Leading Media and ICT Strategy for the 2nd Biennial International Conference on Pan-Africanism

Jul 8

5 min read

When people think of international summits featuring heads of state, vice presidents, and ambassadors, they picture the glitz of the main stage, the flashing cameras, and the polished speeches. But as a Project Manager, I see something else entirely: a complex web of infrastructure, data pipelines, communication funnels, and real-time crisis management.

For over a year, I had the immense responsibility of serving as the Head of Media and ICT Strategy for the 2nd Biennial International Conference on Pan-Africanism, which recently concluded at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Cotonou, Republic of Benin.

This wasn't a project I picked up a few weeks before the event. My journey began in February 2025, the exact moment the international conference planning committee was officially inaugurated. For nearly 17 months, my team and I worked tirelessly behind the scenes to build the digital backbone of an event that eventually brought together delegates and policy makers from over 26 African countries.

Here is the unfiltered story of what it takes to manage the technology, media, and human infrastructure for a massive, multi-national, bi-lingual African summit.

The Pre-Conference Marathon: Managing Bi-Lingual Chaos and Distributed Teams

The foundation of a successful event is laid long before the opening ceremony. In the year leading up to the conference, our primary milestones were building a flawless registration pipeline and coordinating global planning meetings.

The first major challenge was structural: the planning committee was entirely bi-lingual.

Sitting through international planning meetings meant constantly navigating the sharp divide between Anglophone and Francophone delegates. It was an incredibly demanding, slow-moving exercise in patience. We had to wait for interpreters to translate every single technical requirement, strategic pivot, and logistical update from French to English and back again. Managing the digital tools to accommodate this dual flow required intense concentration and rigorous documentation.

Simultaneously, I had to build and lead our virtual Media and ICT team. We had incredible volunteers joining us from different cities and countries across the continent. Providing leadership to this team was an exercise in pure inspiration and dedication. These were professionals and young minds who were juggling their demanding day jobs, yet they showed up consistently to execute our digital strategies. Coordinating their workflows across different time zones to hit our marketing and development deadlines was nothing short of awesome.

Our collective pre-event strategy paid off massively. Through targeted growth campaigns across our digital channels, we attracted registrations from over 26 countries and processed over 50 high-level academic and research papers.

The Main Event: Navigating Technical Shock, Logistical Warfare, and Live Chaos

If the pre-conference phase was a marathon, the actual week of the conference (July 3rd to July 7th) was an absolute sprint through controlled chaos.

As the Head of Media and ICT Strategy, I had been the primary digital point of contact for months. Long before the conference week, delegates from all over Africa were interacting with me online to finalize their registration and travel logistics. The moment we landed in Benin Republic, those digital relationships turned into intense, real-world responsibilities.

Suddenly, I wasn't just managing server uptimes; I was managing human movement. One minute, I had to drop everything and rush to the Cotonou Airport to receive international delegates arriving from Kenya. The next minute, my volunteer media team members were arriving after grueling, stressful journeys, exhausted and needing immediate coordination.

My phone was literally banging with nonstop calls, WhatsApp pings, and endless DMs. Honestly, at one point, my eyes went completely blurry from pure exhaustion.

The immediate friction on the ground was a massive shock to the system:

The Infrastructure Shock: We had to swap out SIM cards and adapt to completely different network provider structures. Even finding out where to safely exchange currency became an immediate hurdle—until I had to rapidly find a local "money plug" to bring us physical West African CFA francs to keep logistics moving.
The Hardware Trap: Even charging our equipment became a puzzle. The wall sockets and electrical extensions were configured entirely differently from what we were used to back home. You would plug in your universal charger, see the indicator light turn on, but it wouldn't actually charge the device because of voltage or pin compatibility issues.
The Language Barrier Isolation: The hotel names were in French, the drivers didn't understand a single word of English, and the cleaners spoke only French. Trying to coordinate transport, equipment setups, and accommodation across this sharp linguistic divide was incredibly taxing.

Yet, in the thick of that overwhelming pressure, when things felt like they were spinning out of control, I would look at my team.

Our volunteers were incredibly committed, pushing through their own exhaustion, technical limitations, and cultural shocks without a single complaint. Watching their dedication became my greatest motivation. It reminded me that we weren't just running an event tech desk; we were building the infrastructure for a united Africa. We took a deep breath, recalibrated our systems, and made sure every single live stream, presentation slide, and delegate experience was flawlessly executed.

Post-Event Execution: The Work Continues

The closing remarks have been delivered, and the physical delegates have returned to their respective countries, but the media lifecycle of a major conference doesn't end when the lights go out.

Right now, we are fully immersed in the post-event publicity phase. My team is currently managing the distribution of post-conference media, compiling conference proceedings, indexing the 50+ research papers presented, and ensuring our digital footprint continues to drive conversations around the Pan-Africanism of Action. The momentum built across our digital channels must be sustained to ensure that the policies discussed translate into lasting, visible impact.

Special Acknowledgments & Gratitude

Looking back at the journey that started in February 2025, I am filled with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. This project wouldn't have been possible without the visionary leadership and support of key individuals.

My profound and special thanks go to:

The Pan-African Dialogue Institute (TPADI): Thank you for providing the platform, resources, and trust to execute this grand digital vision across borders.
Associate Professor Effiong Udo (President, TPADI): Thank you for your exemplary and steering leadership, and for constantly inspiring the team to push past baseline limitations.
Fr. Emem Umoren (Chief Programme Manager): Thank you for your strategic guidance, alignment, and for keeping the moving pieces of this massive project orderly.
Mrs Uduakabais (Director of Administration): Thank you for anchoring the administrative heartbeat of this conference and ensuring our operational needs were met.
Special thanks to Bar. Dorcas

I am equally grateful to my brilliant, resilient team of technology and media volunteers who gave their absolute best to this project.

Leading the ICT backbone for a continent-wide summit proved something I have always believed: Technology does not care about borders, and systems don't care about language barriers. When you build a resilient technical framework and lead with clarity, you can unite a continent—one data packet at a time. 🚀

To my fellow project leaders: What is the most chaotic live-event challenge you have ever had to manage under pressure? Let's swap war stories in the comments below! 👇