Things I learned organising my first large scale event a) FOR KIDS b) IN TANZANIA this May
1, The kids don’t judge you for anything, they are so happy and satisfied by just the existence of the event itself - made me think at what age did I start building up all those expectations … 🥲 💯Most grateful and rewarding audience to build for!
2, organising my first event in Tanzania felt like organising my first event ever - when you organise events your network is your team. In The Netherlands everyone was one call away. In Tanzania - I was calling everyone for the first time. With my limited Kiswahili, everything took much longer, which was at times pretty frustrating. Luckily
@angiemuka joined me and dragged my ass out of the gutter! 🙏🏼
3, When you are doing something no one has done before - like for example bringing together 30 different schools in school busses from 5 different locations - expect to navigate the most unexpected situations, which you couldn’t predict, prevent nor is there an immediate solution - because no one has done it before. You build on the go. And sometimes those hard things are just redirections to something even greater ✨
4, In Tanzania, people aren’t comfortable to say ‘no’ - so they will say ‘yes no problem’ but what they really mean is ‘not happening and I am not even going to come’ … a Tanzanian can tell: ‘That was a clear no’ although the person literally said ‘yes’. I am still learning… 😅 We decided it’s better that
@jiganatra handles all negotiations cause I am used to the Dutch directness and that simply doesn’t work here
5, In The Netherlands we used to organise things way ahead of time. In fact, the earlier you confirm things the better. In Tanzania, time flows differently. The whole perception of time is different. It’s not linear. People don’t feel urgency the way we feel it in Europe. Asking service providers for quotes or information 2 months before the event was in many cases too early and perceived as unusual and unnecessary. “Call us 2 weeks before the event and we’ll talk then” 🤓
Lots of learnings and sleepless nights later, we managed to build an absolutely amazing event! 💪🏻💪🏼💪🏽💪🏾💪🏿
