Nadim Jamal is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Event Lab. He is an experienced event project director and production manager. Nine years ago, Nadim and business partner Murad Shisha made the shift into event resourcing, forming Event Lab and ensuring that clients are connected with the best people to conceptualize, plan and manage their events.
With an extensive vetted network of skilled freelancers, Event Lab is a connector between talent and clients. From choreographers to videographers, entertainment managers to producers, Event Lab has transformed the way recruitment works, beyond even just the events industry.
We learned about Event Lab due to the company’s exceptional services and extraordinary event resourcing model. We connected with Nadim Jamal to learn more about the company in his own words.
Explain the background of you and the company in detail.
I started my career as a freelancer in the events industry. I had many roles: stage manager, project manager, event director, production manager, entertainment manager. The list goes on.
Murad, who similarly worked as a freelance producer and choreographer, and I saw the need for greater representation of freelancers in the market. We also saw how difficult it was for events agencies to find the resources they needed. This formed the basis of Event Lab.
Event Lab is a leading staffing and recruitment solutions provider in the GCC and MENA regions. Through hard work, quality, and consistency, we’ve become the go-to solution provider for most of the event agencies & governmental entities in the UAE, KSA, and Doha.
But this hasn’t been done through a traditional recruitment model. We are a true connector, understand the needs of freelancers and the needs of agencies. In the age of solopreneurs, freelancers and contractors, we change the recruitment game by looking at flexible working models beyond just permanent contracts, and we are able to fit the exact desires of the freelancer and their skillset with the exact needs of the client.
What are your goals?
We want to bring the same model that we have helped develop to other locations in the GCC and beyond. It is a model that works well outside of the events industry as well, and we will continue to grow that side of the business.
What do you feel is the biggest strength of yourself/company right now?
Our intimate understanding of the events industry results in high-quality results and the fast
turnaround time with the utmost flexibility. We have the biggest quality-driven database of independent professionals with a wide range of skills and backgrounds in the GCC and arguably one of the largest databases in the world.
What was the path you/your company took to get to where you are today?
The path of hard work, building trust, and doing the right thing throughout.
We are proud of the company we have created and even more proud of how we’ve evolved. And it’s all because of our incredible team.
Why did you start (or want to be the head of) this company?
In 2013, as event professionals ourselves, both Murad and I saw a genuine lack of representation for event professionals looking for work in the events industry in the UAE and the wider GCC and decided to build a unique platform of support and services for freelancers and clients alike.
What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?
COVID-19. Despite the huge toll that Covid took on the events industry and us losing every project in the pipeline, we made and honored a commitment to retain our team during the downtime and even grow the team in anticipation of the busy times to come.
We were able to use the downtime and the capacity of having staff to make improvements to our processes and even to increase our database by 40%. We also used this time to move into a significantly larger office space to be our home for future growth and exciting things to come.
Give us one word that describes you the best.
Ambitious
What makes you excited about Mondays?
We love what we do! Our team comprises the most amazing people who love what they do and are great at it. We try not to interfere with that. One of the biggest mistakes most employers make is to get good people and dim their light through old-fashioned leadership and micromanagement. We are the opposite – hire good people and let them do what they do best – which reflects greatly on the team and us.
What do you value most about your culture and vision?
Our company is driven by results and what the team members contribute, not by a strict set of time-based requirements. We have no “punch-in/punch-out” rules. This gives employees much more flexibility to work effectively – when it is best for them.
The company’s size also allows us to operate quite lean and horizontally. Very little “middle management” means that difficult approval processes are not part of the picture. All employees are encouraged to take ownership at work. Staff members are empowered to take the initiative, leading to quicker and more effective decision-making. We are a company of 35 individuals with a philosophy of trusting each other. We have an empowering, trusting, and flexible culture. Everyone has a role, and no process is made just for the sake of it.
Tell us about a project that forced you to be innovative and creative.
Expo 2020
For Expo, we were selected out of dozens of potential recruitment companies to fulfill 4 out of 5 major staffing needs for the event delivery. This included all levels of operational roles, from junior to senior. This was awarded at the height of the pandemic, and numerous travel restrictions were in place. Beyond having a local database of ready professionals, we were able to recruit from countries with fewer travel restrictions, opening a greater pool of resources for the World’s Greatest Show. This included sourcing from all corners of the world and increasing the diversity and breadth of experiences at play. From recruitment to onboarding to team management to debriefing, we have been there the whole way through.
In addition to recruiting directly to Expo2020, numerous pavilions relied on us to find people who suited their unique pavilions and operational styles, including Saudi Arabia, DP World, Singapore, and the USA.. We worked at 150% capacity for many months to undertake such a massive effort. This helped achieve success for everyone from the opening ceremony up to closing, with a total of 1200 staff.
What are the strategies of your company, and how do they stand unique from your competitors?
It is well known that the events industry tends to function with immediacy and urgency. Part of our success is due to our ability to very accurately identify the perfect candidate quickly because we’re such a robust system, and that’s why we can creatively find flexible solutions to urgent needs no matter the scope. Every placement and fulfillment of a role is unique and requires creative, solution-oriented thinking.
We regularly employ this “Spearfishing approach” to recruitment to find who fits each and every role that comes in. This is not a game of “anyone will do.” This is a combination of the freelancer’s needs and desires with the agencies’ and companies’ needs and ambitions.
What are the key values which helped you to overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership?
A combination of keeping calm in stressful times and not being overwhelmed with the magnitude and scale of the task you’re working on, being confident that even though there’s a mammoth undertaking to be accomplished, you will always be able to do it. Boldness. The persistence to ensure things get done and resourcefulness to find creative solutions no matter what.
Combining all of those in the events industry, I was able to handle various leadership positions in many projects with never-ending to-do lists with extremely tight timelines and often tight budgets.
When I was the Project Director of Abu Dhabi International Triathlon, on behalf of the agency that was awarded that, I had to learn an entire event type in such a short time, which involved shutting down a huge portion of Abu Dhabi from Emirates palace all the way to YAS island to accommodate thousands of participants to safely compete on international standards, which was televised both on land & water.
I was the youngest person on the project. They didn’t realize my age and hired me as project lead.
Being with the average age of people reporting to me being in their 30s and above when I was 26 taught me many things. Working with a large team was one of them, irrespective of age, culture, background, etc., towards accomplishing a common goal, which helped shape my leadership.
How do you see the company changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
Event Lab is ever evolving, and we are hiring more people for leadership roles. We bring in experts and delegate to those experts after seeding the essence of our culture and vision in them.
We are always striving to develop our skills, capabilities, and accuracy and our existing technologies to enhance our services and delivery.
I plan to play my role in this change as a driving force, to encourage the growing team to always be highly ambitious as a company and drive new business ventures.
Where is your leadership going? What benefits do your clients get from your company in this competitive world?
Event Lab transformed the way the resourcing process worked in the events industry in the region, not by building a traditional recruitment model focused only on the needs of the agencies but by building a horizontal, collaborative system recognizing the needs of both contractor and contractee. This is in line with our value of “success for all” – a mantra we keep to remind us that we are not a mono-directional “supplier.” We are people in an industry based on people.
As we develop, grow, and succeed – so do our clients and all the fantastic people on our database.
What are your company’s services/solutions or products on par with the current industry standards? Tell us something about your upcoming products or services?
Event Lab is the source for all the talent you need. We support in three main areas:
- Recruitment, connecting businesses to freelance talent and to full-time employees
- Operations Staffing, building teams of hosts, ushers, ticketing agents & more
- Entertainment & Culture, a one-stop-shop for all things live entertainment and cultural showcases.