Phase 3 · Convene the continent · Cape Town · Feb 2–5, 2027

Cape Town becomes
the AI capital.

Four days. One arc. A film festival, a conference, a runway, a wellness day. All of it compounding toward one asset — a wellness center where AI, growth, and health live under one roof, and where the next generation of Maistros are trained.

FEB 2–5 · 2027 Cape Town 4 days · 1 arc Paid event · premium tickets · scholarship tier + the long game
2:04 · AfricAI 2026 Recap
🔇 Tap for sound

This is what last year looked like. See the main event →

Steven Bartlett
Day 2 keynote · at the floor commitment

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 $500K floor commitment, he's the Day 2 keynote.

Above the floor, the tier scales: $750K brings the live Diary of a CEO recording into the room. $1M+ opens global-tier conversations (Obama-class) on the DHL Stadium stage.

Locked at $500K · Bartlett tier confirmed
The arc

Four days. Each one a world.

A private film festival, the largest AI conference on the continent, a fashion runway, and a standalone wellness day. Each day is its own discipline — and feeds the next.

Mon 02 Feb 2027 · Day 01 · Private

The AI Film Festival.

The Cannes of AI. Built around what Higgsfield Cinema already makes possible — 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. You bring the technology layer. 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. Higgsfield Cinema as the technology spine. 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

Higgsfield Cinema

The prize

Inaugural AfricAI Film Award

What the work already looks like

Higgsfield Original Series.
The category, mid-flight.

The festival doesn't have to argue for the medium. It already exists. Higgsfield's Original Series — full AI-generated short films, released as a slate — is the proof. Africa hosts the awards night for the work the world is already making.

See the slate → higgsfield.ai/original-series

Tue 03 Feb 2027 · Day 02 · The Main Stage

The Conference.

500+ operators at floor commitment, scaling up to 2,000–55,000 at ceiling commitment. Live AIOS builds on stage. A leading AI lab's Africa lead 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 (floor) → scales to 2,000–55,000 with anchor tier (DHL Stadium-scale at $1M+)

Audience

500+ at floor commitment → 2,000–55,000 at ceiling commitment

Keynote

Leading AI lab's Africa lead

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 Codex subscriptions.
A generation that operates AI fluently.

Every conference funds the next thing. AfricAI 2027 puts laptops + Codex 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. Floor commitment funds the baseline. Target and stretch tiers deepen the subsidy — more laptops, more Codex seats, more cohorts.

500
laptops to students
3,000
Codex subscriptions sponsored
12
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 proof

AfricAI 2026, by the numbers.

Organizer-published programme facts. Audience claims remain attributed until check-in records are reconciled.

23
published speakers
2
major venues · organizer-reported sold out
230
published main-stage capacity
7
days · programmed
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. Codex, Claude, Higgsfield, 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 OpenAI gets

Six returns from the keystone.

Talent target
Bartlett-tier keynote at floor → Diary of a CEO tier at target → global-tier keynote at stretch · multi-artist multi-day lineup · 5-director festival jury (Sam Kolder, Higgsfield Cinema in conversation).
Success metric
OpenAI named anchor sponsor + 500+ live Codex installs across the 4 days + Bartlett-tier (or better) keynote delivered.
The Summit ask · anchor sponsor range
$500K floor → $750K target → $1M+ stretch

Floor, not ceiling. The $500K delivers a 4-day arc anchored by an OpenAI keynote, a Bartlett-tier headline speaker, and a real Codex impact program leaving 500 laptops and 3,000 subscriptions in African hands. Every tier above scales the room — bigger venue, bigger speaker, more attendees.

Floor
$500K

Bartlett-tier keynote · 800-cap conference · current 4-day arc · impact arm in OpenAI's name (500 laptops + 3,000 Codex subs + Maistro Incubator).

Steven Bartlett tier · Diary of a CEO
The Day 2 keynote at the $500K floor.

At the floor commitment, the Day 2 keynote brings Steven Bartlett — the most-listened-to business podcaster in the UK, host of Diary of a CEO.

