The studio has hosted three events in the last couple of months:
- Show & Tell — a presentation of design projects from wuruwuru and friends (”the spectrum”). It was held in December at MILIKI, took a few weeks to plan, and cost about NGN 4m to produce for 80 guests.
- Celebrating the Strange — a literary evening with ‘Pemi Aguda and TJ Benson. Started planning in January, and hosted about 60 guests in early February. This was a much lighter production and cost ~ NGN 700,000 in all.
- Pregame — a private open mic night at Bogobiri for about ~ 30 guests. We paid a 300k deposit to rent the venue (which we ate and drank), 200k for the host, 300k for the band, and 10k for the sound engineer.
In the future, we’ll make a website to document the design process, cost, and structure for these events, including what we learnt, and how to possibly do something like this for much cheaper.
For now, enjoy this review of Celebrating the Strange from Samson.
“My first event! I’ll be putting together my first event!” I exclaimed joyfully to my mom after getting Ope’s text. At my previous job, I watched planners organise events and always thought, “I could do this too!” And now, it was finally happening!
In this essay, I’ll describe the journey of organising the Celebrating the Strange event.
Planning
Something I’ve learnt working for the studio is that Ope is a very visual person. He always has a picture of whatever he’s working on and how he wants people to feel when they experience it. I guess you don’t get to be Paystack’s Head of Design on vibes.
‘Pemi had reached out to Ope in December and together they’d covered some of the groundwork — like the number of guests, the structure of the event, and the venue. He sent me the phone number of the space manager, as well as a document outlining the event requirements. He wasn’t in Lagos at the time, so organising everything was up to me.
Looking back, I’d describe my role as the project manager. Ope expected the event to be well-organized, and I was eager to impress.
Space
At our first meeting to inspect the space, I met with the talented writer ‘Pemi Aguda and designer Desola Falomo. ‘Pemi is an acclaimed speculative fiction writer, and Desola is a versatile designer. For this project, she was our set designer.
Meeting these people was a big deal for me as one of my goals working with Ope is to expand my network. These are two impressive people succeeding in their fields, and so I was thrilled, to say the least.
We met with the space manager who showed us two options: the Untitled Space and the So.nne Space. Though the So.nne Space couldn’t accommodate our guest count, both were blank canvases we could design as desired.
Initially, we were asked to pay for a full day, though the event was only four hours. Eventually, we reached a compromise and got a discounted day rate, which we paid promptly.
Design
Ope branded the event and designed posters for the ticketing website and social media. Desola designed the space.
For tickets, we used Tix.africa. We offered two ticket types: free and paid. The free tickets were for the hosts’ guests. We sold the other half for 1k, not expecting to cover costs but hoping to make some money for a change.
Operations
After setting up tickets, we began planning the events’ operations, communicating primarily via WhatsApp.
Ultimately, the process looked like this:
- Write out the plan
- Rent the space
- Set up tickets
- Hire a sound technician
- Hire a photographer
- Rent chairs and props
- Buy refreshments
Event Day
On the event day, I was thrilled yet somewhat anxious. I moved close to the venue to handle any unforeseen issues.
Set up started early. Ope, Desola, and ‘Pemi went to the space in the morning to arrange everything, test the equipment, and set up refreshments.
I joined later in the afternoon and handled ticketing and book sales. I couldn’t focus on the event as I was busy, but I caught glimpses of the fascinating conversation.
‘Pemi and TJ Benson read their stories and discussed bending reality and using strangeness in their writing. It was a wonderful chance for the audience to engage with these talented writers and for us to build a community of creatives.
We planned for 60 guests, but ended up hosting about 42. We made about 24k in ticket sales, and sold 52 books.
If you attended the event, let me know your thoughts! It was a pleasure hosting you, and I’m curious to know what your experience was like.
