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May 29, 2026
Work5 min read

What Exactly Do I Do
at Nirvana and Blockfest?

Good question. I get asked this a lot, and I never quite give a clean answer in person. So here it is, written out properly.
Role
Partnerships & Growth
Events
Blockfest Lagos + Cape Town
Academy
Nirvana Academy
Spaces listeners
10,000+

The short version: I build things, I secure partnerships, and I make sure events actually work when the day comes. The long version is everything below.

01

Blockfest Lagos.
Where it started.

Blockfest Lagos was where it started for me.

I came in on the partnerships side, working on both brand partnerships and community partnerships for the event. That means conversations, negotiations, follow-ups, and making sure the right organizations were attached to the right stage at the right time.

It is quieter work than it sounds. And it matters more than most people realize.

On event day, I moved into operations. I worked with the programs team to manage the ground experience, from check-in all the way through to making sure every guest was properly received and taken care of. The first thing a person feels when they walk into an event tells them everything about how much the organizers care. I made sure that feeling was the right one.

02

Blockfest Cape Town.
A bigger lift.

Cape Town was a bigger lift, and my role reflected that.

I led community partnerships for the South Africa edition, and alongside my team, we brought in nearly all of the community partnerships for the event.

Community partnerships are not just logo placements. They determine who shows up, who feels like the event was made for them, and how far the ripple travels after everything wraps.

I also supported the programs team in securing speakers for the event. The right voices in the room shape everything. I helped make sure we had them.

03

Nirvana Academy.
Building from the ground up.

My work at Nirvana has been less about executing tasks and more about building something from scratch.

The Events
NVS 1, NVS 2, and OG Labs
Alongside my team, I have co-organized three major events for Nirvana. Each one has been a marker of where Nirvana is going, not just what Nirvana can do today.
The Partnership
OG Labs
One I am proud of. It did not happen by accident. It happened because someone put in the relationship work, and I was part of that.
The Structure
Internal organization
This one is harder to put on a flyer, but it might be the most important thing I have done at Nirvana. Putting the right people in the right places and building a team that is actively delivering results. A functioning team is not a given in early-stage organizations. It is built deliberately.
The Community
3,000 in one Space. 10,000+ across our last few.
Community growth has been a core part of what I do. We hit close to 3,000 listeners in a single Space session, and across our last few we have crossed 10,000. The numbers are moving, and there is more in the pipeline.
04

So, what do
I actually do?

I build partnerships, run operations, grow communities, and help organizations show up the way they are supposed to.

Partnerships
Brand and community. Securing the right names, the right stages, the right relationships at the right time.
Operations
Making sure the day actually works. From check-in to closing. The experience people walk away with.
Community
Growing the rooms, filling the Spaces, building the audience that shows up because they genuinely want to be there.
Structure
Building the team and internal systems that make everything else possible. The work nobody posts about.

That is what I do at Nirvana and Blockfest. Now you know.

Amona Ayoola
Partnerships · Growth
Building in public. Writing about what the work actually looks like.
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