An event may take place in a 5-star event centre, with the best decoration that there can be, magnificent seating arrangements, delicious food and an excellent sound for entertainment, but what truly synergies the beauty of all of these and brings the event alive is the person with the artistic grandeur to connects all the dots together to make a complete beautiful masterpiece. This is the person of a Professional Event Anchor!
An Event anchor is not just a person speaking over the mic as gap fillers between programs or a comedian that cracks the audience up with jokes; an event anchor is the host, and facilitator of an event. He plays a significant role in the overall success of the event. An event anchor is otherwise known as an Emcee or a Master of Ceremony and called a compere in a corporate event.
An event anchor in this case – an emcee is someone that can hold down the audience in an event with an awestruck oration, someone who can engage the audience and can chip in jokes at some points without going overboard, someone who can coordinate and take charge of the order of program, someone with a captivating voice that strikes a balance; be it male or female.
The role of an emcee is to warm up the crowd to prepare them for the program ahead, to engage them during the event, and to also ensure a smooth transition from one segment of the event to another. Should there be any hiccup, the emcee is to ensure minimal disruptions to the program.
The craft of a professional anchoring is surely known to be an art of which only the ones that have the creative skills and innovativeness can thrive in the game.
A shy person cannot definitely be in the game because as an emcee or a compere, you face a crowd of total strangers whose critical eyes are fixed on you to criticize your performance with very few familiar faces. And if you are not deft at dealing with shyness, the hostility from the audience would be enough to race out your heart from your body.
An event anchor takes charge of the event, coordinates every section of it, and makes a friendly connection with the audience. A smile is one of the most reliable ways that an emcee uses to stay warm and friendly. It is a must for an anchor to keep smiling and at the same time exhibit a positive and energetic vibes on stage. The more energy he exudes, the more engaged the audience will be, and if he is excited, it will show on the audience, as they will get excited too. But if an emcee is dull and boring, there’s no antidote to boredom and dullness in such an event.
The most challenging part of a professional anchoring is having to carry the audience of the event along in the proceedings of an event. Apart from having a good dress sense that soothes every event and being a loquacious orator, audience engagement is a skill that reflects the strength of an anchor in its true sense.
Meanwhile, having a professional event anchor (emcee) at your event is undoubtedly a beautiful thing, you’ll need to allocate additional cost for one on your budget, because gone are the days when a random person is just picked to anchor an event all because of his/her voice, charisma, and vibe. Emcee is now a full-fledged profession that provides economic value to its practitioners.
The emcee industry has now grown so much that clients are asking more for professionalism than using untrained family members and friends to be the host on their big day, and companies don’t mind hiring one for their annual general meeting or dinner instead of using an unskilled staff and colleagues.
The industry is also not gender biased as it gives equal playing ground to both male and female. One of the prominent female professional emcees in Nigeria is Joyce Daniels who founded the famous Africa’s Premiere Training School for Masters of Ceremonies that has produced over 300 emcees since inception.
It is suffice to note that a professional event anchor in Nigeria for an event like wedding may charge between #100,000 – #3,000,000 based on the location of the event, standard of the event, and the class of people expected at the event.
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Photo Credit: @alibabagcfr
Bayo
Good read… Is there a difference between an Emcee and Yoruba’s Alaga Iduro and Ijoko at traditional weddings?