TRAINING TALENT A MAIN EVENT
RECENTLY listed company Main Event Entertainment Group is bursting at the seams with growth opportunities.
Led by Solomon Sharpe, Main Event has been rolling out a number of divisions in an attempt to position the company to capitalise on untapped opportunities within the event and marketing space.
“We revisited our vision, mission and our core values. We really looked at making small business units because when we focus on small business units, it’s much easier to achieve a wholesome product. Basically, we are looking at moving our company from good to great,” Sharpe told shareholders during the company’s annual general meeting yesterday.
The latest move by Main Event is the creation of a division called Annex. The division, which follows on the launch of Main Event’s lifestyle brand, Mstylexp and its western brand Mwest – caters to the staging of J Wray & Nephew’s Campari Pop Style islandwide competition, and so far, Annex has conducted 308 executions.
“We did the most successful Campari Pop Style ever. We started working with them with a full sponsorship strategy which is flowing into 2019,” Sharpe said.
“We assembled a special team for the execution, a mixture of some of the veterans within our team…it was a new relationship for Wray & Nephew and the Campari team but within three months we were up and running at about 90 per cent and we have been cruising since. They are very happy and we are very happy and you can see it in the numbers,” he continued.
As for Mwest and Mstylexp, Main Event opened both showrooms in the first quarter of its 2018 financial year. Mstyle XP has since been developed into a robust 24-hour operation, while Mwest is slowing securing market space from western Jamaica with executions from party promoters and corporate heads.
“We have executed in Montego Bay over five days for the Caribbean Wastewater Association where they had over 200 international delegates and we blew that one out of the water. When it comes to Main Event, Mwest, Mstyle, no matter what brand we are firing from, we exceed expectations,” the CEO reasoned.
Overall, Main Event conducted a total of 1,624 executions during the 2018 financial year.
“That’s 305 happy clients and I think we have exceeded 100 per cent success. I just really want to tell my team thanks.”
But there’s more to come from the event and marketing company.
Aside from settling on invitations from St Kitts, Turks, St Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago, Sharpe also disclosed plans to launch a training institution, M-academy, to certify and improve on the skills on Main Events’ staff.
Sharpe told shareholders that the company has “big plans for 2020” and is keen on ensuring that Main Event is “right-staffed” when the company makes the announcements.
Currently, every event executed by Main Event requires a minimum of 15 technicians for each event, and with the company’s expansion into the western end of the island and its plans for a regional footprint, Sharpe is focused on building and retaining talent within the group.
“Talent retention is very difficult for a company like ours. We continue to churn out talent and we continue to get raided,” he said, added that Main Event is now in dialogue with the University of Technology for partnership.
Sharpe lamented that Main Event has had clients who hired 30-50 international staff to complete work on the west coast recently.
“Why should they bring in these individuals if we have talented individuals here in Jamaica? So with the launch of M-academy we are going to continue to churn out talented individuals, better employees that are now certified,” he argued.
“One of the issues we have is that our North American clients will ask about our staff certifications, so it’s one thing to have talented staff, but they don’t have any kind of certification behind their name,” Sharpe said.