Tope Valentine is the CEO of Teeval Creative Events, organisers of different types of social, corporate and other events, including his own events, one of which is ‘Games and Chow’. Ahead of the first edition of The City Ball, a culture-centric event holding in Benin City, the Edo State capital, Valentine speaks to Promise Ogiso, Judith Andrew and Emmanuel Ogunsede on the coming event, the inspiration behind it, and what the audience should expect. Excerpts:
Let’s talk about the event you are putting together. What is the event about?
The event is called The City Ball. It is a cultural event and the date is October 4. That’s a Friday, first Friday of October. The venue is Victor Uwaifo Creative Hub in Benin City, the time is 4 o’clock. It starts by four o’clock with the red carpet and afterwards we want to start like 5:30. The doors are open to everyone, 5:30. The entire idea of the event is before you go in, there’s a red carpet session which is an experience area. When you come in, you have dancers welcome you, different dancers. You have different sections where you can take pictures. Then you are welcomed with palm wine because it’s a cultural event. You have palm wine on arrival before you enter into the hall to get the experience of the food.
We have different events that happen within and I was trying to do something very different. You know in this country we have many ethnic regions with their different cultures. So the idea is to bring different cultures together in one space just to celebrate culture – traditional music, traditional dances, traditional food, everything culture. Currently, we have the hosts as a MC Edo Pikin and Real Warri Pikin. There will be a live band and different cultural troupes, so most ethnic groups will be represented by their cultural troupes. We also have this legend, Dr Fabono, who’s also going to be a guest appearance. He’s going to perform live on the stage. Then we have representatives from the palace as well for the event. The event is sponsored by the Edo State Tourism Agency, so we’re having reps from the Government House.
From your own understanding, what is culture?
Talking about culture, I will always go back to school days. The one thing that stands out, the one thing that resonates in our head is that culture is a way of life. But I will tell you a story. I did my National Youth Service in Kaduna State in 2017/2018. And you hear people say that they think the NYSC scheme should be scrapped, but the one thing that stood out for me during the NYSC experience was the three weeks I stayed in camp. What stood out for me is the fact that we had over 2,000 people in one space for three weeks. Now, everyone came from different cultural backgrounds. We had different cultures there, but we were just there to speak one language, and that was working together. I worked with different people from different ethnic groups, and it was not about the ethnic group, it was just about meeting someone else who shared the same values and beliefs like yourself. So, culture is a way of life, which is very beautiful. But I still see culture as a way we can speak the same language in different ways. We are being united, but just in different ways – different beliefs, different everything. Although it’s different, we are still speaking the same language, which is a universal language. That’s basically what culture is for me.
So, what should the audience expect from the event?
I’m definitely giving everyone who comes value and experience. The idea is to create an experience, a long-lasting experience for people, so they look forward to the next edition, because this event is going to be an annual event. It’s not just a one-time thing, I plan on doing it again and again. So the idea is to give people memories that they will always remember, from the music to the displays on stage to the fashion, because there’s also a fashion aspect. Everyone is dressed in their culture. But apart from this, we are trying to also reward fashion. Yes, there’s going to be a red carpet session, but we are also going to reward people who put in a lot of effort to look very good. Like, take N200,000 (two hundred thousand naira) as the best dressed. We have fashion booths where fashion designers can also exhibit their cultural outfits. Already, we have like eight fashion designers on the ground, we are creating booths for them so they can just display their fashion wear, so you are also seeing a bit of fashion as much as you are getting the whole experience. And apart from that, we are also giving everyone food, so their tickets come with food. For every person in the hall they get treated to food, drinks, water, everything. It’s just like a complete package, a complete experience for everyone who comes.
How long has this event been on the planning stage and what was the most challenging aspect of it?
This idea came up two years ago. I’ve always wanted to do this for two years. I said this before, I wanted to do this event because I’m an event planner. I went into event planning not because I wanted to plan other people’s events. That’s by the way, that’s what gives us money. But I also want to create experiences for people, that’s always been my reason for going into event planning. I live in Benin, but I travel a lot, and I get to experience events like this in other parts of the country like Lagos and Abuja. So I realized that an event like this can be put together in Edo State and people can have the same experience. That’s one of the reasons why I decided to do this. We officially kicked off planning in May this year, that’s like four months down the line, but this idea has been there since 2022.
What have been your challenges?
The first challenging factor would be finance. I feel like that’s like the most challenging factor for any project you want to start. I already saved up to an extent an amount I was going to spend for publicity and all of that, but that’s been my biggest challenge. Apart from that, human resources is also a challenge because as much as you’re not paying people to probably work for the event, they will not give it as much dedication as you who are the convener of the event and you can’t necessarily shout on a lot of people because you have a lot of people volunteering for free. Then another challenge would be trying to get people to buy into the idea. It’s not just about buying the ticket, it’s about seeing the vision and saying, ‘Okay, I want to back this’. I’m not a very big brand that I can do an event and just sit down and know that people would attend. I have to do the work. I have to go all out. I have to visit people in their homes, in their offices. I have to go to a lot of people to say, ‘Please I need you at my event’. So, that’s also been my challenge.
So you said you’ve always wanted to do this. What inspired you?
The one thing that inspired me to do this was in 2021. COVID came in 2020, then lockdowns, and after that many people were out of business, and then in 2021 I had no job, no wedding, nothing, and then I was motivated based on the process of nature to do like the first event which was ‘Games and Chow’ and after I did that, I found out that this part of myself, which is creating experiences for people and creating events like this, is here to stay. Based on that I just decided to look for things that I feel like were going to expand the brand, make the brand grow, and it’s always same flow, same people, same idea, same pattern. So I think the motivation is just to break from the norm, doing something different. I’ve always been that person who wanted to do different, so if everybody’s passing this road, I want to pass the next road. I’m a very big risk taker. People may not want to do something like this because you feel like, yeah, this part of the city nobody has done something like this, so why do you think this is a good venture? But I’m a risk taker. It’s about, let’s just give people something different and let’s see the outcome of it, so that’s basically what inspired me.
What are your expectations?
If I say not profit, I may be lying. But then, apart from the profit, first thing, I actually want people to get an experience. I want, at the end of the day, people saying that, ‘Oh, this was an experience for me. This was worth my time’. I think that’s basically what’s going to make me feel better. And another thing I want to gain from this is, I have stressed myself. You didn’t see me before I cut my hair. I looked homeless. So, I just want, at the end of the day, to see all this effort, all this hard work, all this stress pay off. I want to see people come around because, I mean, I can put in all the ideas, and then there’s nobody to experience it. I just want people to come. So, it’s not just about profit, it’s about continuity. It’s about the consistency, the fact that I’m able to do this again, that’s what I want.
Are you able to influence people around you with your work?
In my little circle, I think so because I remember when I started publicity for this event, I had a lot of people sending messages that, oh, they are inspired by my creative mind, they want to part of my team. All of these little accolades make me feel like, oh, people are inspired by what I do. I have interns working for me. I don’t think I will have interns if people don’t see value in my work, so to a larger extent I feel like I’m influential and I really want to live an influential life, that’s basically what I strive for and I think I’m doing it, but I feel like everybody who discovers what they want to do with their life and putting a lot of work.
