Bola Awosika Takes Event Planning To Next Level
Murphy Alabi
The name, Bola Awosika Adelaja in Nigeria’s event planning industry is synonymous with standard and quality.
In the last 15 years, Bevent Logistics Synergy has been into events planning, branding, customized ankara and corporate gift items with an exotic Bevent centre which can accommodate 1000 guest located at 111 Obafemi Awolowo way, Ikeja, Lagos.
With her passion for the Industry, her company has added value to event planning and management business in Nigeria and this has led them to create the group Nigeventindustry.
The group, according to Adelaja was created to act as a bridge between event vendors and the general public and was created in July 2006.
Bola Awosika spoke more about the group
“What we are all about is to give information to people because we discovered that a lot of people who come into this event industry lack knowledge about the job.They started the event business without prior knowledge of it. For instance, some people become bakers because they can mix flour, so they did not go for any training in that aspect.
In the last two years we have been able to set a standard rule that for you to be in this industry, you must be certified i.e. you must have gone through training and continually educating yourself in the industry because new things comes up daily so all these will help you improve in your area of specialisation and others.
She also spoke about their annual event
“Our annual event which started in 2017 and then 2018, so this year we are collaborating with Lagos state Safety Commission under the leadership of Hon. Hakeem Dickson because our theme for this year has to do with Safety in the industry as we all know that we use fireworks (indoor and outdoor), gas and electricity during the cause of events which could cause fire hazard if not used carefully
So through this partnership we will be able to create awareness on these hazards and ways to prevent them, how to use fire extinguisher and other safety guides including first aid treatment i.e. lot of these caterers go around with gas cylinders without a fire extinguisher what if there is a fire outbreak how would they handle it, these are the things people need to be aware of.The fair is coming up on October 1st 2019 while the training is September 2019 with the Theme: Emergency Preparedness in the Event Industry.
The fair and the training is a one day event and certificates are going to be given at the end of it all. We are also looking for sponsors to support Nigeventindustry. We are very passionate about this industry and you know this industry is one of the biggest income generators to the economy.
On how to distinguished between trained and untrained vendor, Alakija gives an insight.
She said, “It is very easy, when you are new in the industry your mode of operation is what will tell to people how you are. The newbie which is what we call those that are less than 5 years in the industry, the question they will ask and the way they will behave, you will know they just joined the industry. These newbie are learning every day, all of them are going for training they educate themselves to get themself well equipped in the profession.
On how to curb those that are not trained, she said
“We have event association and groups that sets up an arbitration committee to deal with issues like this and thank God for social media. if you engaged somebody to come offer service for you and they do not perform, we have a panel that we will put them in check, we have where you can report to and we take up your case and make sure that the vendor is put into book and if it is discovered that it was the client that was at fault we also act on it to make sure we are not treated bad and now there are a lot of training that is been organized by certified by event vendor
What special thing do you expect this year?
It’s a different thing each year, you know in event industry change is constant, we are always motivated we bring up new ideas, new things are created, so this year we are going in a different direction, we have exhibition, training, panel discussion and vendors interaction (where we learn from ourselves and give experienced examples).. The exhibition is free but people that want to exhibit will book a stand for as low as #20,000 check our Instagram page Nigeventindustry for further information on this.
Do you have any plan to do this event outside Lagos in future?
Yes we do, we have one in Abuja. We also have a branch in Edo state (Benin), our members in Benin are topping the chart there. Our aim is to have representatives nationwide and we are working on that, we have members in Ekiti, Port-Harcourt. So we keep growing every day.
Views: 0
