With the entertainment industry still closed and key players not thrilled about this festive season, Matooke Republic had a chat with one of Uganda’s biggest event organizers; Humble Management Director, Solomon Mayanja Xavier, about the future of events and how he is planning to celebrate his Christmas.
Who is Xavier?
Xavier is also known as Solomon Mayanja, an entrepreneur with experience in events transformation and automation. He has been managing various projects in Marketing, advertising, and organizing events for clients in Uganda. His passion to achieve an understanding of the industry makes him an asset to Humble Management.
When and why did you decide to venture into events as an organizer?
What we are known for as our cash cow is Events but Humble Management Limited is a regional, integrated, sales engagement/Promotions & marketing agency with unparalleled full service.
Our infrastructure offers Marketing, Media/Advertising, Digital communication, product development, strategy branding, content/creative.
Though artistes’ management from way back such as Maro and Nutty Neithan gave a sense of belief and direction towards events organization.
What are the basic requirements of starting up an events company?
I would say, different aspects and basic requirements differ from the vision and mission of a person. Many have started out planning events for other companies before deciding to go into business for themselves. But all in all, there are those basics that cut across. One, you must register and operate as a legal entity, two, you must define your niche (clients) and direction then the rest will unfold along the way.
How many people do you employ?
I love teamwork and try as much as possible to avoid boss – employment gap, we call ourselves workmates/team, we are a team of 7 directly attached to Humble Management but beneficiaries once we are executing (temporary employees) the number is in hundreds.
How much capital did you invest at the start?
Humble Management has directors and, I am the Managing Director. I didn’t invest entirely alone something that I am very proud of is that we started this with other like-minded young investors with registration by then I think it was at Shs150,000-Shs200,000.
Was the capital a donation of a sort or it was your savings?
It was a contribution from each one’s pocket, what we had at a time.
How much do you charge to organize an event?
It depends on the kind of event but we charge favourable prices.
Event organizers have been one of the most affected people with COVID-19 guidelines, how have you endured the situation?
When we went into lockdown, we had two events already in the pipeline and we lost money. However, I thank my teammates who didn’t wipe but stood up and saw an opportunity in creative and digital communications which we embarked on since then and it’s promising.
We have also survived on executing virtual events for clients and invested heavily in the equipment to compete favourably in delivering live streams and social events like weddings.
How prepared are you since the President announced that the entire economy will be open in January 2022?
We can’t say that we prepared because we don’t expect to get excited to do events with no money. We are still studying the situation because it’s one thing being prepared to organize mass events it’s another for the mass to get back to such events; there are so many pressing needs for our revellers for them to come on board easily.
Before Covid, how many events would you organize during the festive season?
Covid-19 was a stopper. I was used to more than ten events during December but this time I have none.
How do you see the future of events?
I do believe this is temporary and when it’s all over, people will find it wonderful to be able to meet each other face-to-face. There will be an event boom, where both organizers and participants are active.
What lessons have you learnt from these Covid situations?
Covid was just a spice to the situation and an eye-opener to many that we should wake up and embrace new channels of business
God First, God in the Middle, God Last
How are you planning to celebrate this year’s Christmas?
There is nothing more to celebrate about this year’s Christmas since the economy is not favourable to us. So, I will go to church to thank God for his protection throughout the year, that is all.