Three-hundred and fifty C-suite executives and other delegates from across Africa will gather at Sun City for NEC XON's eighth annual invitation-only summit at Sun City on October 10.

The pan-African summit will expose delegates to how innovative technology can improve the lives of Africans.

"Innovative technologies make it possible to be safer, more secure, produce more with less, narrow the inequality gap, and provide better qualities of life. To achieve that we need networks that connect everything, the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in the field to automate and gather data, and the smart software platforms in the background using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to make sense of all the data so that we can put it to work for our businesses, cities and countries," says Carel Coetzee, CEO of NEC XON.

NEC XON has invited futurist Pieter Geldenhuys to paint a picture of how the technological and social revolution presents new opportunities for people, businesses, and governments. He will unpack innovative business models and global trends, taking delegates on a journey through a world where entrepreneurs define future business landscapes.

Steve Barnett, the Silent Conductor, will demonstrate that collaboration makes possible the improbable by leading delegates to become their own percussive orchestra.

NEC XON is the African operation of NEC, the Fortune 500 Global company that employs 102 000 people with net sales in excess of $30 billion. It will be joined by other global stalwarts of the technology industry.

Juniper Networks is the summit's platinum sponsor. Gold sponsors include ADVA, F5, and Fortinet. Commvault, RedHat, Affectli, Mecer, Forcepoint, Apache Optics, Airspan and NEC Enterprise are all silver sponsors.

Delegates will gain exposure to some innovative technology displays at the summit. Among them will be a containerised, cloud-capable digital operations management solution with live, layered geospatial data that integrates into a single platform IoT connectivity, data and event processing and control, with predictive analytics for pre-emptive business activities.

"The display will demonstrate how IoT is transforming the way organisations, both private and public, scale operations using devices and cloud to accelerate digital transformation. Gaining visibility into activities, managing maintenance and repetitive tasks, controlling stock, managing assets and the workforce, and automating workflows profoundly impacts agility," says Coetzee. "This is just one of the solutions that have the capability to integrate technology into an ICT-enabled future society."