barriers of Accra, explore other African countries, network, learn, live and laugh at mistakes in other languages: especially broken, terrible French.

#getstatedafrica is Nescafe's campaign to get ideas discussed, implemented over a brew of Nescafe coffee. With the likes of +Ameyaw Debrah , +Yehni Djidji , +CYRIAC GBOGOU +Basile Niane +Prince Baah-Duodu , +edith yah brou , +Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr. & +Yomi Adegboye - West Africa's most influential bloggers and social media aficionados we were able to shut down the interwebs briefly and encourage young people to share their dreams via: www.getstartedafrica.com

The Beginning: StartCon14 #getstartedafrica

StartCon14 with Fred Swaniker as mentor 

April this year we took the 1st Get Started Conference from Accra, Ghana to Cocody, Abidjan - Cote D'Ivoire

#getstartedafrica truck leaving accra credit: Amfo Conolly

Leaving Kotoka with +Ato Ulzen-Appiah  & +Ameyaw Debrah 

I found the Rotary 100 years celebration in Abidjan! #ServiceAboveSelf

VIP suite at the Palm Club Hotel

Selfies with the bloggers & Nescafe team

First dinner with +Yomi Adegboye +Basile Niane +Chukwuemeka Fred Agbata Jnr. +edith yah brou +Prince Baah-Duodu +Ameyaw Debrah 

I bumped into members from the Rotaract Club of Cocody! #FellowshipThroughService

+jean-patrick Ehouman & +Ato Ulzen-Appiah when we snuck out for some Abidjan night life!

The insightful +Karim SY from Jokkolabs

+Prince Baah-Duodu & @Kofi Sika of @Adventures Junkies Ghana

The last +CYRIAC GBOGOU selfie!

Cool GH peeps in Ivory Coast: +Jemila Abdulai +Amfo Connolly & co

All photos were taken with my iPhone 5c

Ever since I can remember, my mother has been holding parties for children during Christmas holidays. The work, effort and selflessness usually ate into our own Christmas holidays and plans. But the joy on the faces of the children, and my mother's, always made it well worth it. She got the practice from her father.

Giving back in some way shape of form was inculcated in us by our family at an early age. In high school, I volunteered at a hospital for two years and met my godmother Kathryn Smith. In college I joined many a a volunteer organization including Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. and in Ghana I was thirsty to keep that balance - productivity coupled with impact as part of my routine.

I started with Rotaract see earlier posts here and here.  And created the habit of going outside my comfort zone for outreach programs, cervical cancer awareness drives and general doing-good in my community.

On February 24th, at my induction I was supported by my Rotaract Club of Adentan family and close friends. As I re-affirmed my commitment to "Service Above Self" #GamorLegacy

Our snazzy induction class flyer!

Moments before being officially announced as a member of the Rotary Club of Accra - Ring Road Central

President Franklin Attah of Rotary Club of Accra - Ring Road Central & Emmanuel Gamor

Fellow Rotarian Lamisi and my Rotary mentor Dr. Dennis Addo (right)

Table of Men Rotarians at the Rotary Club of Accra - Ring Road Central

Holding up my certificate of membership: Rotarian Emmanuel Agbeko Gamor - Rotary Club of Accra - Ring Road Central

Friends and members of the Rotaract Club of Adentan 

My induction mentor & one of the oldest Rotarians PAG Abbi Dodo

Feb 24th felt like swearing-in ceremony: "Service Above Self"

Fellow Rotary inductees: Billy & Sheba & Emmanuel Gamor

All these pictures were taken kind courtesy of fellow Shaper, mentor and awesome friend +Yawa Hansen-Quao #WeAreOne

It is always a super cool feeling to review a new phone before it hits the markets/shelves. Though I've owned other smartphone models, Samsung has been impressing me with their latest line of Galaxy devices.
Last November I tried my hands at the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and was duly impressed, the super AMOLED display and Android OS (which has come pretty far since I switched to iOS) was a pleasant surprise. The stylus was incredibly responsive...wider screen....connection to wearable gear.... but this post is about the new Samsung Galaxy A5. Let me not get ahead of myself.

First thing that I noticed on the A5 was the metallic outer casing and the rounded edges. Surprisingly, the Galaxy A5 is way lighter than my iPhone 5c and quite noticeably so.

Holding the camera at the launch in Accra on January 30th, 2015.

The phone is incredibly fast and comes with 16GB of memory (2GB RAM) and an opportunity for you to upgrade to as much as you would like/can afford on an SD card...not bad, especially if you want to push movies, photos or music via Samsung's AllShare Play feature to a Samsung TV ( I own a ChromeCast so I get to push YouTube and a few others apps from my mobile devices as well).

As a photographer though, I honed in quickly on the picture taking features on the phone. If you are a stats feign this is what you'll get with the Samsung Galaxy A5:

• CMOS 13 MegaPixels for the primary (back) camera
• Geo-tagging (so you can let friends know of pictures taken in Korle-Gonno)
• Touch face, face detection & panorama (even more k3ch3)
• 1080p @30fps for video...charley in 1998 could phones do this...lemme check Google real quick and get back to you.

Alright so my favorite photo feature on this 50 inch screen device has to do with selfies. I take selfies all the time, see here. And with the selfie-stick craze...yes selfie-stick is a thing...the ability to take pictures by only showing your palm to the camera tickled the day light out of me; closing the deal for the Samsung A5 as a must have phone in my arsenal. With all the bells and whistles of a metallic casing, light-weight device run on Google Android's KitKat (yummie!) a perk like automated selfie was a welcome bonus.

The launch at the new Samsung office at Stanbic Heights was fun and friends caught on to my favorite feature

Samsung official demonstrating to the press at the launch

Deeper

My friend and YFM co-worker Caroline Sampson was fascinated on Sunday when I showed her the phone after church.

Got it right after a few tries #PalmSelfies with YFM's Caroline Sampson

The phone's estimated retail value is 1,500 ghs and at that price point, (my first monthly salary in Ghana for perspective at what most consider here to be a good job) the phone isn't cheap.

In conclusion though the Galaxy A5 is a fun, light weight smartphone that I can use to impress all the beautiful ladies. #A5lifestyle

Deeper* is my 2015 resolution to dig deeper into conversations, reviews and sentiments I share on-air or online.