It still feels too surreal to have led the marketing, communications and branding team that executed Growth Conference 1.0 (GrowthCon 1.0), convened by Premia Business Network (Premia BN).
For context, GrowthCon 1.0, themed ‘sustained growth’, is a two-day conference dedicated to empowering African business operators, executives, investors and enablers with the latest strategies and insights for driving sustained growth. It held on the 21st and 22nd of July in Lagos.
Photocredit: GrowthCon by Premia BN
When I got the call from Chisom Amadi in February to be part of this project, PBN Growth Conference, I couldn’t have predicted how massive this would be! 6 months later, we pulled off the first of its kind in Africa, attracting about 800 attendees and 30+ speakers.
Photocredit: GrowthCon 1.0
Photocredit: GrowthCon 1.0
The magic we created is one that only happens when delusion meets audacity and ruthless execution. Here’s why:
- The entire team had full time roles. This meant that we needed to figure out time slots that worked for most. We did a lot of late evening calls on weekdays and midday calls on weekends to drive the project.
- The team planned and executed end-to-end. It is one thing to plan and another to execute. Given how incredibly busy everyone was, we could have stayed high-level with our involvement and outsourced the execution to an agency. But we didn’t. It took a lot of hard push.
- The team had very limited resources to execute this debut. No one had done a growth-focused conference at this scale before so we wanted to make statement with the first one, but we had limited resources. This meant that we had to iterate on initial plan heavily and go above and beyond to secure commitments, partnerships and sponsorships for the project.
Some members of the GrowthCon organizing team
Key highlights
- Getting about 800 attendees to the event on both days with most of our masterclasses oversubscribed
- Working with the amazing team at Algrowithm (Bili Sule and Oluwaseyi Boya) to drive our paid search engine marketing and social media marketing strategy reaching 1.5 million people on digital
- Sealing placements of our ads on 16+ billboards (dynamic & static) in Lagos and Abuja via partnerships with Elev8 Media, Nimbus Media and Alpha and Jam
- Rolling out our special community-led ticket category and collaborating with amazing communities such as Growth Hackers Africa, Smarketers Hub, Nomadi. TEMSI Africa et al.
- Working with our media partners at TechCabal and Zikoko for ad placements on TC Daily & weekly newsletters, Zikoko daily newsletter and website leaderboards
- And much more…
The GrowthCon execution team
Gratitude
- Special shout-out to Chisom Amadi for extending me the opportunity to be part of this
- Big shout-out to Bola Lawal for throwing his weight behind the project
- Special shout-out to my amazing team Aaliyah Tawasimi, Ayo George, Amanda Madumere, Ayo Shabi for all the work. It was an honor to have led this team
- Special shout out to the rest of the organizing team: Dolapo Olayoriju, Ijeoma Ejimdu, Damola Oloko, Ife Ojonibakan, Ruth Ukoni, Toluwani Teriba, Tobechukwu Olih, Mariam Amaka Eluma, Alero Boyo, Sharon Onwuazor, Gift, Emmanuel Olowookere
- Special thanks to everyone that supported and sponsored this project in cash and in kind. You made this possible!
Upwards and onwards 🚀
Thumbnail photo by GrowthCon 1.o
