Funmi Victor-Okigbo: I’m Obsessed With Problem Solving

Funmi Victor-Okigbo is the Chief Visionary Officer and production designer at Events Architects Limited, a design-led event production, and management agency in Lagos. She has helped brands achieve their business goals by creating extraordinary experience designs for their target audience. She developed a methodology called Event Architecture to change the way brands connect with their audiences through experiential events and has become an essential measure for corporations looking to communicate through events. In 2014, using the shared services principle, she created an initiative called The Unofficial Christmas Party, a high-production multi-corporate end-of-year party, that allowed companies to outsource the design and planning of their end-of-year activities for their teams and clients, saving them time, effort and money. The Events Architects boss who is keen to continually raise the bar in this sector both nationally and globally is returning this year with The Unofficial Christmas Party, the biggest multi-corporate end-of-year party and the best party night of the year. In this interview with MARY NNAH, she talks about her plans for this year’s edition and her journey so far

Give us a brief insight into Events Architects Limited. 
Events Architects help brands, individuals and organisations connect to their audiences through memorable experiential events. We are an experiential events agency. We have been creating and producing events since 2005. We help brands communicate to their target audience and their customers by creating unique experiences using events as a platform. We have worked with and for a lot of brands locally and internationally and they all have one thing in common; global standards and excellence.
We help brands to achieve their business goals by creating extraordinary experience designs for their target audience. I was able to develop a mode of operation called Event Architecture to change the way brands connect with their audiences through experiential events and has become an essential touchstone for corporations looking to communicate through events even though we have an arm of the business that caters for weddings.
One of the things we do is see ourselves not as event planners but as partners. We approach our co-operate partners with the mindset of solving problems. We are not just going to them, saying it’s your event but we apply all those elements that make an event interesting. 
We are not just Experience Designers but problem solvers so we approach everything from that mindset.
We also have an academy called Events Architects Academy where we train event managers and service providers in the industry on how to position themselves to attract clients. Clients are drawn to excellence and best practices so we teach that at the Academy.
At Event Architect Academy I train professionals or someone who wants to be involved with event management. Apart from the End of year unofficial Christmas Party, I have another event the Big Birthday Bash where we throw parties every month for people born in that particular month.
It’s done every last Friday of the month. If it’s your birthday right, you can throw a party. We love solving problems, so it is either you throw a party or you attend the Big Birthday Bash.
 
Tell us about your coming event, The Unofficial Christmas Party scheduled for December 16.
The Unofficial Christmas Party is an idea of a shared/collaborative End of Year Party where corporations come together under one roof to party and network. We have always seen ourselves as business partners to our clients. We approach every project with the mindset of solving problems. While working with our clients, we identified a few issues so we came up with a solution.
The Unofficial Christmas Party was created to help organisations elevate and scale their End of Year Parties, help organisations reward their hard-working employees, their loyal clients and even themselves at the end of the year and plan a worthy end-of-year party for corporate bodies without them having to go through the stress of planning one. The event is also to help create an environment where people connect and collaborate in a way that brings value to their businesses. It is carefully curated to include a 3-course meal, quality entertainment and to create an environment to promote meaningful connections and collaborations. People connect and reconnect business partnerships are created. These are some of the testimonials of some of our attendees.  The Unofficial Christmas Party” is in its 9th year and 7th edition due to Covid and is highly acclaimed as “The Best Corporate Party Night of the Year!”
2020 hits everybody hard. We didn’t have the Unofficial Christmas Party. Last year a few people came out and were doing a party. We were being very sensitive some people weren’t sure and others trying to recover. At the moment I feel there is a balance. We are coming out after a two-year break. There is a lot to be grateful for at the end of the year. You have a lot to thank people for, clients, and staff despite facing economic hardship.
We have a theme for this year’s Christmas Party. It’s the colour edition. This year we want to play with colour. We want to show that colour is fun. The dress code is monochrome, we want to make sure that whatever outfit you are wearing should be one colour. If you are wearing a red jacket, for instance, everything should be red, your shirt, trousers, shoes, everything must be red, your hair can be red if you want. It’s the elements of colour, we just want people to have a great time, normally people wear suit black and white.
 
Why Christmas? There are lots of festivities that you can create space for the event. Tells us the idea behind your choosing Christmas.
It’s the end of the year, people work from January to December. It’s natural for people to get their heads down in December. People take stock, I made a lot of money or I did not at the end of the year. It’s an end-of-year thing. It’s yuletide, a festive season.
 
