Event planners arrange the details of a variety of events. Event planners also coordinate celebrations such as anniversaries, reunions, and other large social events, as well as corporate events, including product launches, galas, and award ceremonies.
Here is a story of how the MD of Busybee events, Bisi Sotunde went from being an usher to an event planner.
How did you begin as an event planner?
Busybee just turned 13 years last month in October and before I started events, I was a user. I read Chemical engineering in school and while in school I picked a side hustle for income as a user in 2007 in a leading event company as time went on, that was how my interest in events grew.
When I finished school in 2009 and started looking for a job and when I didn’t get any, I decided to channel my skills into the event business while I wait for a 9-5 job. In 2009, I officially started my event company.
I started from the bottom to where I am now. I was supplying users for planning, coordinating, welcoming guests and to where we are now.
When I started, I didn’t have an office space, I was doing it from the house. Started with friends’ weddings, birthdays etc on a low scale and I was charging little money.
Two years afterwards, I had to go get a space because people wanted to train and there was no full-scale event planning school at that time. So in 2011, I took that bold step and got a small space in old Yabe road and that was how I started my first full planning services and introduced training into it.
In the space of 13 years, we have trained and helped over 1300 event professionals. Some of the people we have trained are facilitators, mentors etc.
How much can one start with if one finds an interest?
There are different areas of events but for an event planner, what you need is your mobile phone, your skill, networking and data and you must be a people person.
See the video below for more!
