New Event Platform Negat Debuts with Broad Coverage

Negat Events, a platform dedicated to keeping users updated with the latest events, is entering the market with a broad approach, enlisting religious events, lectures, and motivational speech gatherings.

The platform, which was launched two weeks ago, offers event registration, ticket price information, and event promotion features. It aims to provide a seamless experience for event organizers and attendees, with tools for scheduling, tracking, and analyzing event performance.

Leul Sisay, CEO and co-founder of Negat Events shared the inspiration behind the platform: “I had the idea when I was in my third year at Addis Ababa Science and Technology, studying software engineering. Since our campus was located on the outskirts of the capital, it was really hard for us to find places to go. Sometimes we checked for events on social media and just went there without having other preferences. That motivated me to start the Negat program while I was in my third year.”

Once he graduated, Leul focused on Negat with his co-founder, Kenan Alemayehu, and after eight months, they managed to finish the platform.

According to Leul, Negat provides a better experience through its mobile application, which is available on both the App Store and Play Store. However, it also has a website. Users can choose events from nineteen categories based on their interests, with a minimum of three sections to get started. From music to sports, food, poetry, religious events, and social events like motivational speech gatherings, there are many options available.

In recent years, Ethiopia has witnessed an exponential surge in the number of motivational speakers and self-help gurus. With the advent of social media, these charismatic figures have gained popularity and amassed a substantial following.

These figures hold several events weekly, most of them concentrated in the capital, Addis Ababa, where they connect with their followers. Negat is capitalizing on this trend and aims to meet public demand by providing this information.

“Currently, we are posting events gathered from social media and other means,” Leul said. “But soon, we plan to expand Negat’s service by providing event hosts with a dashboard on the platform and charging a subscription fee ranging from daily to annual subscriptions.”

“Sometimes users come with a plan to attend some event but don’t know where to go or have limited information on where to go. We provide daily event recommendations based on their interests,” Leul told Shega. He also mentioned that the platform offers analytics on the most rated events, helping hosts organize similar events.

In the two weeks since lunch, Negat has had a little over 100 downloads, but the CEO believes this is due to a lack of promotion. He expects the numbers to rise and mentioned that they are upgrading the platform by integrating it with payment gateways and a geolocation feature, providing users with detailed instructions on how to get to the event venue.