AfricAI 2027 · Cape Town · Feb 2–5

The idea · plain and simple

Creators make real films with AI.
Then we give them an awards night.

We fly 24 of the best creators to Cape Town.

Split into 3 teams, each led by real filmmakers and technical directors. International animation partners are already in motion behind the program.

For 6 days, they make original short films — with AI.

Start to finish, AI-powered production workflows guided by real filmmakers. Not a demo. Not a promo reel. Real films, made in the room.

Then the premiere — a black-tie awards night.

200 creators, operators, and investors. A jury of working directors led by Sam Kolder screens the films and hands out the first-ever AfricAI Film Award.

Your name is on all of it.

The films, the stage, the award, the press. Plus the three days that follow — the conference, the runway, the wellness day — all carrying the number one sponsor's brand.

The room is the most influential creators, operators, and investors in AI. As the number one sponsor, the entire festival carries your name — the films, the stage, the award, the press, and the three days that follow.

Why sponsor AfricAI

One seat. Four days.
A category with no owner yet.

Day 1 of AfricAI 2027 is an AI film festival — the Cannes of AI. Then a conference, a runway, and a wellness day. The number one sponsor headlines all four.

01 · THE STAGE

The Cannes of AI, year one

The first real awards night for AI filmmaking — screened films, a working-director jury, an inaugural award. Whoever's name is on it owns the moment the category gets its stage, in front of 200 creators, operators, and investors in black tie.

02 · THE ROOM

The audience money can't rent

This isn't a general tech crowd. It's 500+ working creators and operators — the people who decide which tools and brands their audiences adopt next. Every speaker on this page moves culture in the AI space daily.

03 · THE MOMENT

Africa is the open category

Cape Town becomes the AI capital for one week — film festival, conference, runway, wellness day, with international press across all four days. No brand owns this continent's AI story yet. The number one sponsor of AfricAI 2027 does.

Day 2 keynote · at the top-tier sponsorship

We can get Steven Bartlett on the Summit stage.

Host of Diary of a CEO — the most-listened-to business podcast in the UK and one of the largest in the world. Already in the AfricAI network, already aligned with the operator-class story. At the top-tier sponsorship, he's the Day 2 keynote.

The top-tier sponsor's name sits next to his on every piece of capture from that stage — clips that circulate for years.

Bartlett tier · Day 2 keynote

The voices in the room

The 2026 lineup — the room your brand headlines.

Sam Kolder leads the festival jury. Behind him, the operators and creators who took the 2026 stage — the network the number one sponsor inherits on day one.

Sam Kolder

Festival Jury

Akil Wade

Host · Founder

Liam Ottley

Morningside AI

Dave Ebbelaar

Datalumina

Jannis Moore

Founder

Mark Kashef

Prompt Advisers

Nate Herk

AI Automators

Brock Mesarich

AI Engineer

Lauren Tickner

Impact School

Samin Yasar

AI Educator

Emil Faschang

AI Operator

Taha El Harti

Founder

Serdar Bisi

AI Agency

Jack Roberts

AI Builder

Faith the Creator

Creator

Riccardo Contarini

AI Founder

Bohdan Saranchuk

Automation

Ricardo Vandra

AI Builder

Shaz Mathew

Founder

Henryk Brzozowski

AI Operator

Tyler Germain

AI Founder

Adam Goodyer

Founder

Albert Olgaard

Operator

2026 lineup shown · 2027 lineup to be announced

Mon 02 Feb 2027 · Day 01 · Private

The AI Film Festival.

The Cannes of AI. Full short films, AI-generated end to end. Five working directors judge. Sam Kolder among them. One film wins the inaugural AfricAI Film Award.

We bring the room — 200 seats, every one of them a creator, operator, or investor who already moves culture. The number one sponsor brings their name to the marquee. Together we give the next decade of AI cinema its first proper awards night.

The Cannes of AI. A repeatable annual format with built-in IP — the films, the jury, the awards, the halo. Africa hosts the awards circuit the West hasn't built yet.

Format

Private · 200 seats · black-tie

The jury

5 working directors · Sam Kolder

Built on

Frontier AI film tools

The prize

Inaugural AfricAI Film Award

Tue 03 Feb 2027 · Day 02 · The Main Stage

The Conference.

500+ creators and operators in the room. Live AIOS builds on stage. The number one sponsor's keynote opens. Moments that get clipped and shared for years.

