My First Paid Event: SLAY Festival 2019

Hey guys, see who attended SLAY Festival 2019? Me, your girlie!!! Lol! I am so proud of myself. First, because this is my first ever paid event, yeah! Surprised? Well, I am one of those who never see the need for paying to attend an event where there are so many free ones.

That is not to say I do not enjoy discovering new places, I do. Such an adventure was my trip to Omu Resort.

Also, my previous job took me from one event to the other, that I would rather skip any that wasn’t work-related or maybe I was just too stingy to myself or just lazy or broke, at this point, I really can’t say which it was but I am a changed creature now.

Secondly, I decided sometime this year to invest in myself and this included going to events, building genuine relationships and more.

So, I started with the almighty SLAY Festival. Almighty because almost every millennial in Lagos knew about this event, had probably been there or was a part of the community.

The SHE LEADS AFRICA Community. A community that fosters all-round growth amongst young women in Africa.

This year’s SLAY Festival which took place on Saturday 28 of September 2019 at the Lekki Special Events Centre was my first time attending though I had heard so much about the event and was looking forward to it.

Hence, when ticket sales began, I was among the early birds and as such, I paid 1000 naira as an entrance fee.

I went for the event dressed in a white t-shirt, brown pant trousers, and nude heels. I should state that my choice of dressing by fashion police officers wasn’t appropriate because who wears heels to a festival? Especially the type I had on.

A piece of advice, don’t wear heels to SLAY Festival especially if you intend to walk around as I did. At a point, I took off my heels and wore slippers because I can’t come and kill myself.

The event started at 12 pm but I didn’t get there until about 1 pm. By Nigerian time, I was early and though the event had started, I didn’t miss out on much.

I went alone but met old friends and made new friends. That for me was good news since I rarely get to hang out with friends.

Did I enjoy the event? Yes, I did. It was a colorful and vibrant atmosphere filled with young professionals, fashionistas, bloggers, celebrities, photographers, good music, jollof rice from Maggi, vendors and so much fun.

I got to meet some really cool people I followed on Instagram and it was nice to put a face behind the Instagram accounts.

Lots of freebies from sponsors, I got a pack from LUX, rice from Maggi, won a gift from Molped, I might have missed some other freebies too.

Then. there was the bouncing castle, oh Lord, I can’t remember the last time I jumped on one, felt like a child again.

As promised by the organizers, there were masterclasses by experts in different fields. This was a bit different from other classes I had attended because we used some fancy headsets I had only seen in pictures.

LOL!! I felt like some really cool kid. I attended the class on Smart Career and Money Moves for your 20’s by JR Kanu.

I don’t know how topics were picked for the classes but this was a very insightful and useful one. So glad I was a part of it. Hold on, just so you don’t go feeling left out, here are some lessons from the class.

1. Have a career goal
2. Set a time to start working on it.
3. Know yourself and what works for you
4. Make a list of your skillset
5. Find the gaps in your skillset and fill them up
6. Have a plan, a date and tell someone about it
7. Visualize your goal
8. Get excited about your future, this will keep you moving in hard times.

That was a quick wrap up of my take-home from the class. I intend to work on those and I think you should too.

The keynote speaker for the day was Mama Burna, she was also the last speaker for the day. Her session ran late and I could not stay to the end. One key thing I picked from her was, as a woman, you can have it all.

That includes your career, family, hobbies, in fact, everything. She is a clear example of that and it is evident with the successful career of her son who she managed for years.

In general, SLAY Festival 2019 was a success, with only a few hiccups. One of such was, the timing, it finished later than 8 pm. And when it was evident that the event would exceed the allocated time frame, the classes where rushed.

At least I felt mine was. Also, a little kinda direction would have helped. It took me a while to figure out where the classes were happening, which class was which and all that.

Aside from these, SLAY Festival was great. Glad I was a part of it. Looking forward to more from the SLAY team. They were amazing, amazing volunteers, everything nice.