Elevate the network.
Accelerate the work.
Two focused hours. Forty seats. A working room built for founders, creatives and operators who prefer depth over volume.
· Craft
Not a conference. A working room.
Connect & Grow is a curated afternoon convened by AY Nigeria for founders, creatives and operators who prefer depth over volume. Every edition brings together a small, deliberately chosen room to trade honest counsel on the work that actually moves careers forward.
We don’t run a conference. There is no vendor floor, no panel of talking heads, no lanyard theatre. It is a working session — two focused hours of clear thinking, quiet accountability and the sort of introductions that outlast the day.
Volume IV takes the room to Ado Ekiti. We’ll be forty in total — a size chosen so every seat matters, and so the person on your left is someone you leave with a reason to speak to again.
The room does the work. Our job is to build a room worth showing up for.
Three quiet pillars. One clear afternoon.
Guided frameworks that help you decide what to build next — and what to leave behind.
A small room of ambitious peers, drawn together for depth over volume.
Leave with practical tools you can put to work on the flight home.
A room built for four kinds of people.
We don’t select by title. We select by chapter — the moment you’re in and the honesty you’re ready to bring to it.
Building through friction — fundraising, hiring, a first team, or a hard pivot — and looking for honest counsel from people who have been on the same road.
Writers, hosts, artists and independent operators translating a body of work into a durable platform — and the practice that sustains one.
Senior managers and department leads carrying a team through a re-org, a new mandate, or the quiet weight of executing a strategy they didn’t write.
Ambitious people three-to-seven years in, building their first real reputation and looking for a room that will hold a higher standard for them.
Two hours, deliberately paced.
Every minute has a job. Nothing runs long. Nothing filler. You’ll know exactly where the afternoon is going and why.
- 3:45Arrival & pre-session
Coffee, name-cards, and a short prompt to warm the room. No small talk expected.
- 4:00Opening welcome
The frame for the afternoon: what we’re here to do, and the three questions we’ll leave answered.
- 4:15Working session I · Clarity
A guided exercise to name the one problem you’ll walk out with a plan for. Silent work, then paired counsel.
- 4:50Working session II · Connection
Structured introductions in threes. Every attendee leaves with two peers to check in with over the next ninety days.
- 5:25Working session III · Craft
A short talk from the host on the practice behind a public career, followed by open room Q&A.
- 5:55Close & open reception
A soft landing. Small plates, easy conversation, and the unhurried follow-ups the day earns.
Convened by AY Nigeria.
A broadcaster, host and convener of rooms. Across a decade on stage — from private boardrooms to national audiences — he has built a practice around one idea: the right conversation, in the right room, changes the shape of a career.
Connect & Grow is where that practice lives. He facilitates the afternoon personally, from the opening question to the final introduction.
Three volumes in. One room at a time.
Each edition is written by the people in the room. Here is what came before Ado Ekiti.
The founding room. A single-table dinner that set the tone for everything since.
The first proper afternoon format. Six of the introductions from that day became working partnerships.
A quieter edition, deliberately so. The follow-up group still meets on the last Sunday of every month.
Everything you might want to know.
Not here? Write to us and we’ll answer within a working day.
Is there a fee to attend?
There is no ticket. The afternoon is hosted at the invitation of AY Nigeria and a small circle of partners. Selected attendees receive a formal invite once the application is reviewed.
How selective is the application?
The room is capped at around forty. We read every application and shape the group for balance — sector, chapter, temperament — so we can’t promise a seat, but we will always respond either way.
Can I bring a plus-one?
Every invitation is issued for one named guest so the room stays coherent. If you would like a peer to be considered, please ask them to apply and note your name in their form.
Will there be recordings?
No. Nothing is recorded and there is no press. It is the single condition that keeps the conversation honest.
What should I prepare?
One question you would ask the room if you could only ask one. That’s it. Everything else — notebook, laptop, business cards — is optional and, in most cases, unnecessary.
Is there a dress code?
Come as the version of yourself you would want a peer to remember. Smart-casual is the safe middle.
A seat in the room
is earned by asking.
Tell us where you are, what you’re carrying, and what you would ask the room if you could only ask one thing. We read every application.