The revenue engine. Premium tickets. Sponsor inventory across the floor. Content rights for the year. This funds everything else.

Venue

800-cap · Cape Town

Audience

500+ creators and operators

Keynote

Number one sponsor + Steven Bartlett

Wed 04 Feb 2027 · Day 03 · The Runway

The AI Runway.

Morning: AI couture down a Cape Town runway. The continent's Paris Fashion Week. Afternoon: backstage interviews with designers, brands, and the operators behind the looks. Evening: the after-party — the room that locks the partnership year in.

The runway puts Cape Town on the AI fashion map. The backstage content becomes a full season's IP — interviews, drops, and the after-party room that anchors the year's deals.

Morning

AI Fashion Runway

Afternoon

Backstage interviews · designer / brand / operator

Evening

After-party · the deal room

Thu 05 Feb 2027 · Day 04 · The Closing Day

Wellness Day. Operators leave restored.

Morning: Whoop performance baselines, DNA × AI protocols, and group breathwork — the operator's body audited by the same intelligence that runs their business. Afternoon: recovery suites, IV / sauna / cold, and the operator close-out — the room where the next 12 months get committed to in real time.

The standalone wellness day previews the long-term thesis — and the center we're building toward. This is the day that turns attendees into members of the wellness center waitlist.

Morning

Whoop · DNA × AI · breathwork

Afternoon

Recovery suites · operator close-out

Theme

The wellness center · previewed live

The impact arm

500 laptops. 3,000 AI subscriptions.
A generation that creates with AI fluently.

Every conference funds the next thing. AfricAI 2027 puts laptops + AI subscriptions in the hands of South African students who couldn't otherwise touch this. The Maistro Incubator trains operators who go on to install AIOS in businesses across the continent. The top-tier sponsorship funds it all — in the sponsor's name.

500

laptops to students

3,000

AI subscriptions sponsored

Maistro incubator cohort · 2027

Year 3

target — 1,000 operators across Africa

The global circuit

The African leg of an AI events year already in motion.

A real operator can map the calendar now — Montenegro in summer, AfricAI in February, the European awards circuits in between. We're not building one event in isolation. We're claiming the African anchor of a global rhythm that didn't exist three years ago.

July 2026 · Europe

AI Mafia Mastermind

Montenegro · the operator network forms here · this is where the calendar starts.

Feb 2027 · Africa

AfricAI · Cape Town

Film Festival · Conference · Runway · Wellness. The African anchor of the global circuit.

Year-round

The awards halo

The AfricAI Film Award sits inside a year of AI awards forming globally. We host the one Africa was missing.

The north star

The wellness center.
Where all of this is going.

The festival, the conference, the runway, the wellness day — every one of them is a year's worth of compounding toward a single asset. A permanent home in Cape Town built on what Bali got right: a wellness center wrapped in community. AI, growth, and health under one roof. A place the operators we're training can actually live and work from.

Three pillars. One facility. Inspired by the best — Omni Bali, Reload Bali, Aman — and built for a category none of them serve.

01 · WEALTH

The AI Lab

Conduct your business

An always-on AI floor inside the building. Every frontier tool — wired into a working environment. Members install their AIOS, run their companies, and ship from here.

02 · GROWTH

The Mind Floor

Sharpen the operator

Deep-work pods, masterminds, working circles. The personal-development lineage — Joe Dispenza, Bob Proctor, Eric Thomas — installed in physical space. This is where the inner game gets trained.

03 · HEALTH

The Body Floor

Biohack · train · recover

Full gym, sauna, cold plunge, breathwork, IV / DNA × AI protocols, sleep optimization, recovery suites. The Bali playbook — finally on the African continent, finally under one roof.

Inside the center · the engine

The Maistro Incubation Station.

At the heart of the facility: a live training floor. A small, hand-picked cohort spends weeks here at a time — installing their AI operating system, training their bodies, sharpening their minds — until they leave as top-tier Maistros. This is what the events fund. This is what the building exists for.

So what's a Maistro?

Not an operator. Not an influencer. Not a tool reviewer. A Maistro conducts their life and business like an orchestra — AI tools, agents, team, and time are the instruments. They use AI to expand their humanity, not replace it. They have something real to protect — family, freedom, body, community. They build from depth, not hype. The category Akil is building. The category this center exists to train.

Inspiration

Omni Bali · Reload Bali · Aman

Site

Cape Town · ocean + fynbos · TBD

Horizon

Year 3 · compounded from event revenue

The asset

The center is the moat · everything else feeds it

The partners

In motion.

