Last evening Afro-Leo had the opportunity to join the LESI conference which is being run on his doorstep, in downtown Sandton (see You Tube clip below). It has a super programme which can be downloaded here. This morning's slot is dedicated to publicly funded research with a comparative approach across the USA, Japan, Australia and its green shoots (and not uncontroversial) development in South Africa, which should be great fun.
Last evening's festivities took us to Moyo, an upmarket African experience, near Zoo lake. Afro Leo was invited to join a table of 4 Russian and 2 Estonian IP attorneys from different firms, who had taken time out from networking to enjoy the five course African fare, face painting, drum rolls and the somewhat curious injection of Italian background music. If the Italian music was a bit of a surprise, the conversation (which was politely, English) covered topics such as where to ski in Europe, Muslim traditions, why Russia has a public holiday for all New Year celebrations and Russia's own problem with fake drugs - the IP attorney next to me travels to Germany for her family's medicines!
Overall, a delightful reminder why it is good to be part of an IP community and why Africa can (and should) host more international IP events. Credit to LESI, Johan Du Preez and his team for organising the event.
