My First Time......... My first time experience as an event host

You know this thing they say about not knowing how something would go until you try your hands on it, is as true as the existence of other planets in space…

In recent years I’ve had the privilege of attending a number of occasions especially weddings, gala nights, dinner and award nights et al, and for some reason more often than not I’ve never really enjoyed the hosts at these events, particularly at dinner and award nights. Deep within me I always wished I could have an opportunity to host one of such events so as to show these people how it should be done (“it’s piece of cake, so what’s the biggie and why cant they just do it right”, I thought to myself…lol}.
Fast forward to 12th of August last year my opportunity finally came…yeah! I was to co-host a dinner and awards night with someone, and not just some random person but someone very dear to my heart (now I’m guessing you wanna know who this special person is right? ...don’t worry watch out for my subsequent posts, as I will be dedicating one to her).
Earlier on in the course of the year, I had been appointed to chair a committee charged with planning and executing a week long program that would end with a grand dinner and awards night. In the course of the planning and preparations it dawned on me that this could be my chance at hosting an event and so I took the opportunity. I lobbied my way through the committee to be nominated as the host for that particular dinner and awards night. I was able to have my way and as a bonus was allowed to co-host with the very person I wanted to.

And so the D-day came, it was like every other Saturday but for me it was different, (yes it was a beautiful and special Saturday for me). The day was however gonna be a long and busy day for me. As the committee chairman I had a lot of final preparations to make, pick-ups to make, appraisal meetings to conduct and personal preparations to make for the night.

Waking up that morning I did a mental note of all that I had to accomplish and as overwhelming as it seemed I just whispered to myself that I would take it one step at a time and manage every minute of my time as much as I could. Meanwhile the previous night I had casted for a major role in an onstage drama, the rigorous rehearsals and final presentation had stretched not just my bones, but also my vocal chords, I had lost my voice while on stage. “Wow! How was I supposed to co-host the dinner night that would be holding in less than 24hrs?” I asked myself. At some point I was tempted to pass on the hosting privilege to someone else, but no! I couldn’t give up this opportunity. So what did I do? I tried all suggested methods to regain my lost voice (I took all kinds of mint more than I can remember, drank warm salt water, chewed kolanut and all…lol) .
Evening came and it was show time. I got myself all dressed up, went to pick up my co-host who so happened to be my “official” date and together we arrived at the event venue. The funny thing is all the while I was making preparations, it never occurred to me to practise some video tutorials on event hosting or even think up some creative things I could use to spice it up. But thankfully my co-host was well prepared for us both. Quickly she ran me through all she had come up with and at that point I was certain the night was gonna go well as I had a co-host who had my back.

The event kicked off and like every typical Nigerian event, most of the attendees were yet to arrive. At first I felt jittery cus here I was alone on stage (I and my co-host had agreed I would usher her on stage in a grand way) thinking of what to do to buy time so as not to rush through the entire program for the night before most of my audience arrived.
In no time the hall got filled up and things got much better, I finally got to usher in my co-host to a warm ovation and together we killed the night. We kept receiving beautiful remarks at the end of the event and oh yeah someone even told me I was the best dressed male for the night.

That night will forever remain memorable for me mostly cus I was able to give to the audience the beautiful dinner and awards night I had always dreamed of, I was able to dictate to the dj the theme of songs to play to go with the mood of the night and I was also able to pull it off with the best and most beautiful co-host I could ever ask for. Indeed whatever one puts ones mind to, one can really achieve.
I hope you all had a good read, and most especially I am hoping this post would inspire you to try something new you have always wanted to try.
Watch this space for my next post.