Hello people.Love sharing good stories.Happy to feature the launch of a great initiative.
Event: SIPEC - The Launch
Date: January 25th 2014
Venue: White House Restaurant Bonapriso, Douala
What is SIPEC?
SIPEC, is the acronym for Sherai’s Initiative for Promoting Entrepreneurs
in Cameroon.
THE CONCEPT
This initiative seeks to promote the
spirit of Entrepreneurship in Cameroon. This is done through identifying
entrepreneurs and small businesses and creating a platform to market their
services and products. The intention of SIPEC is to connect entrepreneurs with
their target market in a fun and light hearted fashion. We offer a large room,
beautiful music, nice chilled drinks, well marinated finger foods and a mix of
intelligent people. The intent is to create an environment where ideas can be exchanged and
business partnerships can be formed.
THE LAUNCH EVENT
Sheraiz Delightz, an events planning
company launched SIPEC 1st Edition under the theme: Networking,
a key tool for successful business at the White House Restaurant in
Bonapriso, Douala. It gathered about 150 people who were a mix of
entrepreneurs, media personnel, and Cameroon’s professionals. The mix was rich
and the conversations were unending. It was almost hard to get people to move
to the front of the hall and listen to the speaker.
Etonde aka Sherai had one objective
for this evening, to get people to network, to talk to complete strangers, to
exchange business cards, to create partnerships and to close deals.
The event introduced 10
companies/budding entrepreneurs, viz; Evavivres Poultry, Ace Technology, ABCS
(Algima Business Consulting Services), BSI Cameroon(Business Solutions
International), GLA Consulting, Teks Design, TradeLand Group, Santa Helena
Beach Resort, Moland Resort and The Bridge International School. See more info
about these companies below.
The event was a
success, the buzz is on, entrepreneurs are connecting with well-established
companies, entrepreneurs are connecting with other entrepreneurs. On Monday
afternoon, barely 36 hours after SIPEC 1st Edition, The Bridge
International School, one of the entrepreneurs promoted on Saturday asked for
the contact information of AVT Media, one of the sponsors who offered free
photos and videos to SIPEC, AVT Media covered the entire show and is
responsible for the beautiful pictures you see on our website and social
networks and the videos currently available on YouTube. The Bridge
International School also has their eyes on Moland Beach Resort, another
entrepreneur promoted on Saturday. Moland Beach is your dream getaway
destination. It’s what we have been dreaming about. Jet Skis, water sports,
nice food along the beach, space to relax and enjoy nature. The Bridge can
already imagine the kids from the school having the time of their life on
beautiful resort along shores of Idenau, South West Region of Cameroon.
Where the TradeLand Group’s ushers polite or what? How many
events have you attended in Cameroon where ushers move around asking you if you
are ok, if you need anything else, if you are enjoying the event, if you would
like to improve the next SIPEC event? Trade Land Group offers ushers who are
different, who go the extra mile, who take initiative and do things a little
different. Whose idea was this? Guess? BSI Cameroon, another entrepreneur being
promoted.
BSI prides itself as the company that wants to change the one thing
we all complain about in Cameroon but do nothing about. Can you guess what that
is? Offering training on Customer Service. “We
need to know how to treat our clients right and with respect” said one of
the partners at BSI Cameroon.
Etonde could not help but smile when
she saw all these companies connecting on Saturday. The buzz continued on
Monday as people kept calling her to get in touch with some other company they
didn’t get a chance to talk to. We
probably need more time to exchange during the next SIPEC event, we should
probably have more speed networking games. “Etonde shared with her MC, Thomas Agbor Nkongho a few days after
the event.”
SIPEC events will be held quarterly
in different parts of the country.
The next edition is scheduled for
Thursday April 24th 2014 at the White House Restaurant. The secret
to why we will use the same venue will be disclosed to us on this day. “Your business needs my business’s help to
soar. You do not know it now, but when you see what I am doing during SIPEC 2nd
Edition, how passionately I carry out my services and talk about my products
you will want to go home with my business card.” Said the passionate
Entrepreneur.
THE ENTREPRENEURS
GLA
Consulting – Foreign Investment Facilitators
Moland
Beach Resort
Teks
Design – Graphic Designer
Trade
Land Group – Logistics Solutions Provider
THE SPONSORS
White
House Restaurant
THE NAME BEHIND THE BRAND
Etonde is the founder and CEO of
Sheraiz Delightz, an Events Management Company in Douala, Cameroon. SIPEC is an
initiative she started to help budding entrepreneurs like herself meet their
target clients. Etonde has held many sales roles in the past 6 years and she
understands the challenges of closing deals with clients. She knows people
refuse to do business with you for a various number of reasons, but really they
are not saying no to you but to your product. A client needs to see that
passion in your eyes and how that passion can be transferred to them to make
that decision to buy. Etonde through SIPEC wants to see companies work with
each other, she wants Entrepreneurs to move from small to big. She wants small
companies to work with large companies and large companies with small
companies. “We all need each other”,
she says.
ABOUT SIPEC EVENTS
SIPEC events will always bring
together all kinds of professionals. It is a place for entrepreneurs to showcase what they do. It is networking event. Where companies seeks new clients, partners, suppliers and investors. It is also a place where aspiring entrepreneurs come for inspiration. There are many things
businesses need to succeed, grow larger and expand to new territories. These
can be: financing, advertising, mentorship, you name it. SIPEC events bring all
these people together, so you can do it all in one evening.
For any
information on how you can be part of SIPEC check them out on www.sipec.co.uk
or send an email to sipecinfo@gmail.com.
You can apply to be part of the SIPEC team, you can partner as an entrepreneur,
company or sponsor.
Check out the SIPEC FB page for updates.
All I can say..Wow..An excellent initiative worth promoting and supporting!Looking forward to the 2nd Edition come April 24, 2014
Thumbs up to Etonde Martin and team..The Sky is NOT the limit. This is definitely a breath of fresh air!
Y.M.
IRepCamer
