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After holding for 10 years in a single city, NECLive, West Africa’s largest annual gathering of creative industry professionals, will now take place simultaneously in other parts of Nigeria and key cities across Africa, Europe, and America as from next year.
In a message to partners and stakeholders, Ayeni Adekunle, Founder of NECLive, explained: “When we conceived the idea for an annual conference 10 years ago, it was out of frustration -frustration about lack of education, about piracy, about lack of platforms and access, and opportunities for entertainment practitioners to monetize their talent at scale. Today, most of those problems have largely been solved. But we are now faced with even bigger problems and opportunities. And I believe that it’s time to begin the work of making sure Africa’s creators and everyone else in the value chain; as well as our societies and economies, get the maximum possible value from our contribution to, and growing participation in the global entertainment marketplace.”
From 2024, the new NECLive will hold over the course of a month, from April to May every year, beginning with a flagship event in Lagos, and running through cities like Abuja, Port Harcourt, Calabar, and Ibadan in Nigeria; London and Edinburgh in the United Kingdom; Atlanta and New York in America; and other key African cities like Nairobi, Accra, Johannesburg and more.
Ayeni said further: “The industry – even the whole world – has changed a lot since we kicked off NECLive in 2013, and having realised that most of the frustrations that led us to found NECLive have since been solved, I believe it’s now time to face newer, bigger battles. We wanted some standardisation around distribution, now we have it. We wanted access to bigger markets and opportunities to monetize, and it’s already happening. We wanted honour and recognition and acknowledgment. It’s happening. It’s still early days but it’s already happening. But what does it mean? Where’s it headed? How do we benefit individually and collectively sustainably? What happens next?”
