Yishak Zelleke is our events manager here at Prologue. Joining us 3 years ago, Yishak has proven himself before coming on board with our team. Being in the event management business for the past 10 years, he has seen the different angles that one could do for events. He’s seen it all, from how an event can go wrong, to how an event can be put together so beautifully. We sat down with Yishak and asked him a few questions to get to know how events are handled a little better.
Seema: What do you think is the most difficult thing when it comes to creating an event?
Yishak: It depends, if you’re the one who’s going to be creating the event from scratch or if you’re given a brief from a client.
Seema: Okay, so let’s say you get a brief from a client. What would be the most difficult thing?
Yishak: Getting the proper brief. Because what they give you defines and determines what the output is going to be. You can come up with the ideas, different brilliant ideas, but if it doesn’t make sense for the client or doesn’t go with the brief they’ve given you; it’s not going to matter. Plus, if they give you a bad brief sometimes, they just say “we want a premium event for our product blah blah blah” and they expect you to come up with it. They don’t tell you who their target group is, they don’t give you the message they want to give out to the people, they don’t give you any type of direction on the event they want, they just say “I want to have a conference”. Of what is the next question, and they don’t even know that. So when they brief you, if it’s not detailed enough, it’s going to be very hectic. There is going to be a lot of back and forth, which is going to takes a lot of resources, a lot of time.
Seema: So, the main point is, to make sure the brief is detailed enough to carry on the project?
Yishak: Yes. It can’t be a bad brief.
Seema: Alright, so question number two: What’s a perfect event in your eyes? Whether it’s for football, or music, or food, etc.?
Yishak: There’s no such thing as a perfect event. There are perfectly run events, but then again, there’s no such thing as a perfectly run event. You should try to at least, at least make 80% to 90% of what you planned to do happen. If you can’t hit the minimum of 80%, that’s a bad event. Whether it’s a premium event, whether it’s an event in a bar, whether it’s an event for everyone, whether it’s a concert, you should always aim to ensure 80% of what you planned gets done.
Seema: So, aiming for 80% should be a bare minimum for anybody?
Yishak: Correct, and if you can’t achieve more than 90% then it’s not the worst thing to happen. If anything it’s amazing it worked out that well.
Seema: That sounds solid. The third question is: What do you think is most crucial in running a successful events company? And why?
Yishak: The most crucial is your team. You have to have a very good team. By the way, planning an event is not something that you learn in school or anything, it’s what you learn through experience. You have to have passion. Unless you love doing events, event planning and executing is not for everyone. It’s not something that you just go into and do, you have to have the passion. You have to have the drive, you have to be flexible, you have to be open to ideas, you have to be able to come up with new ideas because you can’t repeat what you’ve done in previous events. So your team needs to be able to do at least some of that, not everything. Your team needs to be good with ideas, flexible with time, flexible with what they do, and what they want to do. They have to be determined, they have to be go-getters. So the first thing that you need to have is a very good team. It’s not about finances, it’s not about resources, it’s about the team.
Seema: So as long as you have a solid team, anything is possible?
Yishak: Not everything is possible, there are outside factors that could affect the team. But the team needs to be able to work around it. But in hindsight, yes, anything is possible.
Seema: Alright, so the next question: If you could change anything about how events managing operates in Ethiopia, what would it be?
Yishak: Event management in Ethiopia is very difficult, because what clients want and what the public wants are completely different. The public is still a very traditional society. You can’t just bring in a virtual reality event or a hybrid event to this society, everyone will just be like “what the heck is this?” There’s a very niche market that wants these things. So what I would change is introducing new ideas and new technology into event management, especially when we do events. But the thing is they’re very expensive. Your clients will say “What? No? Are you trying to rob me?” They’ll want to stick to the traditional things that we do. So, if we can get into the more technologically advanced event management ways (not just event management but also into the events itself) or as long as we try to incorporate some type of technological advancement in them, that’s something I would love to see. That’s something I’d want to change. That’s what we’re trying to do at Prologue as well. Whenever we have events, we try to bring in some technologically advanced things, but as I said before, it’s up to the clients at the end of the day.
Seema: Well hopefully we’ll get to see that one day. Okay and now the final question: What’s the best part about working in events?
Yishak: The end of the event. Seriously, when I used to do concerts, the only time I used to enjoy it is when the last act goes on stage. So, even right now, the most satisfying part of the event is either the last presenter, or the last award, or the last singer going on stage. It’s the last 5 minutes, knowing that you made it happen, know that you finished it. That’s the best part of doing an event.
Seema: Well thank you for your time. I hope to see more technology in our events in the future.
Yishak: No problem and I hope to see it too.
Thank you to Yishak for taking the time to sit down with us for a few minutes to give his perspective on events management. If you enjoyed this post, there’ll be more interviews coming soon. Don’t forget to subscribe!