Name: Clemence Mutembo
Organization: Harare Business Forum
Role: Chief Executive Officer
Other Interests: Public Speaking|
Achievements:
– The first to introduce a Zimbabwean business forum that runs highly attended weekly events.
– The first to introduce a go-to open information centre for all general and specific business needs and requirements.
We often run weekly events at Batanai Gardens in the CBD, Harare, inviting different business people to come and speak on different topics. On one of the events we invited a certain speaker and all expectations we prepared for the event. However, when it came time for the event to start, the speaker was nowhere to be found. His phone went unanswered as we tried it so many times and in the end he never showed up. In the meantime, we could not just turn away of the people who had taken time out of their schedules to grace the event so thinking on my feet I quickly changed the theme and presented on customer service which fortunately is my passion and the event was salvaged.
I realized though that in organizing such events it is not wise to rely on one main speaker and from then on we introduced the concept of 4 speakers per night. While creating variety, it is also a risk management strategy in case one of the speakers does not show up due to emergencies or otherwise, we know we are covered.
