So *That's* What 10,000 People Looks Like...

Today I spoke at the Platform, an event in Nigeria put on by the Covenant Christian Centre aimed at inspiring Nigerians to think outside the box. I was a little intimidated. Not only was the site on the same grounds where Nigeria declared independence, but I was sharing the stage with some amazing speakers. And there were 10,000 people in the audience and millions more watching on national television and the livestream online. Quite the gig.

Here's a glimpse of what it looked like-- only the audience fanned out from the stage in a T-shape, so the camera only captures a fraction of the people there. (I'm the tiny speck on stage above.) It was amazing looking out at all the faces, hungry for inspiration. Hopefully they left happy!

After the big keynote, we did smaller breakout sections. I did my first keynote about the different types of innovation I found during my 40-week journey around the emering world. For the second one, I talked about lessons entrepreneurs should learn from Silicon Valley's ecosystem, and traits of Silicon Valley they shouldn't try to replicate. Pregnant lady on parade! 

My poor baby must be sick of my keynotes. I remember once in junior high someone asked me the definition of existentialism, expecting to stump me and I rattled it off without batting an eyelash. I wasn't a prodigy-- my dad was just a philosopher and I grew up listing to that stuff. Likewise, after all these keynotes my baby is going to be born knowing the GDP, population and growth rates of the seven largest emerging markets. 

Finally, here's me with Pastor Poju-- the head of The Covenant Christian Centre and the organizer of the event. And below, there's me with some of the staff. They put on an amazingly seamless event.