The continent's brightest minds in customer experience gathered in Cape Town last week for the CEM Africa Summit. I bring you the key takeaways from the Spree keynote titled 'Empowering customers to interact with your brand', and Louise Marsland reports on embracing a CX 'citizen first' strategy in government and how traditional siloed structures are breaking down to enable a culture of customer-centricity. Meanwhile, Leigh Andrews overviews Adobe's talk titled 'Be an experience business or be out of business', Brandlove's presentation on the importance of trusting your 'always on' employees, the keynote panels' CX predictions for the future, and Juanita Pienaar details all the winners from the CXA Awards. The Produce Marketing Association's (PMA's) Fresh Connections: Southern Africa Conference and Trade Show also kicked off last week, with a lineup of presentations by key decision-makers in the international and southern African agribusiness supply chain. Click through for my report back of Andy Connell's top tips for building supply networks on the continent. In other top news: SA's clothing retail sector is hanging by a thread after nearly a decade's strong performance, and the Liquor Products Amendment Bill has been widely welcomed by alcohol industry players who say it will go a long way to curbing illicit trade. Have an inspiring week! Lauren Hartzenberg Retail Editor: Bizcommunity.com

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