Creative Economy at The Interface

Last Saturday was the first meeting of The Interface, held in Victoria Island, Lagos. This is the kind of initiative (about solutions) that I can really get excited about. From their Facebook Page, The Interface is a business network forum and creative platform that is focused on setting the stage for engaging some of Nigeria's brightest minds. Every month guests are drawn from different professions and careers in cross fertilization conversations that will advance their individual enterprises and by extension our nation's economy.
It is essentially about integrating creativity, strategy, technology, ideas and the spirit of enterprise.

The resource persons were Pai Gamde, Uche Eze, Tolu Oloketuyi, Uche Nworah, and moi. The organisers were a group of betta Nigerians including Ferdinand Adimefe. The theme was Nigeria and Creative Economy. The audience was typically mid-late 20s and upward (or forward) mobile. It was a very valuable event for me and the forty or fifty other attendees (see the event at 234next.com), and if there's anything the organizers want to fix for next time, they say it's to have fewer resource persons at once because the wealth of information was just...plenty. I also think that next time the crowd will be at least double, so...

I can really say I learned a lot, from Uche Eze of the young company that produces BellaNaija for example, or from the Brand specialist and longtime online personality Uche Nworah. Pai Gamde gave us the expert HR context with a talk about expanding your comfort zone, while Tolu Oloketuyi gave a great expo about how his passion for discounting led him to the leading edge of ecommerce in Nigeria. His product (YPM) basically means that you're eligible for automatic discounts at many big shops in Nigeria when you pay with your plastic card. Most people didn't know that.

My slides from the event are here:
What Do You Read (clickable PDF slides or PowerPoint SlideShow)