The inaugural edition of the Wish Africa Expo, held at London’s Kensington
Olympia on June 8th and 9th, was an assembly of high-profile guest speakers from
art experts to a diplomat, from fashion designers to food and hospitality
professionals, as well as from tech and tourism.
Wish Africa Expo is described by its founder Omolola Emerua-Taiwo as “an annual
travelling expo” with subsequent editions to be held in different global cities.
The opening talk was by the Harriet Baldwin, UK’s minister for Africa and minister
of state for international relations, who detailed her country’s plans to expand its
trade and diplomatic relationship on the continent.
The celebrated British-Nigerian artist Yinka Shonibare and his team of architects
Elise Owosu and Papa Omotayo presented plans for a commercial cultural centre
and an all-in-one artist residency, studio and gallery in Lagos, Nigeria described
by Owosu as a place for “congregation and performance”.
Helen Jennings, the British editor of Nataal – a multimedia culture publication –
led a panel of some of the most exciting African fashion designers in Tokyo James
(Nigeria), Laduma Ngxokolo (South Africa), Ayango Mpinga (Kenya) and
Fatim-Zahra Ettalbi (Morocco) on discussions about their practice and the
growth of African luxury fashion. In an interview with a CNN reporter,
Abdesselam Aboudrar, the Moroccan ambassador to the UK spoke in depth abouthis country’s “competitive advantage” and success in tourism (reportedly 12
million visitors in 2018).
The success of the expo lies in the sensible curation of a star studded list of
guest-speakers which, in the UK, is only matched by TEDxEuston, the decidedly
pan-African convention of its type.
The closing talk titled “Investing in Dangote” was chaired by Abimbola
Ogunbanjo, the President of the National Council of The Nigerian Stock Exchange
who interviewed Tosin Adeyinka, the head of operations at the conglomerate in
place of its proprietor Aliko Dangote. In a wide ranging talk about the business
interests and philosophy of the world’s “richest black man”, Adeyinka elaborated
on the company’s current plans to complete a colossal petrochemical complex
which will include a fertiliser plant and petroleum refinery.
Guardian Newspaper’s contributor Sabo Kpade interviewed the founder of Wish
Africa Expo, Omolola Emerua Taiwo, at the London venue about aims and
objectives of the two day expo.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
—
Kpade: Why was it important to have a mix of speakers from different
industries, rather than focus on one sector?
Emerua-Taiwo: Where the idea for the expo came about was because we cover
sector specific events and it’s something that I attend personally, it’s something a
lot of our collaborators feedback on. It was always the same people at theseindustry specific events and it becomes siloed. So I thought it would be good for
everybody to be in the same place. They get to meet, they get to discuss intra-
industry and see how we can partner in development.
Kpade: The list of guest speakers is quite impressive for any one operator in
any industry to assemble in one event. Is this the result of professional
relationships you’ve developed over time?
Emerua-Taiwo: Definitely. There are a lot of personal relationships I’ve built over
the years because all those people have gone on to other places. As a media
platform we [Wish Africa] cover a lot of other people’s events for instance 1-54
Contemporary African Art Fair as well as Vlisco. So it’s been things like that
helped to pull everything together.
Kpade: Is Wish Africa Expo the most prominent event under your Wish Africa
media platform?
Emerua-Taiwo: It is the biggest, single activation because of the funds required,
the personnel required but the most consistent thing that we are is a media
platform.
Kpade: Could you share with us some of the planning that went into organising
this first edition of Wish Africa Expo?
Emerua-Taiwo: It has been about two and a half years since I first thought about
who is going to speak, what they’re going to speak about, what it’s going to look
like, what are we going to cover, where’s it going to be. Yes, it took some timebut I think now that we have a formula and a proof of concept, rolling it out in
other cities will be a lot easier.
Kpade: Managing a two day event of this size is no small task yet Wish Africa
Expo is also a travelling expo. Do you have a team in place to carry out such a
huge task?
Emerua-Taiwo: Yes, so Wish Africa is the media marketing arm of our consultancy
firm and our consultancy firm does things like event coordination. So we did late
stage coordination for an event called the African Culture Design Festival in
Nigeria and the Nigerian Arts Exchange for the Nigerian embassy in Paris. So we
have some experience coordinating things.
Kpade: Why a two-day weekend expo rather than one-day favoured by TED
talks and other such platforms for sharing ideas?
Emerua-Taiwo: This is the smallest version of what we hoped to do. Our initial
plans were probably five times this size.
Has this come from your personal way of planning or an agreed approached
with a team?
It is generally how my brain works. I take an idea and blow it up to what is the
biggest and best thing we can do. I think when you’re (one) doing an event
outside your country of residence and (two) when it’s your first time, you want it
to be on a scale where you can execute it well.