Last year, I went to a bunch of technology conferences and this year I’ve got a few I‘ve scheduled to attend. Here’s a snapshot of some of the ones I reckon you should be paying attention to in African technology:

Net Prophet [Cape Town, South Africa]

I had the chance to attend this last year and wow, what a conference. Luck would have it I would bump into Erik Hersman (WhiteAfrican) who was speaking (alongside a great list of speakers, known more affectionately as The 2010 Prophets including Techcrunch’s own Sarah Lacy and rockstar, legend and overlord of the presentation world, Rich Mulholland, who’s back again this year too)

This year’s is shaping up real nicely with Yola CEO Vinny Lingham, angel investor and CEO Permjot Valia, Virtual City’s John Waibochi, South African blogging giant Seth 2OceansVibe Rotherham and mobile marketing Gustav Prakelt are among the other 2011 Net Prophets.

Mobile Web Africa [Lagos, Nigeria]

Starting in South Africa and since travelling to both East & West, Mobile Web Africa by All Amber in the UK, has proved to be one of Africa’s can’t-miss conferences. MWA started in Johannesburg in 2009 and came up to Nairobi as Mobile Web East Africa in Feb 2010 (can’t think mobile without talking about Nairobi) and most recently was in Nigeria this past February (Mobile Web West Africa)

They’ve shown a knack for putting together good events and I’m looking forward to next year’s event. You can see a few reviews from this years in Nigeria here by Mobility and from the South African event here by iMod.

Tech4Africa [Johannesburg, South Africa]

I also had the great chance to go down for the inaugural Tech4Africa this past year and to see the amazing vision of Gareth Knight and the fantastic work put in by the team at Technovated was indeed an experience of its own. The conference, geared around combining global ideas in the African context, has cut a niche for itself with the likes of Clay Shirky, Leilah Janah of Samasource, Dustin Diaz, the legendary Justin Spratt and again our very own Erik Hersman, keep bumping into this guy everywhere among others. I’m certain that 2011’s will raise the bar and challenge our perceptions once more.

Pivot25 [Nairobi, Kenya]

The new kid on the block, Pivot25 is the mobile apps and developer conference slated for Nairobi in July is one of the first things the newly formed M-Lab has put together. It will give developers the opportunity to showcase their work to operators, venture capitalists, the community and angel investors.

With some great minds behind it and co-signing it, it could very well take the place of Africa’s Techcrunch50 or Launch Conference for mobile apps for the +500 Million mobile phones on the continent.

Overall, the quality and calibre of all these tech conferences has grown up over time and we’re seeing some world-class conferences emerging.

If there are you’ve been to that didn’t feature or if that you think should be on this list, share it with us in the comments!