Event Professional Across Africa Converge on Nigeria

Mary Nnah

Event professionals across Africa had an unforgettable experience during the recently concluded The Event  Xperience Africa (TEXA) 2023 held in Lagos.

Convener and MD/CEO of Zapphaire Events, Funke Bucknor-Obruthe, said the inspiration behind TEXA,  an annual gathering of event professionals across Africa, was the need for her to see people, especially from Africa learn.

“Bringing together people from diverse countries and cultures to learn and impart knowledge is my ultimate goal for this event. And there is also networking.

“You can experience the opportunity of meeting people from different parts of Africa. We often have not had the opportunity to attend these conferences, so it is almost like bringing the conference to people.”

Speaking further on the event which targeted people in the creative industry, particularly the event industry, she said, “I am an event planner and I have been planning events for like 20 years now and for me, I just thought the industry needed the opportunity for us to be able to learn, engage and collaborate and that is what we have done with TeXA 2023″.

For the event, which had in attendance over six Francophone countries and from different parts of Nigeria, she expected that people go away with knowledge having known that something had impacted their businesses to grow bigger.

“This is more than just a conference. I travel around the world for many conferences yet no conferences are available for us as Africans in Africa. This vision will not stop and we hope that through it, all creatives in the event industry gain access and knowledge to enhance and build their dreams”.

Noting that the theme for this year is the reset, Bunknor- Obruthe, said, “You can reset by totally shooting down and changing direction. You can reset in different ways- in technology, invention, reinvention, and so on or even just getting up again.”