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Damakese Marketing & Events

Damakese · Addis Ababa

The room this dayhas not been built.

An event is a promise made in public. It either works, or everyone in the room knows it did not.

A moving row of rooms. Drag horizontally, or use the previous and next buttons.

An event floor, lit and empty, before the doors open.
People gathered in a room before an evening event.
A speaker at a lectern, with the room listening.
A banquet room set with white linen and glassware.
Stage lights over a concert audience.
A wide hall set for an exhibition.
A presenter opening a launch in a seated room.
A trade-fair floor before the aisles fill.
A stage before the house lights drop.
A formal table set for the evening.

The hall

We plan and produce conferences, state occasions, concerts, exhibitions and launches from a blank page. No recycled floor. No borrowed run sheet.

Start a briefSee the book
People gathered in a room before an evening event.

The name

Everything it has comes out when it is pressed.

It begins the same way in every house. Something is wrong, it is late, and the clinic is closed. Someone goes to the garden and comes back with a handful of damakese. The leaves are crushed, the steam is breathed in, and the room waits.

It works, and it works quickly. Nine years on Ethiopia’s largest stages, that is still the standard.

About the house

The practice

Five kinds of day. One standard.

The stage is built and tested the day before, so nothing is being finished while the guests arrive. Run sheet, rooms, and the name spelled right on the badge.

A speaker at a lectern, with the room listening.

Protocol, permits, and a day a ministry or an embassy can hand over. We know the loading doors, the traffic, and who actually delivers.

A banquet room set with white linen and glassware.

Sound, light, and the hour the schedule breaks. That hour is when a client finds out what they bought.

Stage lights over a concert audience.

Exhibitors, speakers, and one way through the room. The fair is produced end to end, from first concept to the last truck.

A wide conference stage with a large screen.

Every brief gets thinking of its own. We do not recycle a concept because it is easier to produce.

A presenter opening a launch in a seated room.

One crew. The date stays the date.

See the practice

On the book

Days that can carry a name.

Nothing on the public book yet. A day stays internal until it can carry someone’s name.

End to end

The day, in the order it is made.

  1. 01The brief: what the day has to achieve.
  2. 02The idea, written before a supplier is called.
  3. 03The plan, and the second plan.
  4. 04Build, then test, then leave it alone.
  5. 05Doors. The crew stays until the last truck.

How the day is kept

  • 01

    Keep our word

    A date we confirm is a date we keep. Scope is never quietly reduced in the hope that nobody notices.

  • 02

    Plan for the break

    Every plan carries a second plan for the part most likely to fail. “It should be fine” is not a contingency.

  • 03

    Sweat the detail

    The chair line, the cable run, the name spelled right on the badge. We do not sign off a room we would not photograph.

  • 04

    Bring an idea

    Every brief gets thinking of its own. We do not recycle a concept because it is easier to produce.

  • 05

    Stay in the room

    We work to be asked back, not to close one invoice. A small event is never a small client.

A date

Tell us what the day has to achieve.

Start a brief