First and foremost, I would like to say a big thank you to you – Ayeni Adekunle of TheNet.ng, for coming up with such a wonderful platform for promoting Nigerian entertainment industry as well as coming up with Nigerian entertainment conference.
In the last few years, I haven’t been able to attend the past Nigerian Entertainment Conference organized by you and your team, but all thanks to God, this year I did. It was awesome and inspiring. I must say you did a great job, but there are few things you didn’t notice that I would like to bring to your notice.
In this year Nigerian entertainment conference, there are few things that happened that weren’t welcomed by each and every one that attended the conference, most especially the audience/participants such as me, KokoVibes Media.
I got to Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos around 9:15am and was directed to the conference hall – Grand ball Room by the security around 9:20am. I saw some people registering which I did. I picked my tag and goodie bag at the registration section and waited for about 45minutes before the conference room was opened. At about 10:05am, the conference room was opened and every participant was asked to enter the room.
The conference started at the right time, comedian Tee A was the host and Singer Seyi Shay opened the conference with Nigeria National Anthem.
The conference was moving smoothly and everyone was attentive. Every word the panelist/speaker utter was inspiring, message-full and informative. I was so surprised when veteran Nollywood actress, Joke Silva came on stage and couldn’t stay long due to the intense heat in the room. She complained during her session – “Teaching & Training Tomorrow’s Talent”, that she won’t be able to talk much due to the extreme heat in the room. I checked behind me and saw a lot of people already sweating. I thought I was the only one sweating. I began to ask myself, are the standing ACs just a camouflage or what? Are these ACs working at all? Are these ACs tested before the conference? I saw a lot of standing ACs, but none seem to be working which left me confused.
Apart from that, the conference was overcrowded that some people couldn’t get a seat. This made me wonder, if the conference was planned at all? Why a better hall could not be secured? I even saw some extra chairs outside while some people were inside standing, what are those chairs meant for? Are they not meant for sitting?
Before aunty Joke Silva came in, I was actually waiting for a Coffee Break, because that was what I saw on the conference website and magazine that was given to me during my registration at the conference entrance. The Coffee Break was scheduled between 10:50 – 12:10 and 12:10 – 12:30, but I didn’t get any coffee. Immediately MTVBase VJ, Ehiz left the stage, aunty Joke Silva hit the stage and the host, Tee A didn’t say anything about the Coffee Break.
I almost busted into laughter when I heard some people complaining about the Coffee Break at my back seat… “Why are these people acting this way? At least there should be a break” – that was how the conversation of Coffee Break started. At that moment, I was tasty; I quickly went outside so that I could get myself a bottle of water, since the conference team resisted giving us a break, but I couldn’t get a bottle of water.
On my way back to my seat, it was already few minutes after 2pm. I saw a friend, Lekksite, a blogger and founder of Gidi360.com. He complained about the Break Out session. He was so eager to share his past experience. He told me he was opportune to attend last year Nigerian Entertainment Conference, NECLive2, and that the organizers still have a lot of work to do. He said, “I was here last year, these people did the same. Since morning, there has been no break. I need to get myself something to eat or drink”. “They told us 30minutes on paper, when panelists get on stage, they spend more than an hour on their session” – he said. I smiled and returned to my seat.
Some minutes later, I got a call from a friend, Benjamin telling me to meet him outside that he’s tasty and needs bottle water. We met outside, went to the main road and started searching for where to get a bottle of water. Omo no be joke ooo!, I’ve never experience such a thing before in my life. Chai, there is God ooo!
While working on the road, we saw a guy holding bottle water. We asked him where he got the bottle water, he told us he bought the water somewhere along the road. We bought 50naira bottle water each and returned to the conference hall.
On my way to my seat, people were already asking me how I got the water. I described to them how I got the water and head straight to my seat.
Few minutes later, around 5pm, everyone was asked to go for break. Before then, everyone was already leaving; due to no break, time not being followed up according to what was stated on the conference website and magazine, intense heat in the room due to high rate of audience. So people had no choice than to leave.
A question popped up to my mind, is there any platform created to get feedback from participants? You have invested a lot of time to create Nigerian Entertainment Conference and we all know a lot of people turned up, but have you guys invested time to get feedback from the participants? I am not disputing the fact that you have the best speakers, and they all did perfectly well. Just that some things have to be fixed to make it worthwhile.
I strongly believe that Nigerian Entertainment Conference 2016 would be far and far better than this year’s conference if my observations are taken into consideration.
Less I forget, I also expect a little bit of entertainment during the conference, since it’s an entertainment conference. Aside from that, I checked all the known sources; I found out that there is no platform created for feedbacks. At least your team should create a platform to get feedbacks from participants, as well working with your team to make the next edition better and more greater success. Just like Social Media Week Conference.
Before I finally drop my pen, I must say a big thank you to each and every panelist that turned up at the conference; which includes George Theorpe, Davido, M.I Abaga, Joke Silva, eLDee, Ehiz, Tony Okoroji, Daryn Wober, Femi Falodun, Wunmi Obe, Kemi Lala Akindoju, Demola Ogundele, Innocent Uba, Shizzi, and others that I couldn’t remember their names. God bless you Sir/Ma.
I pray Nigerian Entertainment Conference 2016 would be far better.
Thank you!
Oladipupo Olutayo
KokoVibes Media (KokoVibes.com.ng)