Great expectations as the Luxury Lifestyle Summit begins

LEADING luxury brands within and outside Nigeria have signed up for the Luxury Lifestyle Summit happening on September 6 and 7 at the Balmoral Convention Centre, Federal Palace Hotel & Casino, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Featuring conference and exhibition, the summit is themed ‘Digital Inside – Get Wired to Deliver the Ultimate Luxury Experience’ with players in the arts, architecture, fashion, beauty, travel and luxury service providers as participants.

Sun International’s SunLux collection of luxury hotels from South Africa, Delta Air Lines, South African Airways, GHI Assets, Balmoral Event, Julian’s Luxury, Coscharis Group and South African Tourism will all be exhibiting at the summit being organised by TOPCOMM PR and The Luxury Reporter.

Tour Brokers International, Wontra, United Bank for Africa, Access Bank, First Bank and n-tel will also be exhibiting at the event.

About 20 emerging indigenous brands in the arts, fashion, perfumery and other sectors will also exhibit their products in line with the goal of the summit to expose hidden gems in the Nigerian luxury market. Some of them include: E’sorae Luxury, Abela, Scentify, Regalo African Luxury, Nsaata, TPS Luxury bags, Oud Majestic, Adire Lounge, Pere Lei, Muji Lagos, foremost designer and Lanre Da Silva Ajayi (LDA).

Speaking at a meeting with journalists, Mrs. Funke Osae-Brown of The Luxury Reporter and Mr. Tope Ogbeni-Awe, gave more insights into the summit intended to be an annual event.

“There is no better time to beam a searchlight on the Nigerian luxury industry than now that the economy is in recession,” explained Osae-Brown. “There’s affordable luxury that the Nigerian market attracts. It’s a huge market and goes with the growth of the middle class. We believe it is about developing the entire value chain in the luxury sector. We no longer want to just export our leathers from Kano to Italy where value is added to it and sold back to us as Louis Vuitton, Chanel handbags, wallets, shoes, belts etc.  We believe the way to go is educate service providers about this and how to develop our internal luxury environment,” she added.

Osae-Brown said that   Paul Andrew, Chair, African Wealth Report, Geneva will give the keynote speech entitled ‘Is Nigeria Ready for Luxury’ while other speakers  are Daniel Weihrauch, CEO of Lions & Gazelles; Oliver Williams, CEO, Firebreak Group based in the United Kingdom and Funmi Onojide, founder, Regalo African Luxury Store, based in Lagos.

There will also be panel discussions to be moderated by CNN Africa Editor, Stephanie Busari,  and GM of Radio One, Funke Treasure-Durodola, while discussants include:  Abiona Babarinde of  Coscharis; Kavita Chellarams of Arthouse Contemporary; Ejiro Onobrakpeya; Kayode Kasunmu, Executive Director, Beauty Bar and Essenza and designer Frank Osodi.