“Event is such a powerful tool to educate, fundraise and bring awareness to important causes – everyone can do it!”, reiterates Rashidah.
Rashidah Rahman is an Events & Virtual Summit Coach who helps business owners boost their visibility, authority and impact through events. Rashidah started her journey with a noble awareness event on Domestic violence called “Spot It, Understand It, Stop It”. Today, with an experience of working with major sponsorship brands and high profile figures for over 9 years, she has become a guiding light for businesses to make their presence felt. Her expertise has brought speakers featured in Oprah Winfrey Show, Forbes, BBC, Wall Street Journal and many others.
Read further, to know how you can transform your brand visibility with events in this candid conversation Storiyaan shared with Rashidah.
5 Min Bit With Rashidah Rahman
Interview
Questions and answers
Your journey began when you organized your first-ever independent event to raise awareness about the issues of domestic abuse. What drew you to the cause in the first place?
Domestic Violence used to be a secret thing that’s swept under the carpet. We got to start talking about it to fix it! Also, when I was younger, my mother faced domestic abuse and even though I can’t help her then, I can now through my events.
What turned out to be the best decision for you when you decided to do things the unconventional way?
Unconventional way = Unconventional results. My last client secured speakers who’s featured on Yahoo News & Business Insider for her Virtual Summit, even with 700 Instagram followers. Things get to move faster, easier and way better than ever before. I love teaching my clients this same framework to help them get juicy results at record speed.
Did you ever have any catastrophic experience while organizing an event? Could you tell us about it?
Once, I had a projector fail during a business conference even with the best video production company in that city. Another time, I had a Michelin Star Chef miss a cooking masterclass after he met with a small accident (he’s fine now). But the catastrophe always got fixed. Some takes time and others some creativity.
What was the most challenging event you've organized so far in your journey?
I would say World Gourmet Summit was a challenging event simply because of the scale. There were over 40 events within the festival, and it took a year to plan. We had everything from Charity Dinner to Workshops – and most of our chefs and partners are from all over the world so it was a huge production.
What are some strategies you use for managing and prioritizing work for yourself when there is too much work and too few staff members to complete the tasks at hand?
Outsource where you can – even to your own friends and family. You might be surprised at how much they would love to help! Cutting the fluff will make sure your programme is focused. And lastly, make sure your event format work specially for the resources that you do have – budget, manpower, time etc.
What was the biggest lesson in this field that you learned the hard way?
That things don’t always go as plan but having a Plan B is as important as a Plan A. It’s perfectly okay that things screw up – but have a Plan B to fix it.
If you had to describe yourself as detail-oriented or big-picture oriented, which would you choose? Why?
I’m a detail-oriented person so I love the nitty gritty stuff when it comes to hosting events. That’s also one of the reasons why I usually attract big-picture people as my collaborators or partners – we work best together.