The LagosMums 6th Annual Parenting conference and exhibition held on October 12, 2019, at Harbor Point Victoria Island, Lagos and it was well attended.
The event on Saturday served as an extension of the online hub, providing a face-to-face forum for networking and discussions on parenting in the 21st Century. The theme this year was “Creativity – The Currency Of The Future” the attendees included mums, dads, caregivers, sponsors and vendors. The format of the event included very interactive panels and fireside chat sessions on various topics.
How our children compete with Robots and Artificial Intelligence
The first Panel on “How our children compete with Robots and Artificial Intelligence” included Ivie Temitayo-Ibitoye; a Human Resource Professional, Misan Rewane; Co-founder of Wave and Stephen Omojuyigbe; Talent Development expert and certified Life Coach. The panel was moderated by Tonye Oji. The session was enlightening as the speakers talked about the changing workforce in the 21st century and how our children need to work alongside Robots and Artificial Intelligence. The panel reinforced that creative intelligence is critical for today’s child and noted that truly every child is born creative. Children need to build resilience through failure and learning because life is not all easy. Parents were advised to note that the days of average are over and not to compare their child to everyone else.
L to R- Tonye Oji, Ivie Temitayo-Ibitoye, Yetty Williams, Misan Rewane, Stephen Omojuyigbe
An Alternative Future and Technology
The speakers for “An Alternative Future” session included Head of Brand and Reputation, Sub-saharan Africa at Google; Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Head, Business Development of AXA Mansard; Naomi Aduku and Education Consultant; Uzoma Uduma as the moderator.
This speakers in this eye-opening session advised parents to engage children and allow them to explore their natural creativity. The alternative future deals with the reality that parents cannot ignore technology and digital media; they need to embrace teaching their children about the online world. Mojoloaluwa Aderemi-Makinde shared some of the ways that parents can monitor their children’s online activity with tools such as the app from Google called Family Link available for free on the Google Play Store. She went on to mention that LagosMums has been chosen to implement Google Online Safety Roadshow workshops for parents and children; which all attendees should watch out for.
When it comes to finance; Naomi Aduku advised Parents to empower their children with the right financial lessons from a young age. Lastly, she encouraged women not to ignore financial matters and to focus on their financial health now and for the future. Ms Uzoma shared several educational apps that encourage learning and critical thinking in our children.
L – R- Uzoma Uduma, Yetty Williams, Mojolaoluwa Aderemi-Makinde, Naomi Aduku
Instagram Education and What Kills Creativity
The fireside chat on “Instagram Education versus Real Life – The Real Life versus the Feed Life”, featured Yetty Williams; CEO and Founder of LagosMums and Tracy Nwokoma – a student, writer and scientist. Tracy shared how the reality of children and post-millennials can be altered by what they see on social media. She shared that when it comes to education “hard work beats smartness if smartness fails to work hard”. Additionally, Tracy shared that when a child is doing well academically, it does not mean they are getting all the skills that they need to thrive in the future.
Mrs Williams advised parents to allow children to be free and let them explore (reasonably). Additionally, parents should resist the urge to put labels on their children that limit them.
The next fireside chat discussed certain things that kill children’s creativity. Mr Taiwo Akinlami; child development expert and Mr Labi Williams highlighted the huge role parents play. They emphasized the fact that “We have to develop practical strategies to raise children with the right values. A parents’ mindset could affect the child by being limited by the parent’s own past experiences or limiting beliefs. Mr Akinlmai mentioned that parents who are not current cannot raise children effectively for the future.
Creativity as a tool to raise our children
The final session moderated by Tracy Nwokoma was an in-depth discussion about using creativity as a tool when it comes to raising our children. The panel included Kafayat Shafau popularly known as Kaffy, Elijah Alebo; Director at EIV Music and Sarah Boulous Chairperson, Society of the Performing Arts Nigeria. The speakers shared their individual creative journey and advised parents on how to nurture their children’s creativity.
It was reassuring to hear different stories when it comes to their personal creative journey and to know that there is no “one size fits all” approach because every child is different. Mr Elijah advised Parents to encourage their children to interact with music from a young age. Kaffy advised parents against using fear to raise their children. This panel was certainly very lively, honest and detailed. Sarah Boulos took us through a practical aspect of defining what happiness means to us and we wrapped up the day with some amazing dance steps from Kaffy.
During the lunch break, we were entertained with a dance performance by The DreamCatchers, an Academy that uses dance, drama and music as a tool to help and encourage underprivileged and destitute children to stay in school while pursuing their dreams and passion. Attendees got to sample various dishes provided by Maggi.
Sponsors and Supporters
The sponsors and vendors offered attendees the opportunity to shop, sample products and get lots of free products. LagosMums would like to thank our sponsors this year at #LagosMums2019 which included Maggi, Google, AXA Mansard, Pears and Kellogg’s. Attendees also got to interact with a host of other vendors that were present.
The giveaway segment of the event saw mums win gifts from Huggies, LagosMums and AXA Mansard. The gifts for our speakers included makeup from House of Tara, skincare products from Cookie Skin and lovely leather wallets courtesy Aaboux. There was a creche courtesy of The Event Nanny so parents were able to attend the various sessions.
Mrs Yetty Williams, founder of LagosMums gave the vote of thanks. She thanked the attendees, speakers, sponsors, her family, team members and God for the success of the event. [Tweet “She encouraged the mums to focus on going after dreams and to remember that we are all born creative.”]
We thank all the LagosMums ambassadors and vendors who helped make this event a wonderful one! A big thank you to our Media Partners this year; The Guardian, Punch, Lost In Lagos, BellaNaija, OloriSuperGal and BenTV. We would like to say a big thank you to Fotolighthouse for sponsoring photography since our first conference!
Last but not least we would like to thank all our Mums and Dads (LagosDads) who were in attendance. Without you, this would not have been a success. Thank you for your feedback and comments that have been pouring in as well. We thank God for such a brilliant conference. See you next year at “#LagosMums2020”
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Read Creativity why you need it and how to get it. See photos from other Parenting Conferences.
