I REMINISCE: THE STORY BEHIND THE WKND SOCIAL

With less than 2 weeks before the 4th edition of TWS I'm amazed at how far we've come and how far we still have to go. By we, I'm referring to Stephanie O'Connor, Vuyiswa Mutshekwane, Nothando Moleketi, Boitumelo Mohale, Thithi Nolubabalo Nteta and I, Nandi Dlepu. It's no wonder we've dubbed ourselves The Collective. Having known each other socially for years how we got here is something I'm sure we've taken for granted but honestly, it was nothing short of serendipitous.

Stephanie and I officially met early 2012 at the Neighbourgoods Market. By the end of that evening we had discovered that we were kindred spirits but it was our love for food that really clinched the friendship. She told me about her mango salsa and I my signature gnocchi dish and quiet frankly we started dating. Hahaha! Our first date was at a quaint little spot tucked away at the Shepherds Market in Craighall Park, called Modo Mio. We vibed and spoke just about every single night since then and for months to come. So for somebody I had only known for a short time we become really good friends really quickly. I told her about how I wanted to have luncheons, spaces where like-minded people could throw down, hang out and just enjoy good conversation. In fact thats how this blog even come to be.

We organized our first Sunday lunch at her place and without even realizing it the concept of good food and good people was born but it would take a couple more months before we'd even think of opening that up to the 'world'.

Fast forward to September, a handful of lunches later and Steph and I get to talking about the brunch movement cum day parties in New York. She mentions attending one back home called Everyday People and begins to sell me on the idea. Her sales pitch included "finally something relevant for 28 pluses to do in JHB." With the emergence of the various food markets in and around Johannesburg I was sure that the market was ready for a foodie type event. I thought, throwing in the day party component made the whole idea even more bankable. So Steph and I started planning our first event. Shortly into our pre prod and workshops we thought it wise to look for either a chef or an established foodie to help 'legitimize' our endeavor and that's when we approached Nothando Moleketi of Foodiefix. I'd met Thando maybe close to a decade ago in my living room nogal! But that's a story better left untold. Right Thando? tltltl. Thando and Steph were also friends so it felt right that we weren't approaching a stranger with our project.

True to the saying, "there's no new thing underneath the sun" I remember Steph calling me to say that Thando was not available to work with us on this project and that she was infact already part of another group planning their first event around the exact same concept, a brunch cum day party event! I remember the panic as Steph and I considered the implications. We all came from similar social circles so we'd essentially be targeting the same market, most likely reaching out to the same dj's. I was out of words while I paced up and down the office parking lot. Well I lie, there was one word I kept repeating over and over again, "Fuck."

It turned out we both were planning our first events for October. Fuck. We both had short listed the same venue for our respective launches. Fuck fuck. I'm not sure who from the other group decided to call a meeting between us two but I can truly say that was a chess game move. Rather than deal with a possible competitor the group, Thando, Thithi, Vie and Tumi suggested we merge. Honestly, I was skeptical going into the meeting. From the 2 of us to 6 women?! You know what they say about too many cooks. But I kept an open mind and we met at The Foundry in Parktown North to hash things out. Just an hour into the meeting my skepticism was gone and while we were still technically debating the idea in my head I was already in the future tryna work out the best possible group dynamic. I was in and covertly sent Steph a message during the meeting saying so. Another thing we had to consider was that the 4 had just broken away from another female initiative and coming in I needed to be sure that this wasn't something that could possibly happen to us. I believe the 4 felt the same. Nobody starts out on any venture only to have to withdraw just as nobody starts a relationship thinking it will end but these things happen. Thankfully they had come out with a handful of learnings from that experience. Learnings that they were all frank about. Learnings that informed their consequent decision to merge with Steph and I.

We hit the ground running, locked off a date and started finessing the model for TWS which at the time was still without an official name. Do you have any idea how hard it is to name an entity with 6 different individuals?!?! So early on we decided that when it came to all decisions all that was needed for a go ahead was 4 votes. Everything that has since gone into THE WKND SOCIAL has been put to a vote. We stay democratic. Or at least try very hard to keep it that way.

Here are some of the names we considered before finally going with THE WKND SOCIAL:


Offline
Fat Kiss 
Fat Smooch
Collective
Downtown Social 
Social Book
Social Saturdays!
EverythingInBetween
Sweet Talk
Sweet Life
La Dolce Vita
AllThingsNice 
Mosaic 
Throwback
Downtown Feast 

*cringes* uhm some of these names were terrible! I am real glad we went with THE WKND SOCIAL. Because of the 90's inspired soundscape of our after party I particularly liked the throwback feeling to the name. 

While working frantically between all our other obligations and responsibilities one of the ladies got an invite to another brunch cum day party. Fuck. The event was a week before our own. Fuck fuck. After an understandable amount of panic and some investigation we concluded that because their target market was different to ours that there was not much to be concerned about. It was the same day as str crd and frankly nobody we know would organize their event the same day as str crd. Friends who attended a portion of the event confirmed as much. Nuff said.

While still working out the model and overall vision of the events, before the merge, Steph and I were on a Skype call with her Brooklyn homie Dj Moma of Everyday People. I recall him telling us how before EDPL was even launched in Brooklyn that the brunch movement was already underway in the meat packing district as a result he couldn't attribute their success to them being the first to do it. I remember thinking "There's no such thing as an original idea just original people." A quote I had picked up a while back. The key to any success story is not just the idea but the individuals behind it. How the magic of those particular set of skills, personalities and karma can individuate that idea or experience and give it value.

2 weeks before our launch event our promo teaser is finally released. With it our tumblr and Facebook pages go live. Invites are sent out and tickets are available online. We only sell a couple tickets the first day. I decided to hold out on the curses and trust that as Johanesburgers always do we will sell a lot more closer to the event. We did, in-fact we sell out brunch tickets early into the 2nd week of ticket sales and on the day the day party reached capacity. We were happy and sooooo relieved. We also quickly realized that the real work had also begun. Now we had customer expectations to manage, we welcomed feedback from the first event and with each event we strove to make THE WKND SOCIAL experience better for our friends, new friends as well as for our very cool yet nameless consumers.

Like I started saying, we're less than 2 weeks into our 4th edition and our first event of the year so thank YOU for the love and support. To our partners and sponsors, thank you. To our dj's thank you, thank you and thank you.

I hope to see you at the next THE WKND SOCIAL. Regrettably brunch tickets are already sold out but you can get your tickets to the after party here.

See you then.

Feast!