One of the leading event planning
and management company popularly known as Eye Candy as just clocked 2 since its
established by Eyitayo Adebamowo, the beautiful and unassuming Chief Executive
Officer cum Principal Consultant of the high flying event and ushering outfit
based in Lagos, Nigeria. In this interesting interview, kindly find time to
read, learn and succeed…Excerpts:
Congratulations,
how do you feel now that your company, Eye Candy is two years now
I am super glad. Can't even believe
it's already 2 years I made that tough decision to stand on my own. You can
never know it all when it comes to Event. But you have to keep coming up with
different unique ideas for each event and ushers costumes. I believe in myself
and most of all I thank God for leading me towards this part. I am proud of
myself (Lol).
What
informed your decision to going into event business in Nigeria
The whole inspiration came from
being a model, usher and also attending different concerts, Shows and other
form of events of the years. And, this leads to my employment at one of
Nigeria's best event and an activation company called Abelinis Limited in
Nigeria. I eventually learnt what event is really all about. In the beginning,
I thought it was just about getting a Disc Jockey, ordering foods for the
guests, dress and all. During my working days in Abelinis Limited, I was opportune
to attend a Project Management Course which was sponsored by my boss then Mr.
Abiodun Oshinibosi.
How
long have you been in that sector
Since 2005, I started with a humble
beginning as a Promo Staff at the National Trade Fair before moving into
ushering, runway and face modeling. I have been in the game as player even
before I officially started my own company, Eye-Candy Innovative Concepts and
we are 2 years today and all glory to God.
Tell
us more about your company
Well, Eye-Candy Innovative Concepts
is an event planning and management company with special interests in events staffing.
So far, we have planned couple of wedding ceremonies, birthday parties and we
have supplied top notch usherettes for both corporate and social events in
different parts of the country. Our Company popularly known as Eye Candy is
best known for quality deliverables in terms of how we plan, manage, coordinate
and especially making our guests comfortable through our usherettes
expertise.
How
did you come up with the company name
To be frank, before going fully into
event, I do supply ushers for most event organized by friends and the little
business associates I used to have then which is still part of my company services.
The name Eye Candy has to do with my beautiful, intelligent and well trained
usherettes. Eye-Candy simply means something you can't take your eyes off. I
decided to take ushering to another level. And, talking about the type of girls
and costumes I use, they are almost hard to come by. We know the right thing to
wear for corporates events and what to wear for social events and this has made
us stand out even if there are other ushers involved by the organizers of the
same event we are engaged.
What
does it take to succeed in your chosen field
Hmm… every business has it own challenges.
But cost Clients would want a wow event packaged for them and they even
requested for premium ushers to wow their special guests but the problem is
that they find it hard to pay good money, they keep proposing on a peanut
budget, which is not good for us at all. When you try to explain to them they
tag you "Expensive". We face a lot of difficulties when it comes to ushering
services. Sometimes there are misconceptions, because our ushers are very
attractive ladies, most guests feels our ushers are there to get complimentary
cards or they come in search of Sugar daddies and even some of the guests wives
sometimes act funny, if the ushers get close attending to their husband while
rendering the best service they were engaged to do. We need to erase this off
our memories. These girls are out there to do ushering jobs so that they can
afford to help themselves academically and some even support their parents and
also sort their school bills. Being an usher doesn't mean they are prostitutes
or call girls at the event. They should always remember that they also have
sisters and daughters too. Another challenge we do face is when virtually all
the girls in Lagos wanna work with Eye Candy. We are more concerned about
height and attitude; most times we select strictly tall girls not because we
are discriminating but we have a set standard and we always like to keep our
standard no matter what. However, the not too tall girls do feel bad each time
we tell them that they are not tall enough to be part of our ushering team.
But we always create room for everyone and we always compensate them with in the
store activation promotion for them to still work for Eye Candy as their hearts
desire.
Tell
us about the CEO of Eye Candy
Well, my name is Eyitayo Adebamowo, the
unassuming Chief Executive Officer of the reputable Eye Candy Innovative
Concepts. I am a graduate of Olabisi Onabanjo University Ogun state, where I
studied History and Diplomatic Studies. I am in my early 30s. Funny enough, I
was a model but still a model (Lol) and a well-trained event planner. I have
done couple of calender modeling jobs and TV commercials for Close Up, UBA,
Etisalat, Five Alive, Bagco, FanzChampionship to mention few.
How
would you advise someone who wants to take after you
Self-belief and hard work will
always earn you success. Most important of all is to be disciplined and seek
for God's grace. More so, they should be focused and prayerful. A
dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and
hard work and God's divine grace and favour. If I can do it, then YOU can do it
too.
Where
do you see your company in the next five years
Wow! In five years from now, I want
my company to go international. I want to be part of first top event planners
in the world.
The
event company is highly competitive, what separates your company from others
I love been unique and I don't do
copy and paste. If I see any nice idea, I will look for a way to add some nice
things to make it different. It's funny that as you are thinking of an
idea for your event, someone else is also thinking of same idea, so if you
don't execute your plan in time, someone else will do that.
When
would you describe as a low point in your business
Event planning is an interesting and its
a bit challenging business. It's not an everyday thing. We all need to
understand our peak period and low period when it comes to our business. I have
studied it well and I discovered that between January to April, business
is always low. Like the saying goes "Do not put all your eggs in one
basket. I am presently working on opening a wholesale/retail wine store (Eye Candy
Wines and Assorted drinks).
What
do you like about your job
I love everything about my job
because it's fun, interesting and interactive. It's a kind of business that
gets you more expose to the very best fun of life. It can be stressful a times
though. Imagine, you will have to set up before the event and tear down after
the event and it always make me laugh..There is a proverb that says "May
you not use your hand to build a house the and use same hand to destroy
it" but this does not apply to
event set up (Lol).