Each role is in active conversation. We're naming companies and people once contracts are signed — not before.

Film festival · judging

Iconic AI filmmaker

Confirmed

Conference · keynote

Leading AI lab's Africa lead

In conversation

Film festival · co-presenter

Leading AI generative film studio

In motion

Animation · institutional

MENA animation council

In motion

Wellness day · sponsor

Health-tech category leader

Targeted

Impact · device sponsor

Global hardware partner

Targeted

Activation · what the number one sponsor gets

Six returns from the number one seat.

Named number one sponsor / partner-of-record across all four days.
The AI Film Festival, presented by your brand — Day 1, judged by a 5-director jury led by Sam Kolder.
Your keynote on Day 2 main stage, in front of 500+ creators and operators.
Logo on all 4 days, all gifts, all capture — festival, conference, runway, wellness day.
Impact arm in your name: 500 laptops + 3,000 AI subscriptions + Maistro Incubator funded.
4-day continental + international press footprint from the "Cannes of AI."

Talent target

Steven Bartlett Day 2 keynote · multi-artist multi-day lineup · 5-director festival jury led by Sam Kolder.

Success metric

Number one sponsor named across all 4 days + the inaugural AfricAI Film Award delivered + Bartlett keynote on the main stage.

Voices from 2026

"The best event I have ever been to, hands down, by far."

Tal Rana · Root Rise Media

▶

Lewis Mountstephens

Root Rise Media · 2:02

▶

Tal Rana

Root Rise Media · 2:42

▶

Kiara Cowen

Creator · 2:45

▶

Brody

Brody Automates · 0:51

Met so many amazing people, and learnt so much from all the incredibly smart people that I was able to connect with. The week far exceeded my expectations, and was for sure the best investment I could have made this year.

Matthew Ward

Attendee, 2026

The event was so beautifully curated. From food, to decoration, to people. Akil did really well with creating such a strong sense of inclusivity between all people attending the event.

Jen

Attendee, 2026

AfricAI is for anyone who is looking for an opportunity to spend time with people that are driven to achieve their goals and wants to learn about AI and business. Great place to be if you want to accelerate your learnings and results.

Nataliya Shalygina

Attendee, 2026

I realised again how massive this AI opportunity is. And that I can be part of the transformation. I can live a different life by fully going for this opportunity and breaking free from the employee lifestyle.

Gerhard Bekker

Attendee, 2026

Phenomenal experience. Very well prepared and amazing events. Every VIP I met was awesome too.

Attendee

2026 · ★★★★★

Super grateful for the opportunity and the people. Everyone was great. Everyone was great. There's not one person that was not great.

Jose

Attendee, 2026

Cape Town becomes
the AI capital.

Creators make real films with AI.
Then we give them an awards night.

One seat. Four days.
A category with no owner yet.

We can get Steven Bartlett on the Summit stage.

The 2026 lineup — the room your brand headlines.

Four days. Each one a world.

The AI Film Festival.

The Conference.

The AI Runway.

Wellness Day. Operators leave restored.

500 laptops. 3,000 AI subscriptions.
A generation that creates with AI fluently.

The African leg of an AI events year already in motion.

AfricAI 2026, by the numbers.

The wellness center.
Where all of this is going.

The Maistro Incubation Station.

In motion.

Six returns from the number one seat.

"The best event I have ever been to, hands down, by far."

Cape Town becomes the AI capital.

Creators make real films with AI. Then we give them an awards night.

One seat. Four days. A category with no owner yet.

We can get Steven Bartlett on the Summit stage.

The 2026 lineup — the room your brand headlines.

Four days. Each one a world.

The AI Film Festival.

The Conference.

The AI Runway.

Wellness Day. Operators leave restored.

500 laptops. 3,000 AI subscriptions. A generation that creates with AI fluently.

The African leg of an AI events year already in motion.

AfricAI 2026, by the numbers.

The wellness center. Where all of this is going.

The Maistro Incubation Station.

In motion.

Six returns from the number one seat.

"The best event I have ever been to, hands down, by far."

Cape Town becomes
the AI capital.

Creators make real films with AI.
Then we give them an awards night.

One seat. Four days.
A category with no owner yet.

500 laptops. 3,000 AI subscriptions.
A generation that creates with AI fluently.

The wellness center.
Where all of this is going.