Levi's celebrates entrepreneurs with Pioneer Nation festival

Pioneer Nation is all about young people passionately pursuing originality with an understanding of how to convert that to income. It celebrates productivity, encourages dogged self-confidence and promotes economic independence and sustainability.

By creating a platform for this generation's most exciting entrepreneurs to share their backstories and business insights we're building on the 'each one teach one' philosophy to inspire more forward-thinkers to walk the pioneer path.

An African evolution of the global Live in Levi's campaign

This world-first festival is a uniquely African evolution of the global Live in Levi's campaign. As African's overwhelmingly young population enters the global economy, the brand is committed to shine a bright light on the opportunities and realities of the 'Pioneer life'. A well-worn pair of Levi's has traditionally been the uniform of pioneers from all walks of life for decades. And it's the brand's intention to nurture this Live in Levi's 'Pioneer spirit' across throughout South Africa and the continent.

This 16-hour festival takes place in the heart of Jozi's Braamfontein district, starting with a 100% interactive daytime conference and going on throughout the night for a once-off, multi-faceted culturally-infused series of parties. The daytime activities are divided into four different sessions, with visitors encouraged to customise their experiences by attending those that interest them most. At Gap, young pioneers from South Africa and abroad shed light on the multiple opportunities all around us. Tech (in partnership with Johannesburg Social Media Week) focuses on the diverse opportunities made available by the rapidly growing digital environment. The Speedmentoring module offers participants a chance for five minute one-on-one sessions with a high profile panel of entrepreneurial experts. And the three-hour BUILD workshop (in partnership with the African Leadership Academy), offers select participants an intensive immersion into human centred entrepreneurship.

The talks are 15-minute, personalised TED-style presentations; rich and insightful backstories delivered by some of our brightest young artisans and entrepreneurs from a wide spread of social strata and industries. Pioneers like Lesego Legoale and David Gumede of White Wall Boys, Jeremy Hewitt, Misha Teasdale and Lauren O'Donnell of Greenpop and Refiloe Seasane, Actress and Owner of 18twenty8 Foundation, will be speaking, retelling their diverse journeys that have one common thread: they've all made their mark by doing what they love.

Part music, part connecting, part dancing, part learning and full-on partying

As the sun sets, the inspiration continues across Braamfontein with five of the country's most innovative promoters curating unique musical experiences at cutting-edge venues. It's part music, part connecting, part dancing, part learning and full-on partying, blurring the lines between socialising and networking.

And it doesn't end when the music stops, because PioneerNation.biz is the hub that will share more stories from global pioneers, acting as a resource for young entrepreneurs to connect and build on their dreams, from insight to idea to income.

"This is momentous," enthuses Cal Bruns from Matchboxology, the founder of this campaign. "We've developed a format that will not only shine a light on the success stories that need telling, but use these to inspire and generate a whole new anthology of similar tales. And every second of Pioneer Nation will be enthralling, exciting and entertaining. This sets the perfect tone for this project and will ensure that it acts as a catalyst, because it presents the youth with eye-opening opportunities and practical thinking and planning methods that are easily within their grasp, in a language that they can relate to. Levi's has always been about this kind of shared growth, and are the perfect fit for something so groundbreaking."