Ezekiel Adamu: Revolutionising the Event Management Industry

Ezekiel Adamu, Chief Executive Officer Of Balmoral Group, a major event company in West Africa, is a serial entrepreneur, investor and visionary whose professional profile embodies excellence, vision, and an unfaltering commitment to exceptional service delivery. His true passion and entrepreneurial spirit inspired him to build the Balmoral brand, through which he displays his commitment to using technology for streamlined operations, seamless experiences, and wider audience engagement while shaping the event management industry. In this interview, MARY NNAH, the Balmoral boss, revealed how in the last 16 years, he has nurtured Balmoral into a successful brand that now encompasses over five prestigious event venues in Lagos

Balmoral Group started 16 years ago. What has the journey been like?

16 years journey means that we have had a lot of ups and down like any other business. However, it has been a worthwhile journey, I wouldn’t have asked for another path.

You didn’t start with the hospitality industry but you immersed yourself into it at a point in your life. What was the driving force?

I have always been involved in events even from my childhood, especially during my university days when we organise and attend parties and all that. So, event has always been something I was fascinated by. However, I only worked with a company called Schlumberger Nigeria and it was just for a year. That was after my University and immediately delved into events which I love. And I feel fortunate that I am being paid for something I love and enjoy doing.

What was your first outing like?

The first venue we ever had was the Balmoral Hall, Oregun, which started about 16 years ago but like I said earlier, nothing ever comes easy. It took us a whole year to even get our first-ever customer. And at that time we started 16 years ago, people were not conversant with using venues in this part of the world. It was either they used school premises or they used their streets for parties and all of that until Governor Fashola came band people from holding parties on the streets and main roads and that was when everybody started considering events venues. Even at a time when people would rather use their homes for parties, they found that when they use their homes for parties, sometimes it took them months to fix their homes back to normal. They would later prefer going to event venues doing whatever they needed to do and going back home peacefully.

It’s been a journey for the past 16 years and every time something is changing and things are evolving as we go along. And what keeps us afloat is our innovation as well. We believe in innovation. The definition of insanity, for us, is to be doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. So every time, we change things. I also enjoy travelling a lot and that means that I learn international best practices and come and apply them to what I do. So, it is a continuous journey, we are not yet there but we will keep pushing.

Looking back at the past 15 years, what would you say that you have done differently from when you started?

I have never done the same thing every year. It has always been changed every year. And due to this, people say I get bored so easily but it is not because I get bored, but it is just because you have to disrupt yourself all the time. I enjoy travelling a lot and I learn what they are doing in the developed world and then come home to apply the things I learn.

Over the years, you have proved yourself to be an accomplished serial entrepreneur with a remarkable track record of success in event management. So, now, what are you doing to groom young people who intend to toe your path?

Like in every business, you would always have people that work with you. And we have a track record. For us, we grow entrepreneurs. And I can tell you that a lot of people that have worked with us over the years have also gone ahead to start their businesses and are all successful in that line of business. I feel that we are building leaders in this field. They learn how to become entrepreneurs and eventually become entrepreneurs.

We are also looking at Balmoral School of Event, where we take people in. They work with us for a while and we train them while we also get professionals to train them and eventually they grow and start their businesses as well.

We are also partnering with major cooperation as well so that people who get their certificates from us can also go and work with this cooperation and can also go to the banks and get loans based on the fact that they have certification from us so that they can get startups to their businesses.

Aside from Balmoral Group, what else are you involved in?

Balmora is a group of companies and we have a network of venues. I think we have the largest network of venues in West Africa. We also have live at Balmoral, which creates events and one of the events we created last year was Wonderland Lagos. As I mentioned earlier, we are also into hospitality and in hospitality, we have a place called Villa Valhalla. Villa Valhalla is a hospitality business that we started a year ago. We are also delving into the Technology sector. We are bringing in Technology to bring solutions. Event is about bringing solutions and now we are working on Technology to bring that solution to events where it drives out the cost and also opens other businesses to a larger network of customers.

Can you share some of the challenges you have faced in the past 16 years?

One of the biggest challenges, for me, will be the people side of things – I mean getting the right people. Events are passion, until recently that schools get into it. Hence the reason why we feel like coming up with the right qualifications and that is why we are looking at going into the Balmoral School of Event, where it automatically becomes the solution for not just our own business but also other businesses too.

For the Balmoral event and the rest, do you have a target audience?

Our target is individuals, corporate bodies, governments, NGOs and many more. Anybody that wants to do any event, we are your go-to people. We have done events for ECOWAS, African Union; we have moved around and have even done events outside of the country. So, yes, we are versed when it comes to events.

How affordable are you?

We have a network of venues; we have venues that cater to the lower end and we also have venues that cater to the premium and the highest class. So we verse when it comes to providing to the needs of our customers. We have the largest network of venues in the whole of West Africa as a single company, so we are looking to cater to everyone.

When in past years will you describe as your most memorable moment?

When I think about the moment that strike me the most is actually when one of our venues caught fire. That was our Balmoral Oregun event centre and by then we had only one venue. So if I were to think back, I will think that era was actually like a turning point for us when it comes to events because when it happened, we had to rebuild the venue and after rebuilding, we never looked back. From there, having just one venue that caught fire and moving to where we now have a network of about five venues and we are still growing. One of our newest venues coming up soon is Balmoral Convention Centre, Sheraton. So, we have been growing and growing ever since we had that incident.

What other further plans do you have for your numerous clients in Africa and the world over?

They should expect innovations, intentional practices; something new and refreshing at all times. If you had an event with us last year and you come back to us this year, we would always come up with new trends. We would be following international trends. You can trust that definitely, we are one company that will not rest on our oars but will keep renovating and keep improving.

Can we talk a bit about your growing up and childhood fantasies?

I grew up in a family where the father was into sporting events and with such, you know we would travel a lot. So, I was fortunate enough to go around the whole world with my father to see how things are done out there. And I think that is where my love for events started at a very young age. I had the opportunity to go to different kinds of events in countries with different cultures. And for me, I feel fortunate that I am doing something that I love doing and when people are paying you for something you enjoy doing, it doesn’t feel like work. For me, work could be unwinding.

So, from childhood, you had this fascination for creating things. One would have thought that you would go to school and study a course that is related to hospitality. But you didn’t. Rather, you went far apart.

Yes, I went into something completely different. I studied Computer Science at the University of Luton (now called Bedfordshire). So, for that one, it was satisfying my parents. However, as I said, I am a graduate of Computer Science and now we are sort of coming back to the technology age and at Balmoral, we are trying to see how we can infuse technology into events, especially.

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