SPOTLIGHT: Faderera Jegede, the rising star of event planning

Faderera Jegede‘s story is one of passion, hard work, and determination. What started as a hobby for the mass communication graduate from Kwara State University has blossomed into a rising event planning brand, with a reputation for creating unique and unforgettable experiences. In this interview with TheCable Lifestyle’s Pelumi Bolawa, Faderera opens up about her journey, sharing insights into the challenges she has faced and the lessons she has learned along the way.

TheCable Lifestyle: How did your journey into event planning start?

Faderera: My journey into event planning spans several years because I started doing it back in the university around 2011. It started for me as a hobby. I really did not see the business side of it. Then, I would help to plan or coordinate seminars, conferences, and sometimes dinners back in school. I belonged to a group called ‘Purpose Group’. I had opportunities to be at the helm of affairs whenever we had conferences and seminars. At some point, I even had an ushering team that I named after myself ‘Faderera Ushering Team’ and recently, I even saw that I had a business card for it, so funny. A few years later, I got a job as a lecturer at another university. So, I started to take on more corporate events. Any event that we had in the university, I was in charge of, matriculation, convocation, conferences, seminars, luncheons, name it! My ushering team also worked outside of the university.

It, however, was not until 2021, that we registered as a business after several encouragements from people. It took the motivation of people who saw that I just used to do it as a hobby, coupled with the fact that I actually got married and wanted to relocate so I had to leave my job at the time. When I left, I moved back to Lagos. At first, my goal was to get another job. I was putting out some applications here and there, but this event part of me was a major aspect, so when I realised that I was getting more offers and opportunities in that regard. I just put my focus there and it has been a beautiful experience and I am excited that I did.

Until that time, people were just enjoying the services for free, even some of those who enjoyed the services for free were the ones who called me and said I should do business from this. When I realised this and started to see value in what we were offering, taking the stress off people, creating beautiful and unique moments, and paying attention to details among others, I knew it was time to put some structures to how we operate, started to take training, get certifications, and make it a full-fledged business.

When we started as a business, I noticed that we started to do more weddings, not to say we do not still do corporate, but then we started to do more weddings and honestly, it has been a beautiful experience. We have had lots of referrals after wedding events. We have had lots of beautiful reviews.

TheCable Lifestyle: What drives you – passion or profit?

Faderera: Like I said, I love planning events. I love to be in the background of making things happen. People come to our events. They see the glamour, the beauty, and they love it. But honestly, many of them do not have an idea of the background work that goes into creating something beautiful like that. I mentioned earlier that it did not start as a business it was just basically the fact that I liked to plan events.

So, in regards to whether it is passion-driven or just business-driven, I would say it is both. In the sense that as much as I am doing it for passion, I understand that I have a business to build. This is a business I am running and in the long run, there are better things, better achievements that can come out of it. I have been able to create jobs for people as a result of this, and I know that as we grow, we will employ more people. So with that point, I plan every single event as a business but yet with so much passion.

People see our work. They see the dedication the team put into it. They see that it is not just about me actually, it is about team spirit. Successful events are a result of teamwork. I do not know of any event planner who would sit down and say it is only their own work. It is a team effort. So as long as your team understands the job, they understand the expectations and they understand the spirit with which to work, they understand how to mitigate challenges, whether or not, you are there, then you are good.

TheCable Lifestyle: What are some of the major challenges you’ve encountered?

Faderera: For every event we are dealing with different people who have different backgrounds, different expectations, and different understanding of situations and circumstances, which is quite beautiful and dynamic. No clients are the same. However, I recall that there was this particular event we were contracted by the client, a couple, because it was a wedding, they had their own guest size, their parents had a different one. The client insisted that we work with their preferred guest size, and to us the clients are the boss, so we signed contracts.

You do not just come to us, give us your event, and then we just start running. We go through due process. The consultation phase, the negotiation phase, then the contract. That is what informs us. During the consultation phase, we already know what your expectations are. I recall that particular event, we had a particular guest size, we had the measures in place to keep to the guest size, and as planners of course, we have our contingency plans just in case.

For formalities, we make sure that we both understand the agreement in terms of what the capacity is. However, regardless of what we had agreed, on the event day, we started to have more guests. But thank God, that you know we already had our own contingency plan and that was what helped us and saved that situation. That is one of the challenges we sometimes face. Some vendors can pose challenges as well. However, we rarely face this one, because we do our due diligence by screening any vendor before bringing them on board for any event.

TheCable Lifestyle: How do you handle visa processing for international events?

Faderera: Well, we are partners with teams at different locations. What we do is, if we would need to work in Canada for instance, oftentimes, I am the one who travels, if it requires my presence. We do not move our team, we just work with established teams that are already available for us there.

TheCable Lifestyle: How do you cope with the economic situation in Nigeria when dealing with clients?

Faderera: So, two things have helped us; Projections and Relationships. We are not oblivious to the current economic situation, especially in Nigeria. However, let me state that many of the experiences we have in terms of these economic realities, are happening in almost every country you want to think of, but only those who wear the shoes know where it pinches, so it matters to us what is happening here because this is where we are.

As I mentioned, projections and relationships have helped us during these times; projection in that we keep ourselves abreast of information daily, so that can help to guide our actions and decisions when relating with clients. We also do our best to form formidable relationships with clients and vendors that we work with from time to time, and many times, when push comes to shove, we find that such vendors are ready to stick out a neck for us. That way, we make sure that an already commenced project is effectively and beautifully done regardless of our economic realities. Those are the two major things that have helped us in this current time.