Target
$750K

Diary of a CEO live · expanded conference floor (2,000+) · deeper impact subsidy (more laptops, more Codex seats) · additional press tier.

Stretch
$1M+

DHL Stadium-scale main day (55,000-seat venue option) · global-tier keynote · multi-year partnership lock-in · OpenAI as partner-of-record for AfricAI's next chapter · continental tour cities added.

DHL Stadium · 55,000 seats · drop /assets/dhl-stadium.jpg for background visual

If we agree on a price above the floor, we scale the room — bigger venue, bigger speaker, more attendees. The number is what tells us how big to go.

Note: Summit is a paid event — the only paid event of the four. Premium tickets at scale · scholarship tier available for need-selected attendees.

The pricing range

What each tier unlocks.

Three tiers. Same arc. The number is what tells us how big to build the room — and how loud the partnership lands.

FLOOR · $500K
The baseline keystone
800-cap · Bartlett tier

Bartlett-tier keynote · 800-cap conference · current 4-day arc (Festival / Conference / Runway / Wellness) · impact arm in OpenAI's name with 500 laptops + 3,000 Codex subscriptions + the Maistro Incubator funded.

Steven Bartlett · Diary of a CEO
Day 2 keynote at the floor.

The most-listened-to business podcaster in the UK — on the Cape Town stage.

TARGET · $750K
Diary of a CEO live
2,000+ floor · deeper impact

Diary of a CEO live · expanded conference floor (2,000+ operators) · deeper impact subsidy — more laptops in more schools, more Codex seats, additional cohorts in the Maistro Incubator · additional press tier.

STRETCH · $1M+
DHL Stadium-scale
Up to 55,000 · global tier · multi-year lock-in

DHL Stadium-scale main day (55,000-seat venue option) · global-tier keynote · multi-year partnership lock-in · OpenAI as partner-of-record for AfricAI's next chapter · continental tour cities added (Lagos, Nairobi, Accra).

DHL Stadium · 55,000 seats · drop /assets/dhl-stadium.jpg for background visual
How to read this If we agree on a price above the floor, we scale the room — bigger venue, bigger speaker, more attendees, deeper impact. The number is what tells us how big to go. Akil's team builds to the commitment, not to the floor.
Where the $500K floor goes

Cost breakdown — floor tier.

Summit is the keystone. The floor delivers a 4-day arc — film festival, conference, runway, wellness — anchored by an OpenAI keynote, a Bartlett-tier headline speaker, and a real Codex impact program leaving 500 laptops and 3,000 subscriptions in African hands. Target ($750K) and stretch ($1M+) tiers scale every line.

LineCost
Headline keynote speaker (Bartlett-tier)$125,000
Day 1 — AI Film Festival (cinema, jury, gala)$80,000
Day 2 — Conference (800-cap floor → 2,000–55,000 with anchor tier)$100,000
Day 3 — AI Runway (show, backstage, after-party)$30,000
Day 4 — Wellness Day (Whoop, DNA × AI, recovery suites)$20,000
Talent (multi-artist, multi-day)$40,000
Production team (videography, photo, design)$35,000
Gifts × 800 (hoodie + pin + medallion)$30,000
Impact arm — 500 laptops + 3,000 Codex subs + Maistro Incubator$40,000
Total floor$500,000
Why this floor — and what scales above it The Summit is where OpenAI Africa is named on the wall. $500K is the floor that delivers the keynote, the festival, the conference, the runway, the wellness day, and the impact arm. It is not a ceiling. At $750K target, the keynote tier rises (Diary of a CEO range), the conference floor expands to 2,000+, and the impact subsidy deepens. At $1M+ stretch, the main day moves to a DHL Stadium-scale 55,000-seat venue, a global-tier keynote anchors the room, OpenAI is locked in as partner-of-record for AfricAI's next chapter, and continental tour cities (Lagos, Nairobi, Accra) join the calendar.