The maiden Social Media Awards Africa #SMAA took place on Saturday, 24th of January 2015 and I feel so honored to be at the event as a finalist for the Blogger of The Year Award. Even though I didn't make the
list of the winners, it was fun to meet other finalists as well as other great names that attended the welcome dinner, the summit and the awards ceremony.
Africa’s best from various sectors were at the summit session on Saturday morning to
discuss, analyze and forge a new development path for Africa through social media. During the Award ceremony tagged ‘Night of Virtual Wonders’ Fifteen (15) out of the Forty-three (43) Finalists from across the continent were rewarded with award prizes for the featured 15 Awards across 4 Categories for the 2014 edition of the awards which opened with a continent-wide call for nomination and recorded over 3,000 entries accounting for about 923 nominations.
The organizers of the #SMAA paid for the flight ticket and also paid my hotel bills from Friday evening till Sunday morning. We were lodged at Lilygate hotel, Lekki phase1 and the hotel room I stayed cost N30,000 per night. The welcome dinner (on Friday evening) and the summit (on Saturday morning) took place at the hotel.
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| Lilygate Hotel, Lekki Lagos, Nigeria |
I was so tired when arrived the hotel on Friday evening. I took my shower, took a nap and by the time I could wake up, they were almost through with the welcome dinner. I met them dancing and taking photos though. It was that evening I met @omojuwa for the first time in person. That night, Sterling Bank presented a gift pack to all nominees which include a mobile phone.
The Social Media Africa summit took place from 9am till 3pm on Saturday. It was at the summit that I met the guys from Kenya, @lammyng, Femi,Tayo & Patrick from DevDiaries and other finalists. Below are some of the photos taken at the summit:
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| Finalists of #SMAA2014 |
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| Rich Simmond and Co at the #SMAA summit |
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| Myself and @lammyng |
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| lolllll............. |
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| selfie ..eh eh |
I met Kemi Olunloyo of @HNNAfrica, after the summit. It was fun chatting with her while waiting for the bus to pick us to the venue of the awards ceremony. I really enjoyed my time with her. So humble and interesting unlike some that will be feeling like donking just because they have 1 million followers on twitter...
lol
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| Myself and Kemi Olunloyo |
Later in the evening, a bus conveyed all the finalists from the hotel to Landmark event centre, where the awards ceremony took place. I met alot of my friends there including Jarus of Nairaland, @Olorisupergal, CFA of techwithCFA.com, Muyiwa of naijawhistle.com. Jimmy Jatt was on the wheels of steel; Yemi Alade performed her hit song, Johnny, in French (in those hot yellow heels!); Timi Dakolo melted hearts; Denrele Edun, Gbemi Olateru-Olagbegi and Chigurl compered the event.
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| Myself and some of the winners |
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| Myself and Jarus of Nairaland |
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| Myself and Denrele |
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| DJ Jimmy Jatt |
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| Yemi Alade |
A bus conveyed us back to the hotel around 1am on Sunday morning. Finalists were taken to the airport later in the morning, to return to their various destination. I boarded my flight (
Aero contractors) around 2:30pm from Murtala Muhammed International Airport and arrived safely in Enugu at 3:45pm.
Interesting...huh?
I will upload some videos to my YouTube Channel later.......
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