This month, we get to know Waridi Events Limited:
What was your motivation to join ICCA?
Our motivation for joining ICCA is centred around three things: learning, connection and contributing to the growth of Kenya as a meetings destination.
First, we wanted to become part of a global community of meeting professionals where we can learn from peers operating in different markets, understand emerging industry practices and, equally, contribute perspectives and knowledge from our experience delivering conferences across Africa.
Secondly, we want to play a role in strengthening Kenya's position as an international meetings and conferences destination. Kenya has the infrastructure, expertise and experience to host significant global meetings, and ICCA provides an important platform through which we can build relationships, access opportunities and participate more actively in the international association meetings market.
Finally, ICCA gives us the opportunity to build meaningful relationships with industry partners around the world, creating opportunities for collaboration, knowledge exchange and stronger partnerships across markets.
What sets Waridi Events Limited apart?
What differentiates Waridi is the ecosystem we have intentionally built around conference delivery.
Over almost two decades in the events industry, we recognised that delivering international-standard conferences requires more than strong event planning. It requires skilled people, specialist suppliers, technical capability and a deep understanding of the entire delegate experience.
Our first investment was in people and training. We established The Events Academy, a dedicated events training institution, to develop planners and event professionals who understand the standards required for professional conferences and meetings.
We then began building a wider ecosystem of specialist businesses that complement Waridi's work as a Professional Conference Organiser:
● The Events Academy – training and developing the next generation of event professionals.
● Aesthetic Experiences – event branding, exhibition solutions and curated attendee experiences.
● The Lounge Collective – premium event furniture, lounge environments and styling.
● PCO Collective – our developing event technology and production company, providing technical infrastructure across registration, audio, video, internet, interpretation and production.
Together, these businesses allow us to provide clients with specialist expertise across the full conference journey while maintaining one coordinated approach to delivery.
Sustainability is also central to how we operate. For us, sustainability includes both people and the environment. Students from The Events Academy gain practical experience through live events, while across our businesses we continue to explore local procurement, reusable event infrastructure, responsible production and more sustainable approaches to event delivery.
Ultimately, what sets Waridi apart is not simply the range of services we provide, but the ecosystem behind them: specialist teams working together to deliver international-standard meetings in an African context.
What is your favourite success story from your organisation?
Our favourite success story is, perhaps unexpectedly, our COVID-19 story.
Before the pandemic, Waridi worked across a broad range of corporate events. When the events industry came to a standstill, we had the opportunity to reflect deeply on the future of the business and ask ourselves where our greatest strength truly lay.
When we reviewed the clients we had worked with and the projects we had delivered, one direction became very clear: professional conference organising.
We made the deliberate decision to reposition Waridi as a specialist PCO focused on conferences, meetings and summits. It meant stepping away from parts of the events industry we had worked in for many years and building a very different business model, including learning how to compete for and deliver complex international conferences.
That decision transformed Waridi.
Specialisation allowed us to understand, in much greater depth, the challenges organisations face when bringing international meetings to Nairobi and the wider region. We have since delivered major global conferences and meetings, including events that rotate internationally between host destinations.
The experience, systems and attention to detail we have developed today are a direct result of that decision to specialise.
What began as one of the most uncertain periods in our history ultimately gave us clarity about exactly what kind of company we wanted Waridi to become.
What can we expect to see from Waridi Events Limited in the future?
The next chapter for Waridi is about deepening our expertise, expanding our reach and becoming more involved in shaping the meetings we deliver.
We will continue developing our conference ecosystem so that our clients can access specialist services and international-standard delivery through one coordinated network.
We are also interested in moving beyond simply delivering meetings to co-creating meeting assets and intellectual properties with our clients. Through the conferences we manage, we are exposed to important conversations around development, business, sustainability, innovation and policy. Over time, we want to collaborate with organisations to create meetings and convenings that are deliberately designed around those conversations and their desired impact.
Education will remain another important pillar. Through The Events Academy and our wider industry collaborations, we want to contribute to developing a strong pipeline of highly trained African event professionals who understand international standards while remaining grounded in the realities of delivering events within our markets.
Finally, we see Waridi becoming increasingly pan-African. Rather than necessarily establishing offices in every market, our vision is to build strong partnerships with trusted planners, suppliers and industry professionals across the continent. This will allow us to support clients consistently as their meetings move between African destinations.
Our ambition is ultimately to help strengthen Africa's position within the global meetings industry while continuing to deliver exceptional conferences from our home base in Nairobi.