Event planning is my passion – Amaka John, Amitouch MD

Amaka John is the Managing Director Amitouch Global Concepts Limited. A big name in events and marketing communication industry. She has handled some many events for both government, international organizations, MDAs and individuals.

Amaka who is of the conviction that women can really make a difference in all life endeavours stated that event management should be all about money, but creating value for client and seeing the event being successful.

In this interview with Peoples Daily Ochiaka Ugwu, she bared her mind on event planning and why women should strive to achieve success irrespective of their gender. 

Can we meet you Madam?

My name is Amaka John, Managing Director of Amitouch Global Concepts Limited. it is a 360-degree events and marketing Communication agency. We handle events for organizations, companies, government parastatals and individuals.

What is event planning all about?

It has been a lot of work. For me, event is a hubby. In as much as I know, nobody does business to lose. I always look out for success each time I engage any organization. We always make sure we get the best out of any event and create value for our clients.

We work all over Nigeria and we have handled events of big magnitude. We are all over the country and thrive more with our staff who are very active and can work without supervision. We just successfully handled a big event in Bauchi and Borno. We work pan Nigeria.

What made you stand out among other event planners in Nigeria?

First, we always give our events a touch of specialty with hard work and resourcefulness. We put excellence in all we do and ensure quality delivery in all our activities. We render quality service for the clients before we look at the financial implication of it. For every client we work for, every event we organize, it always brings us jobs. It is simple, our excellent works sell us to the public. We always work to impress both the clients and participants as well.

No matter the stress I go through organizing any event, my aim is always to satisfy the client and participants as well. This has made us standout among other event planners and has really made us popular.

Do you intend to collaborate with government or other big organizations?

We always intend to collaborate with government, companies and individuals as well given the fact that we have a lot of ideas on what we can actually do to better our lots. We have worked on nutrition, educational related programs with different schools. Imagine us working with Ministry of Education now, we have ideas on a lot of things that can be done in the school space. A kind of “Catch Them Young” activity, there are things you can take into school space and you begin to groom people from the beginning before they leave the space. I went to one State, in a primary school and I saw an entrepreneurship class taught as subject. In as much as it is good to teach that, it will also be good for them to learn from people who had gone through the experience. Doing that only will make them to know the theoretical aspect of it. They need to practicalize what they have learnt and put it in their everyday life.

We can partner government in doing a lot of things that will greatly impact on individual life and open a lot of opportunity for the young generation. We have a lot of concepts and we have the capacity to coordinate it all over the country for the good of all through collaboration with government. We focus on professional delivery at all times. Most of the times, we don’t look at the money, we execute the job, submit report before any other thing.

What are the challenges?

Running an event company is not always an easy task. In as much as you want to deliver a quality job, manpower and professionalism come to play. Most times you will want to duplicate yourself in other people that work with you. You need to train and retrain your staff to make them suitable for the challenges. Manpower is a big issue and you must live up to the expectation. Another area of challenge is funding which we are beginning to overcome. You know it is not easy to get funds in this part of the world. At the beginning, it wasn’t easy, funding was part of the challenges we faced, but we have sorted it out. All other challenges are just secondary which can be solved with little coordination.

Can you speak on some of the projects you executed?

I have handled a lot of projects that are too numerous to recall or count. I did ECOWAS Nutrition Forum in Nigeria where we had people from ECOWAS countries. It was a big one and the event was held in Abuja. After that, we did ECOWAS Ministers’ Forum, where we had all the Health Ministers from ECOWAS nations in attendance

in Abuja. Last year, we did the Minister’s Retreat, it was a huge event held in Bauchi. We also held National Council for Health Programme, we had over 1000 medical doctors in attendance in Maiduguri. They are verifiable and we put all our events in our website: Amitouch.com and IG Handle: @amitouchevents. We handled programmes for Nutrition International, USAID, UNICEF and host of others.

After every programme, we do a kind of post mortem to assess the whole event. we do quality control analysis by sitting down to do an overall assessment of the activities. The truth remains that when you are handling event, you are dealing with people from diverse background with different characters and expectations. You need to go to your situation room to assess the whole situation and know how far you have faired in meeting the aspiration and yearning of these individuals. You will also learn how to improve on your services after every event. It will also help you to bring out solution on how to treat every situation based on your evaluation.

However, the fact remains that we have been getting commendation from our clients and individual participants alike praising our conducts. Event is too stressful and if you do it for business and money alone, you may find it difficult to succeed. That is why I said it is a hubby for me first and that is why we put out our best in any event we are organizing.

Have you ever handled international event?

We have the capacity to handle international event. the ECOWAS event was an international event only that it was held in Nigeria. I will tell you that if we are invited to handle event outside Nigeria, we have the capacity to do it with our international partners.

What advice do you have for Nigerian Women?

I want say that Nigeria women are gifted with potentials and can do a lot of exploits. A lot of women have the capacity and talents they do not know, but we let them lie low. That you are a woman does make you less than any other person. You can achieve success if you commit yourself to it. It may be difficult sometimes because we have a lot of roles to play. You have to balance the family, your husband is there and many other domestic affairs begging for your attention, but believe me, if you put yourself in achieving your goal, you will surely get it. I want women to getup, sit-up to do things. When you do this as a woman, it gives children confidence and encourages other women to brace up and achieve their aim. They need to commit to what they want to do. Again, no that success does not come easily, you need to work hard and smart as well to get the desired result. You have to be patient and diligent and success will surely come your way.