The combination of culinary skills and business experience is a promising mix for entrepreneurial success, especially in Nigeria. GTCO’s food and drink festival, which is an annual event, has over the past years provided recognizable evidence for this assertion . The annual GTCO’s Food and Drink Festival is a food exposition and sales event that connects different enterprises involved in the manufacture and sale of food-related things to a diverse audience of food fans, showcasing the varied opportunities in the food sector.
Seeing that Nigeria is made up of high-flying young people with the tenacity and drive to make something happen, it is quite interesting to see how a bank leverages the wings of a well organized event to connect people with sellable culinary skills with the wide range of opportunities available in the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Nigeria.
Taking a cue from the just concluded GTCO’s food and drink festival, which took place in Lagos, Nigeria, Eventpaadi would like to share with you the best insights on how to connect culinary skills with entrepreneurship.
1. Identifying entrepreneurial Culinary skills
The first step in connecting culinary skills with entrepreneurship is to identify, in specific terms, the culinary skills that are sellable. The food business may be lucrative but not all culinary skills can be deployed on an entrepreneurial scale. Investing in this sector needs proper identification of the right culinary skill, it is a foundation. The art of baking, grilling, and sautéing; traditional cooking, mixology are among some examples of culinary skills that are sellable.
GTCO’s food and drink festival has been able to identify and showcase the best culinary skills since the inception of their first food and drink event in 2016. They have offered masterclasses using world class coaches on how to turn these skills into a profitable venture. Consequently, this has brought many beneficiaries into the limelight
2. Market research and identifying opportunities
Let me mention here that if food and drink entrepreneurs understand what their target market wants, it can boost their chances of success by properly satisfying the need for their goods and services. In addition, it will open up more business opportunities.
Market research and identifying opportunities enabled GTCO to carefully select specific culinary skill sectors that they focused on and develop their plans and projects around them. Most important is the identification of markets and opportunities within local and regional food and beverage industries.
3. Select the platform to showcase, network and collaborate
What better platform could best showcase, network and collaborate on the skills that you have already harvested from your research efforts? A food and drink festival proves to be the best platform through which like-minded people are attracted and fed with the right content. An event where the right kind of atmosphere is lit with innovative food flavors and aromas, dishes and drinks of different origins.
Food and drink entrepreneurs need relevant platforms that will help amplify their efforts and their shot at innovations. For the food and drink industry, collaboration is key to helping skilled chefs take good risks, enter new frontiers and have hope for the future.
One of the best decisions GTCO made is to use the GTCO Food and Drink Festival as a platform to bring thousands of food enthusiasts and people into the food business to celebrate Africa’s rich and varied culinary legacy through a spectacular exhibition of flavors, aromas, and cultures. The GTCO food and drink festival stands as the best food and drink fare in West Africa.
4. Develop a unique Food & drink product and concept
Developing a unique food and drink product or concept for the market can enable young entrepreneurs to carve a niche for themselves, prevent pressure from competition, and fix the best prices for their products. Another advantage of developing a unique product is that it create differentiation, a sense of deviating from what is predominant. It is an essential factor to be considered when the entrepreneur wants to start out on a good footing.
However, let me mention a very vital point here and that is the fact that food and drink entrepreneurs must match their skills, unique concept and products with the demands of the market. in other words, they should fine tune their products to resonate with their target market. This is to enable them penetrate into the markets and ensure steady successes.
5. Marketing and Promotion
A food and drink event is a good platform to market and promote products and services, provided they are studded with the right kind of attendees. Which is why the event organiser must go the extra mile to attract those who matter—those who are capable of making decisions that can impact the food and drink market.
Although the various social media platforms are good channels for promotion and marketing, food and drink entrepreneurs need to meet face-to-face and have direct interaction with potential customers and investors. GTCO’s food and drink festival has provided a platform for brands and entrepreneurs to make themselves seen and heard, enabling networking opportunities for many attendees.
In conclusion, one can’t stop wondering why Bill Gates, Dangote, Katy Perry and other international world figures are jumping into the food and drink industry. The future of food is as bright as a shining star. However, innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit are needed to keep the journey alive. As long as GTCO’s Food & Drink festival is sustained, the future of innovativeness and food entrepreneurship in Nigeria will continue to breathe.
