GITEX Africa Exposed My Weaknesses in the Best Possible Way

I will spare you the complaints. Everyone who attended the event already experienced them and generously documented them across social media.

I got my ticket through a giveaway post on LinkedIn by my previous employer, CH Bank, so I did not really feel entitled to complain much. In fact, I almost did not go at all.

At first, I thought the event would be held in Casablanca, where I currently live and work. It turned out to be in Marrakech, a city where I know nobody and had only visited a couple of times before to see my therapist. A friend encouraged me to go anyway, just to meet people and see what was happening in the market. My brother pushed me in the same direction.

Everything happened suddenly.

I got off work and went straight to the train station. Not to Marrakech directly, but to El Jadida first so I could go home to Sidi Bennour and pick up the keys to a friend’s family house in Marrakech. I was exhausted, spent the night at home, then rushed to Marrakech the next morning.

I arrived, changed clothes quickly, and headed to the event through InDrive. The place was packed. People from different countries, industries, and backgrounds everywhere. I met up with a friend there, and we immediately started exploring the event together.

The area that interested me the most was the startup zone. Unsurprisingly, it was overflowing with AI startups and products. A lot of people online complained about this saturation, but honestly, the event taught me something important: regardless of what people think, AI is currently working as a business.

People are building products around it and making money from it.

Many of these startups are essentially wrappers around existing models like ChatGPT or Gemini. On paper, that sounds unimpressive. But the reality is simpler: most people either do not know how to use these tools properly, do not have time to learn them, or simply do not want to bother. These startups are not really selling intelligence. They are selling convenience, accessibility, and saved time. And convenience sells.

That realization alone shifted part of my perspective.

At the same time, the event forced me into an uncomfortable but necessary moment of self-awareness regarding my own career as a graphic designer and creative.

I realized that I am technically capable. I am good with tools, workflows, and strategic thinking. But when conversations became professional and technical, especially around branding, design systems, or business strategy, I struggled to communicate at the level I wanted.

The issue was not a lack of intelligence or creativity. It was a lack of structured knowledge and professional vocabulary.

I had been operating mostly on instinct, curiosity, experimentation, and scattered learning. That approach helped me become versatile, but it also left gaps. I could do the work, but sometimes struggled to articulate the reasoning behind it in a professional environment.

Another thing became painfully obvious: if I want to seriously operate within the Moroccan market, English alone will not be enough. French matters. A lot. Not just conversational French, but professional French. The ability to confidently discuss ideas, negotiations, branding, marketing, and business concepts in French opens doors that English alone simply does not.

Before attending GITEX Africa, I had just launched a digital agency and started reaching out to friends to join as co-founders or collaborators. I was genuinely excited about it. But the event showed me, in a constructive way, that I still lack many things: communication skills, legal understanding, business structure, and deeper technical and academic foundations related to my field.

I spoke with founders, startup representatives, and business owners to understand how they think, how they validate ideas, and how they structure projects. Those conversations were probably the most valuable part of the entire experience for me.

I left Marrakech feeling two things at once.

Slightly overwhelmed, but also grateful.

For the first time in a while, I feel like I have a clearer understanding of what I am missing and what I should focus on improving during this next phase of my life.

I decided that this year should primarily become a year of structured growth. Accumulating real knowledge instead of fragmented information. Improving my health and sleep so I can operate at full capacity. Learning how to communicate better. Building systems instead of improvising everything.

I also joined a team under the advice of one of my professors because I realized I naturally tend to work alone. While independence can be useful, it also creates blind spots. Working individually for too long makes it easier to become biased, disconnected, and unaware of opportunities that only emerge through collaboration.

GITEX Africa made me realize that what I am doing is not fundamentally wrong. It is simply not structured enough yet.

And maybe that is a much better problem to have.

Like most people who attended, I returned home with a phone full of contacts and a backpack full of business cards from potential clients, employers, collaborators, and founders.

But more importantly, I came back with perspective.

The event also made me rethink how I view opportunity itself. I have spent too much time looking outward toward Europe, North America, or distant markets while ignoring the scale of opportunity emerging within Africa itself.

There is a lot happening here.

And I have probably underestimated it for far too long.