On May 25, the AviAssist Foundation will be organizing a series of lectures on aviation safety. Under the name of ‘Lunch Lectures’, the lectures are given at various locations in Africa in celebration of Africa Day. The lectures are organized to bring more attention to aviation safety in African aviation and to offer safety experts an opportunity to connect.
Eat, laugh and lunch
The Lunch Lectures are small-scale, informal gatherings hosted in boardrooms. This year they will take place in Kenya and Nigeria. Aviation and safety experts gather at these locations to attend mini lectures while enjoying a simple lunch. During the Lunch lectures, a reporter from the different location checks in via a live connection with the Africa Day broadcast that takes place from the AviAssist studio in the Netherlands. This way, AviAssist ensures that safety experts from different countries inspire each other, connect, and share knowledge.
Winnie Ongiri is a student in aeronautical engineering at the Technical University of Kenya and in charge of organizing the event in Nairobi. “I am honored to be part of this team and AviAssist as a whole, grateful for the opportunity granted here to help organize the safety lunch”, Winnie points out. “I’m very excited to be the reporter for the day into the Africa Day broadcast to the whole continent”.
Aviation safety in Africa
It is the first time that AviAssist is organizing these lectures. The ambition is to turn the Lunch Lectures into an annual event on Africa Day, taking place across the entire African continent at the same time. In this way AviAssist wants to ensure more attention for aviation safety. It is an opportunity for participants to connect and learn from each other. They are small scale events held in companies’ boardrooms across Africa with people attending on invitation only. The lunches this year are sponsored by insurance broker WTW, Amsterdam Airport and Overland Airways.
“We are not just inviting any aviation or aviation safety professional”, events coordinator Joeri Rijkeboer from AviAssist explained.
“We select professionals who are true safety cheetahs. Professionals who go above and beyond the call of duty because they realize our industry depends on it. By organizing the event simultaneously across Africa, we want to underline that they are part of a brother and sisterhood of safety cheetahs, part of the AviAssist family”.
