“Africa needs to overcome the negative.”

As a high school student, I enjoyed planning fundraisers, concerts;  any type of party. It was love from the first event to the next that kept me going. Even though I started studying accounting after high school, I quickly dropped out and started an event planning business with less than $150 in capital. I planned my first event for the Society of Human Resource Management, in Ethiopia, and got paid $150. I realized the opportunity and potential of the industry after that first event.

We now operate in 14 eastern and southern African countries and North America, yet,  the road to get here wasn’t easy, nor straight. I had been planning events in Addis Ababa for about 3 years when one of my client’s asked me to plan an event in Djibouti. I was young and naïve; I remember flying to Djibouti the next week to start planning a high-level board meeting. It took three days in Djibouti for me to realize how hard it is to plan an event in a foreign country; even when that country is your next-door neighbour. Funnily enough, that was the first time I visited another African country. Since then, I have been learning about Africa and growing in Africa. In order for any association, business or non-profit to plan an event they need to be able to find event venues, hotels, transportation service providers, photographers, florists, interpreters … basically any type of vendor via online search.

In most developed countries, cities have either a convention bureau or a visitors bureau that can support anyone to plan an event in their city. Unfortunately, a vast majority of African countries don’t have a convention bureau. So,  someone like me can’t just fly 69 minutes from home to plan an event in Djibouti. This also means someone from Djibouti, or any neighbouring country, can’t simply fly to Addis Ababa to plan an event either.

The next event I had to plan was in Nairobi for 300 people. I had emailed more than 30 hotels, before I flew to Nairobi to inquire in person. This was the moment when the idea for Hallpax was conceived. I wanted to make event planning simple for anyone planning an event in Africa. It took me a few years before I saved up sufficient capital to get started.

Hallpax was incorporated in Maryland, USA in 2019 with just $109,000 in capital. We had already built a very strong partnership in a number of destinations in eastern and southern African countries. We wanted Hallpax to be more than an event planning company, we are building a company that promotes Africa as a MICE destination – that is, meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions Of course, many years after my experience in Djibouti I was still naive when starting Hallpax. Promoting Africa as a MICE destination isn’t a simple task.

It is a tough sell up against staging events in Europe The top three searched words about Rome from the United States are: Roman Empire; the Vatican City and Rome Pizza. The top three searched words about Nairobi from the United States are: time in Nairobi; Nairobi money heist and Nairobi foam.

Africa suffers from years of negative media coverage. We haven’t promoted our people, nature, culture, history or services among ourselves, let alone to the rest of the world. Our beautiful continent lacks good marketing. We need an overwhelming amount of positive stories and information available about destinations in Africa to overcome the negative image that has been built for decades.