Ghana saw the largest gathering of digital content creators at the first ever Zeepay YT Creators festival last weekend. This initiative by Entamoty media ltd in partnership with ICS Africa was one of the highly anticipated events in the month of November as well as the Governments’ official ‘Beyond the return’ event being forecasted. Africa’s biggest creator, Mark Angel, Ghana’s leading YouTuber Wode Maya, Kenya’s Miss Trudy, CEO of Menta Music, Yonny Friedman and the French Ambassador to Ghana, H.E Anne Sophie Avé were some of the special guests of the festival.
The 3-day (26 – 28 November) creators festival began with a tour for creators and influencers. Before the tour started there was a special meet and greet session amongst creators, the media, and Mark Angel. The Accra City tour with creators was a fun filled and an exciting road safari expedition with the Ghana Tourism newly launched double decker buses for experiencing Ghana. Creators were driven through Ako Adjei Interchange, Ring Road Central, Kwame Nkrumah Interchange, Accra Digital Center, Boxing Emporium, James Town, Light house, Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, Independence Square and ended at ATIC. Since the bus was filled with content creators, all you could see is selfie sticks, tripods, cameras, and smart phones in the air just for them to catch a glimpse of the amazing sceneries in Accra Ghana.
The second day which was regarded as the main day of the festival, took place at Zeepay head office in cantonment from 9am to 5pm. The activities scheduled included keynote presentations, one on ones, panel discussion sessions, master class, brainstorming and virtual reality experience. Despite being a full day’s summit, the Saturday event was engaging, informative yet devoid of boredom; at one point some participants didn’t want it to end. The master class was the most insightful session as both creators and potential content creators were able to undergo practical class to learn subjects like YouTube content monetization, Seo and algorithm growth and basic video editing techniques. The class was led by Rick Aqua, Mordin Bi Taiwan and Cyber Reviews. Mark Angel and Wode Maya had one on one to share their success stories and inspired fellow creators about the art of content creation. Other Speakers included CEO of Zeepay Andrew Takyi Appiah, CEO of Menta Music, Yonny Friedman, Media personality Jessica Osei – Saforo, Nadia Modoc, Steven Blessing Ackah and the French Ambassador to Ghana, H.E Anne Sophie Avé. Other Speakers who took on the panel discussion included MzGee, George Britton, Kwadwo Sheldon, Ivy Prosper and Lakeisha Ford. The summit ended with an exclusive influential party hosted by Zeepay Ghana.
The creators Awards and concert at Accra City Hotel on Sunday 28th November climaxed the whole Zeepay YT Creators festival. It was a night of glamour, fashion, and excellence. Creators turned up in their afrocentric costumes looking all elegant and alluring for the night. Some of the content creators who took home a golden plaque included Jessica Opare – Saforo who won YT Creator of the Year, Ivy Prosper as Travel Creator, Mark Angel and Wode Maya winning the Zeepay YT African Influencer of the year and the YT Diaspora Creator of the year respectively. The event is an Entamoty Media Initiative in partnership with ICS Africa Limited and support from Zeepay Ghana.
According to the Creative Director of the Zeepay YT Creators Festival, Barimah Amoaning Samuel, the team’s goal is to establish a hub of content creators in Ghana where young people who wish to pursue digital content creation will be trained and equipped with skills and given incentives like cameras, laptops, smart phones, and MiFis to assist in their everyday creation. He appealed to both individuals and private organizations who wish to support this project to reach out to Entamoty Media, because he believes that equipping young people with digital skills is one of the ways of reducing the unemployment rates amongst the youth in Africa. Other notable partners include Mentamusic, Avance Media, Accra city hotel, Africa World Airlines, Beyond the Return, Blogging Ghana, Ghana Gold Expo, Twellium Ghana, Edward Asare, Oasis Magazine Africa, Wiflix Ghana, Music Africa, pulse Ghana, WatsUp Tv, Digital Times Africa, Ghana.
BY JANET OWUSU
