This was a meetup with colour and good vibes! The first get together of the Nelson Mandela Bay Content Creators (#NMBContentCreators) was a fabulous outing in fantastic selfie taking and theatrical venues. We took the selfies. We learnt from experts. And we indulged in delicious food and drinks. It really was opening a new chapter for the content creators in this area, as well as for all that were involved.
Thank you to @lensationpictures2021 for this amazing video of our event!
Your fabulous hosts
This event was put together by myself, Heather Step, a blogger who has experience of putting together many blogging events in Johannesburg, and Lwando Joko Sipeliti, a content creator on YouTube and Instagram, who has also travelled to several Africa Creator Fests in Joburg. We took a few pictures at the start of the event, knowing it was going to get busy.
The Africa Creator Fest connection
Africa Creator Fest sponsored our bags, lanyards, and the food that we ate (fantastically displayed by @Sphascookout). We also had huge banners up for them, and the creators enjoyed taking pictures in front of them. This festival is powered by Nfluence Africa.
Imagine That Selfie Museum
This place is truly a content creator’s paradise, and we spent the first two hours of the meetup taking pictures in their various booths. We also had coffee and muffins there. I think that this place really gave colour to the meetup and definitely a lot of fun. (Check out my interview with the owners here)
Photography and Videography team
We were blessed to have the team from @lensationpictures2021 snapping away and taking videos of our creators during the course of the day. They really added a sense of professionalism and capturing the moment for our attendees. Thank you, Enock Mtileni and team.
CentreStage
After taking all that content, we headed upstairs to our second venue. CentreStage is a place where a lot of theatrical events take place, and what’s also nice about it is that you can eat and drink there as well. We used the foyer section with tables, had some food, and settled down to hear the speakers.
Gourmet food
Sphamandla Manqunyana is the man behind @Sphascookout, and the food he creates is the kind you have to take photos of before you eat it! Adorned with flowers, fruit and artistic shapes (my son ate the kiwi flower, it was left over when we got home!) it really is a work of art. It also tasted delicious and we enjoyed his creations very much. Many thanks to the @africacreatorfest / @fluenceafrica for sponsoring our food for this event.
Drinks for all occasions
On arrival, the creators were met with drinks from @chateaudelrei. This definitely added to the vibe and general spirit of the occasion.
Upstairs, we were lucky to have a combination of fruit juices from @vivs_juice_bar. They really tasted so good! This business is the brain child of Vivian Nomhlobo @viv_nomhlobo01, from the real housewives of GQ. She had us drinking healthy fruit drinks in style.
Viv also posted a reel about the event here and did an interview with Sinolwazi April here.
The food creator spills the tea on content creation tips
Lwando interviewed food content creator Sinolwazi April. You can find her on Facebook @sinolwazi.april.7, TikTok @sinolwaziapril and Instagram @sinolwaziapril. (She posted the outfit she wore to the event here.) She has over 250k on Facebook and over 204k on TikTok.
Some of the things that she said that resonated with me:
- Creating personal stories and being relevant e.g. when she did a video and said, this is what she would cook for her husband, that one got a lot of views.
- Excellent content that gets shared: she had a huge boost when someone shared her post in a whatsapp group
Yellow Lizard gives us a dose of yellow
The team from Yellow Lizard (@yellowlizardcreative) were all dressed in yellow dungarees, so they really kept in the spirit of their brand! We also had a talk from Sibongile France, who talked about the power of collaboration. They posted a fun video here. (this one is worth watching to see us all say NMB Content Creators!)
Blogger turned online magazine editor
We were thrilled to have Eleonor Douglas-Meyers there, she also spoke to us for a bit and sponsored a prize, a content creation kit, which was won by Dalen May @dalenmayofficial @umama_ka_dexter . Eleonor was part of the #ECMeetup with Luchae, which did meetups for many years. Eleonor is the editor of 041online magazine, a local digital publication which puts out content for the bay and beyond.
Lovely reel from @041online.mag here.
Woolworths Beauty
Woolworths displayed their products and I had a spray of one of their luxurious perfumes. They also very kindly gifted us with samples of Radiance (brightening night cream), Hydrate (hydrating gel moisturiser) and Radiance (glow concentrate).
NMB Tourism
We are very lucky to have the support of this organisation. I think after all the bad publicity about safety, they had some really useful safety tips. They also gifted us with pillows, hats and bags. Thank you so much for your support.
Social Media Feedback
We were very blessed with what the content creators shared, and many of these videos encapsules the fun we had on that day.
For all #NMBContentCreators news, follow that hashtag, and you can also tag our new social profile @nmbcontentcreators.
Bernie from @your_motivationalcoach had a lovely post about our sponsors and goody bag here. She also did a carousel here.
Chelsea Mac Gear @chelsealauren97 posted this lovely overview video here.
Silindokuhle Mpinda @sili_mpinda posted this lovely carousel. and video here.
Feel the fun from Alethea @millennial_mama_sa in this post here.
Another vibe video from Nakita Plaatjies @nakita21
Dalen May also had a ball in this reel @dalenmayofficial, you can also find him on TikTok @umama_ka_dexter (he did a few variations on the selfie museum there) And he did a post on Chateau del rei here.
Asiphezi Jita @asipezi_jita (actress from Gqeberha: The Empire) also posted this fun reel here. And on the phone here.
@ImagineThatSelfies did a lovely reel here.
My snapshots here. And the one with Lensation2021’s images here.
What an amazing event!
Stay tuned for more!
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