Nigeria VO artists get global synergy as Africa’s VO Conference sets for Lagos
By Omolola Dede Adeyanju
The Facilitator, VoiceOver Workshop, King E Afemikhe, has announced that the fifth edition of the pioneer Africa VoiceOver Conference has been scheduled to hold in Lagos state, Nigeria on the 25th and 26th of June 2024 as key speakers from diverse countries will be hosted.
In a brief with the Press, King E enumerated that the VoiceOver conference is a pioneer conference and first of its kind in Africa. He revealed that various foreign brands sponsored the conference this year, he is also being contracted as Voiceover artists for an animation that will soon be featured on the Cartoon Network as well as the partnership with Lionforge, an international brand.
King E further stated that there are only two voice over conferences in the whole of Africa, one online and the Africa VoiceOver conference facilitated by himself, a physical conference that has been for five consecutive years.
However, he said the conference is targeted at rewriting the VoiceOver (VO) history and helping young people become relevant through using their voices. He noted how VoiceOver helped him scale through the University, generating the income for school fees payment and his needs throughout his schooling.
‘Hence I saw the light in VoiceOver and conceived the idea of this conference in order to build the Industry. If you look at our counterparts across the globe, there is a lot the VO industry gives to them in terms of animations, etc. You see people gainfully employed as VoiceOver artists.
‘We are also doing this to contribute our quota to the economy, letting people know that there is a lot we can do as young people, instead of venturing into illegal acts, cybercrimes and so on’ he said.
In respect to his collaboration with the government, he expressed that the 2024 Conference will be hosting the Special adviser to the governor on media and publicity and there are plans to collaborate with the government, moving forward. ‘We are trying to ensure we sensitize people more on VO so they can have a broad understanding of its relevance’ he said.
In view of expectations for this year’s conference, King E stated, ‘We have stated some very important topics to be discussed. We’ll be hosting speakers from seven to eight distinguished African countries, as well as speakers from US, Portugal and other countries. This year, we will also be working with a lot of animation companies’ CEOs. As we know VO doesn’t start and end in recording in the studio. There is copywriting, animation, marketing, negotiation, and all of that.’
He noted that amongst the most relevant conversations for the 2024 VO Conference is that of the creator economy and impacting the Nigerian economy as a VO artist. King E named the impacts of the conference as enormous, ranging from the fact that it will spark relationships and encourage collaborations of VO players within and outside Nigeria to networking and creating opportunities for the VO artists to thrive.
Moreso, a Voiceover artist, and member of the conference team, Eniola Keshinro expressed that Hollywood voice over industry has been in existence for over hundreds of years, notwithstanding, the Nigeria voice over industry is still in its infancy because most people in the voice over industry have been on their own, just doing their thing. ‘There have been no concrete collaborations that could spark development in the industry’, she said.
Also speaking, Voiceover Coach, Eric Ekwueme examined the analysis of Artificial Intelligence (AI) viz-a-viz the VO industry. He said, ‘Presently, AI has not gotten to that stage where it can replicate the human features and voice in its entirety. As we know that AI or robotics cannot understand human emotions or replicate the right voice for certain emotions or moods. There is a lot about the human voice, it changes based on experiences, situations and the likes. Human interactions can’t be compared to that of robots because our interactions are based on feelings and robots lack feelings.
In addition, the CEO, Shutter House Africa, Abraham Aderonmu submitted his company’s commitments to ensuring the growth of the VO Industry as the reason for his continuous sponsorship and Partnership with the facilitator of the VO Workshop and Conference.
