Fisayo Beecroft is the Managing Director of Eventful limited a leading event consulting company in Nigeria founded in 2002 to serve the needs of corporate and individual clients.

In the last two decades, Eventful has consistently delivered excellent professional services while demonstrating creativity with a vision to become the leading player in the organised events planning industry in Africa.

Lagos correspondent, Fisayo Beecroft who took over the leadership of the event company about two years ago talks about how the company has maintained its leadership position as an innovative leader in the event industry over the years, the impact of Covid 19 on the event management space as well as other sundry issues.

Tell us about the Eventful Brand, and the services you provide.

Event management is beyond food and drinks, it is more about the value of the services that we are providing to our corporate clients. 

However, over the years our mission has been to continuously organise and consistently deliver professional services with creativity and passion has been sustained for 20 years. We are consistent with the highest standards of professionalism, excellent. We have a seasoned board to guide our processes and governance structure. 

As part of our effort to pilot and reinvent the wheel, we were able to plan two huge events outside the country and open our space into West Africa country. We had a conference in Dubai earlier this year, and a wedding in Mauritius last month.

Almost two years after the transition Eventful is still doing very well, last year was the biggest year since its inception as regards the volume of events we organised.

What makes Eventful different from other event management companies?

The level of professionalism that we bring into what we do is topnotch, we try as much as possible to bring our values, resourcefulness, creativity and passion into everything that we do.

 Passion is a critical part of what we do, as event planners, passion is very key to the success of our brand and what we have done differently.

More importantly, is the relationship we have built over the years, the brand was established in a family-oriented nature. And anything family-oriented will always thrive. The relationship between the brand and most of our existing corporate clients is beyond the workspace. 

We have been able to do social events for them, which goes to show the level of collaboration we have with our clients.

What does Eventful intend to do in the years ahead?

During our transition event, I talked about bringing the next generation that will take over from me. What we have at EVENTFUL is an institution so it is beyond anyone, it is more about the brand, and the institution has allowed us to pivot in any way that will be instrumental to our events that have diversified. 

We have a very young and vibrant team that can relate more with today’s workforce in terms of age bracket and that is also going well for us in the way we relate with these groups of people on one side and be able to put things in perspective, think ahead, look for alternatives, look for a business where none are existing, we pioneer and reinvent businesses. We have what we call the millennia events that we structured. These are events that people naturally don’t look at but it is a vast sector of the economy. We are looking at new markets that is what are thriving for us and taking us to where we are going. 

We have our fashion souks also, it is a form of diversification from our usual business,  these are opportunities that we foresee ourselves and will continue to take leadership roles in everything we do in the event space.

What are the challenges that need to be addressed in the industry?

The challenge that needs to be addressed in this industry is the issue around government policies. We don’t have any in existence, I will also admit that since Covid, there has been some level of conversation, and interaction between the part of government and the event planning association. Aside from that, it is more about policies around basic issues during the Covid we were not able to solve issues around cancellations, who is responsible for payment, and who is responsible for refund. 

Aside from that we also have the brain drain that we are witnessing in the country that is not peculiar to the event space. So we have a lot of team members relocating and this is not peculiar to our brand. This has created a gap as creative minds are not available as this generation wants a quick route to success which is peculiar to other sectors also.

More importantly, the conversation around policies to guide the industry and push the event space out more.

What are the Major achievements that you have had?

The major achievement we have had in these past 20 years, is being a pioneer event management company is not a joke, it is a huge achievement and we also try as much as possible to encourage those that are behind us in the industry, so that we don’t monopolise the industry as a brand. We carry others along, we organise training for event planners.   

How would you describe the effect of the Covid 19 on the event industry and how did Eventful survive?

Before Covid we existed and did a couple of hybrid events in the past, it was easy for us to do the transition into hybrid space and be able to harness the potential. Originally it was more of the virtual event spaces as the months went by Nigerians have gradually embraced their social lives back but we have to keep to the covid19 regulation standard. More importantly, we did collaboration and partnerships with other brands.

Our transition was towards the end of the Covid era so we have been able to restructure, and  restrategies. Covid 19 was a blessing for us in disguise, it help us to sharpen our thought process, reshape our culture and thought us how to minimise costs during Covid, we didn’t sack any of our staffs, for us it was a time to reward loyal staffs who have been with us for years.

What is the most unusual event you have organised?

One of the unusual events we have had was held in Bayelsa state, it was a coronation event in the middle of the crisis in Bayelsa it was an offer you will never imagine that any event planner would take because of the volatile period so we had to go on a boat, all the staff from port Harcourt from a six hours boat ride in the creeks of Bayelsa and we moved both human, equipment and logistics, and it was a phenomena experience for us, that goes to tell you that without passion.