How many companies have shown interest in this year’s Christmas party?
Companies that had attended it in the past and new companies have equally shown interest, they would all be part of this year’s party. 
 
What were you doing before you venture into event management?
I am an operations person. I love to build structures, and secondly, I can freely do much, anything that has to do with solving a problem. I used to just be that person that fixed things, I have always been resourceful, and creative and I love structure. My mother had a school I was managing for her. I had helped my mom run her schools for years, pretty much like the head of operations. I have also tried my hands on some retail. I love creativity and strategy, but I’m also very interested and involved in the execution. I’m driven by creating solutions and not just dwelling on issues.
Although I study Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Lagos. I see myself as an enhancer, I just love making things better than I met them. That is what drives my enthusiasm.
 
You have a background in mathematics and architecture, but you are now in event production and management. What informed the switch?
I wouldn’t call it a switch but a natural progression. If you are asking how I found myself in this space, I would say I am obsessed with problem-solving and just generally making things better.
I am passionate about elevating simple gatherings into extraordinary experiences for both client and their audiences. I am passionate about what I do. Whether in connecting people, generally being resourceful or ensuring people experience life-changing events, or creating processes and systems that make this possible, you’ll find me there.
So, I strongly believe event design and production are one of the many other things I could be doing. If you need these same skills applied to anything else, I would be equally good at it I think.
 
Tell us more about your background and growing up what was it like?
I lived in Ibadan. My primary and secondary school was in Ibadan. Shortly after I went to UNILAG where I studied Maths and Statistics, before I gained admission into UNILAG I did a little bit of Architecture at the University of Ilorin.
 
Did you study a course related to event management?
No.  I am what they call a self-motivated event planner. I study on my own, went for courses, and read books but studied Mathematics and Statistics. I got the experience from the job.
 
When people seek event planners what advice do you give to people on event management?
It’s not restricted to event management. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says I am a doctor or lawyer, they get professional training and become certified. For event planning, people should be trained. This is on the clients you have to learn to get the right information. Ask the right questions this has to do with clients. They need to do background checks and not believe everything they see on Instagram because anybody can post on IG. You can post a picture of an event and it looks amazing but it is only those who are there can tell you they waited for four hours before I was fed. You can’t see that on Instagram, you can see lovely photos but the other things that are behind. When you approach an event planner ask the right questions and dig deep, get referrals and hopefully, you can get a good one.
 
Would you have had it easier if you were a man?
I know that women are being marginalized, and I know that women are restricted in a lot of ways. Some by society or cultural norms. Sometimes it is the women themselves based on their mindsets. The way you were brought up, depends on who brought you up. If you were among siblings of men, did they encourage you or made you a back seat? Sometimes you go to a home where you have three boys and a girl and after eating they tell the girl to clear the plates, and wash the dishes, while the guys go and play. I know that society is truly not balanced. However, I feel one should be so good at what they do and gender does not matter. If you present excellent work to any organisation or anyone excellent is what they are looking for. I don’t think anyone would look at you and say, despite the excellence, you are a woman. I will go for a job that is not as good as yours because you are a woman. I don’t think anybody would do that and if they do that, they did not deserve you in the first place. 

You have been connecting brands, what is your unique selling point that has sustained your patronage?
Over time we have been able to establish excellence. People want the good stuff. I find out that money is tough. It’s the value they want, you see someone who would tell you I can’t afford this bag. This bag is N10,000 but would go and buy a designer bag that cost N50,000. The one with higher quality would last longer, even if it is costly. People prefer to invest in something that has more quality and lasts longer than placing their cash in low-quality products that would spoil easily. It’s a measure of value, I think the clients consistently come back because they know that value would be achieved and the ability to interpret what a client wants is another thing that has given us leverage. Clients kept coming back because we truly did actually what they desired. We equally ensure they have positive returns on investment. If you are spending money at an event, there is something that you want to achieve, and once you are satisfied, you add value at the end of the day.
 
You emphasized the way male and female children are raised, do you think that society needs to domesticate how the boy child is raised to prevent floods of irresponsible fathers in society?
The male and female children should be raised properly. Teaching house chores and other morals should be given to both boys and girls. No preferences, you can’t afford to ask one of the genders to do domestic chores, why does the other sex go and play football? No, it doesn’t work that way. There are a lot of male chefs presently in society and they are doing fantastic with their chosen careers. They cook very well. So if you have a boy child, don’t prevent him from doing chores, because you never know what profession the child would grow up to be. We have female footballers who are doing so well.