Out comes Kasupe

From the days of Zikhale Promotions in the early 1990s, the entertainment industry has seen the rise and fall of a myriad event organisers or managers as they are popularly known in recent times.

While some have made strides, a good number have fallen by the way side giving rise to more others with varying approaches to business.

A few have managed to eke a niche by managing high profile events such as music shows and festivals with Lucky Dube and Brenda Fassie from South Africa, Congolese Pepe Kalle and Kanda Bongoman, not forgetting a flurry of Jamaican reggae artists such as Jimmi Lyons (late 1990s) Morgan Heritage, Busy Signal and, more recently, King Sounds.

But out of the blues in the year 2017, Kasupe Creations—a multifaceted entertainment and marketing firm-was registered in Blantyre by Leah Nedi, with a vision to transform the event management business by putting in more creative approaches and products to suit the fast modern world.

Three years down the line, the company is ready to fly; spread its wings both on the regional and global scale with its plan to acquire hi-tech sound equipment from China which she describes to become ‘best of the market’.

To underline it as a statement of intent, Nedi’s company has already assembled a full-housed audiovisual equipment to buoy her business credentials amidst stiff competition from all and sundry.

From Nedi’s perspective, time has come for the country to embrace new approaches such as having one-stop services entertainment packages from promotion of talent, organizing events of the highest scale all the way to exposure of local and foreign artists.

Already under its label, the company which has employed a number of youths as a commitment to empowering young people has enlisted some young people in various fields on a promotional basis in fields like fashion designers, musicians and visual artists.

She talks of her company delving into culture, local and international tourism by among others planning to organise the first ever international students festival where university scholars from across Europe would interact with the local counterparts in an edutainment setup.

Talking to Nedi, this week in an exclusive interview depicted an encounter with a Malawian on a mission to take the world to Malawi while taking the country to the whole world through upmarket yet affordable, creative and innovative entertainment services and products.

“We are an entertainment or events management company that consists of staff from different areas of specialization across the entertainment and tourism sectors coupled with community projects implementation expertise. Already we are into planning of events from corporate to social gatherings, festivals while we also provide decoration services and hiring out of high-tech audiovisual equipment,” says Nedi.

The company has signed contracts with some private schools in Blantyre where it is providing catering and photography among other services.

She describes the company’s name as an embodiment of everflowing freshness of service and products from a company that has set its sights on embarking on a journey that would not only market Malawi’s entertainment and creative arts sectors but the country’s tourism potential as a complete package.

“We are here to stay. Our name suggests that we are motivated to be an oasis of never-ending expertise in service provision in our field of specialty,” says Nedi.

As opposed to the usual story of having background in the entertainment sector in order to have proper interest, Nedi admits she generated interest in the event management and entertainment business out of curiosity.

“I have not been really involved in the entertainment circles but I have been quite observant to what has been happening and I noted some gaps in the industry which I thought I would be able to come in and address them. Many people associate entertainment with juvenile delinquency. With our approaches we want to change that view. That is why we are infusing education into entertainment. We believe we can get partners to use entertainment as a motivation to keep young people in schools.

Kasupe Creations will have to fit its feet into the big shoes of equally good event managers who have over the past years organised big international and local events which include Lake of Stars, Sand Music Festival, Blantyre Arts Festival and Likoma Summer Festival.

However, according to Nedi, Kasupe Creations has a huge interest in community projects where it has resolved to keep a percentage of its revenue to fund alongside its partners some social projects such as providing bursaries to needy students, raising school infrastructure among others.

She adds: “Our brand is not solely looking at the business side of things. We are also much interested in developing well cultured communities through community empowerment projects and student motivation programmes.”

With the current lockdown state due to the Covid-19 epidemic Nedi says her company is considering the use of safer yet effective methods of promoting talent and hosting events which includes using online and television platforms.

Currently, government is implementing restrictions on gatherings and public places appearances due to the coronavirus threat which has crippled the entertainment sector by squeezing income from the sector.

The Blantyre-based lady believes that her company has all that it takes for a modern one-stop entertainment event management firm with strong lineage on entertainment, tourism and education projects and special focus on corporate social responsibility (CSR) where the company strives to make the community in which it works, better.

Apart from its core business the company is also into marketing and advertising where some of its services and products include concepts development, mobile tours, guerrilla campaigns, brand installation, raising street teams, video screening and ambassador programmes.