Kehinde Onabanjo-Iyiola is the creative Director of Finesse Events, an upscale event management company, and The White Stone, a pristine event centre for luxury social and corporate events. In the last sixteen years, she has dominated the events management and decoration sector in Nigeria. Onabanjo-Iyiola boasts of a rich clientele that includes royalties and politicians. Her entry into the event management space changed the headlines and her reputation as a formidable manager of events is legendary. She deploys an amazing precision and attention to detail that results in the complete transformation of any space into a spectacular setting. Over the years she has stamped her foot in the event planning and management industry through Finesse Events and The White Stone which started as a planning a decoration company. For this graduate of law, whose services have expanded to rentals and a training school, her dream is to see the two brands become household names within and beyond Nigeria. She barred her mind to Esther Onyegbula.

How would you describe this journey from when you started till now?
Event planning is a process journey. It is like when you give birth to a child; the child begins to sit, and starts to crawl before walking and running. You can imagine what a child born sixteen years ago can do now. We have had our teething years, our crawling years and now we have our standing years.

I started off Finesse Events in 2008, the first event after registering my event company was my elder sister’s wedding. Her wedding gave me about five other events as all her friends got hooked, that was how it started.

You have handled so many landmark events that opened up other events. Can you mention some of them?
Indeed, we have handled many landmark events that opened up a lot of other events. One of such events was the coronation of the Ojora of Ijora, Oba Fatai Aremu Aromire. I remember that while preparing for that event, the organizing committee had loads of vendors that were bidding to get the job.

But the then chairman of Apapa Local Government Council, Mr. Ayo Joseph, (whose wedding I had also handled after my sister’s wedding, and who has always pushed Finesse Events forward for every event), had insisted that the coronation was going to be handled by us. Initially, one of the members of the organizing committee, Otunba Dapo Alli-Balogun, who is the Oba’s cousin, had expressed his reservation about the event being given to us. According to him, he had not seen any of our jobs. But as God would have it, we got the brief to execute the job.

Among all the jobs you have handled, which would you say posed as the most challenging for you?
For me, it’s really not the job; it has to be the client. There are some clients that can be difficult to handle, and there are some that see and appreciate the value in what you deliver. I recall one particular event. We handled the birthday event of Governor Makinde’s father.

Some years later, the old man died and we handled the burial ceremony, which had over 3000 guests in attendance. Governor Makinde was so impressed with the service we delivered that he sent me a cash gift to express his appreciation. I felt fulfilled because I saw the gesture as an expression of a true reward for labor. Meanwhile, there are some clients one would probably have made the same sacrifice for, put in so much effort to satisfy, and they will be unappreciative.

You have organized events for some high and mighty in Nigeria, from business to social, corporate events, so what is the difference between working with a governor and working with a regular Nigerian who just wants your services and can afford it?
Different clients have different expectations, however when they are government officials, it is not even about them. It is about the committee or whatever group that they would have created to work with you, who all want an input. It’s also not even about the individual person, but about the caliber of people attending the event.

There are some other simple individuals that you know won’t break a sweat, they are just very smooth while there are others that want extra, extra, extra in terms of their events. So depending on the personality of the person we are dealing with, we ensure that we deliver to their expectations.

When you look back at those years, what would have been done differently?
I don’t have regrets, I try to make my decisions carefully because I am very calculative and so I like to plan ahead to avoid mistakes.

Let’s look at the Nigerian event planning business: how did COVID-19 impact the industry?
Because we were creative, during COVID-19, we made a lot of money. We had to come up with different inventions to be relevant. We were doing house parties and charging clients for house party decorations. Because we were creative we charged the same fare for what we charge for a big garden of about 1000 people. So, we were converting house space, car park, garage, into like a mini event space for 50 people for 60 people.

We converted their dining room into a mini ballroom; where we had to put large screens into the garden area, you know, put up lounge chairs, and mix it up with tables. We created beautiful experiences for families. It gave us room to showcase our creativity. And when people experienced one of our parties, they would invite us to organize theirs so we had a lot of clients.

Do you think the Nigeria events planning business has grown from where it used to be?
Yes, the Nigerian event planning industry has grown, we have made huge progress. Nigeria events can stand at par with international events, because we are very creative. However we don’t have the resources they have, in terms of the fee charges.

We don’t charge close to what they charge abroad. Abroad, you pay for the time, you pay for the conceptualization, you pay for the service, and you pay more if the numbers increase. And because there are a lot of event planners, most people just want to grab the jobs they can, so it makes the pricing competitive. So there is no standard.

We used to have so many quack event planners in the industry, how was it sanitized?
Time happened to the industry; over time people were able to differentiate event planners from gate crashers. Once you have been tested and trusted, you get referrals as your job speaks volume. Years back we had people in the industry, who have fizzled out because they had lies embedded into whatever they were doing.

You can only stay relevant in the industry when clients experience the outstanding service you provide. So time and space differentiate genuine event planners from the rest.

What makes the services you provide unique?
We go extra, extra mile, we ensure that we over deliver. From everything on the list, we would agree we would do, but we will go beyond what was agreed.

So, if we agreed with the client to deliver 60 chairs, we would probably deliver 80 chairs. And because everybody likes freebies they are happy. When a client sees what they’ve not paid for, they are impressed. So having to go the extra mile for every client makes our services unique.

What is your advice to young persons who wants to come into the event planning industry?
Let your passion drive you, because there are times, when jobs won’t pay, it is passion that would help you to be creative. Your passion would help you to go the extra, extra mile. Keep giving value; keep pushing, one day it will make sense.

Is the government doing enough to empower the industry?
The government is not doing enough; the government should be more supportive. The government should open platforms for entrepreneurs to showcase their creative talent, in terms of beautification, of gardens and parks.

What would you say has been the lessons you have learned, either from challenges or from opportunities?
I have learned that if you’re able to maintain good relationships, the sky’s your limit. Also don’t promise what you know you cannot deliver. There’s nothing called pressure, rush. Whatever that has been delayed is what eventually becomes a pressure situation.

Avoid procrastination, whatever you need to do, get on it, like now. If you don’t procrastinate, you will be able to do more. The only person you can actually trust is yourself. People will definitely come and people will go, those who will stay with you would have shown you from day one that they are loyal.

So, don’t place too much of emotions or attachment on people or even on things because what you have today may not be there tomorrow. If you put material things over people, by the time you have those material things, life is seasonal.

Life is in phases, you have those seasons that you have in abundance, and you have those seasons when you don’t. If you are too excited about the aura of the moment, you definitely lose the essence of that moment.

Would you say your law background has helped you run your business better?
Yes, it has to some extent, but I will say my family background in terms of my mother has helped me run my business efficiently. My mother helped us to understand how to manage resources, and not to be wasteful. I have been able to mind my business.

Cover what needs to be covered. And of course in due time, when it needs to be unfolded, it would. Also being in my own space has helped me, you know, through the years.

How well do you engage in empowering and training other young entrepreneurs, as a way of impacting humanity?
I do a lot of empowerment and training. I am also in partnership with a couple of organizations, and we do a lot of empowerment for women. For the event space, I do training for people that desire to learn decorations and event management, which explains why we have a training school, and presently, we have a project on empowering women.

I have some people, whom God has given me the grace to sponsor their education. I do not need to announce this. However, I try as much as possible to be a blessing to people in terms of having to train them in the area I specialize in. The women empowerment programme we are doing now cuts across skills acquisition.