The Africa Tea Convention is one of the most significant gatherings in the global tea industry — organized by the East African Tea Trade Association, which runs the world's largest tea auction from Mombasa, Kenya. Held every two years and rotating between East African countries, the convention brings together tea producers, traders, exhibitors, and industry stakeholders from across Africa and internationally. For an event of this stature, the experience had long been held back by one significant gap: everything was done manually. Registration, follow-up, check-in, presentations — all of it ran on paper and personal effort, with no digital infrastructure to support it.
The challenges this created were persistent and compounding. Confirming registrations required manual tracking. Follow-up emails for registered attendees were sent individually. Cancellations were difficult to identify and harder to manage. After the event, attendees routinely chased presenters for slide decks — and the team had no clean way to distribute them. For an organization representing the largest tea auction in the world, the gap between the event's industry standing and its technology infrastructure was widening.
Maxwell Mbugua first encountered Eventify at an event in Sri Lanka. Initially hesitant — having never used an event platform before — he was given a trial and was struck by how easy it was to navigate. With quick support responses and user-friendly onboarding materials, his team was up and running faster than expected. By the time the 2024 convention arrived in Rwanda, Eventify was the operational backbone of the entire event.
A Branded App That Justified the InvestmentFor the first time in the convention's history, the Africa Tea Convention had its own app on the Play Store — with the event's name on it. For members who had been paying to attend for years, this was tangible evidence of progress. It changed the conversation around value. Attendees could point to a branded, downloadable application and say: this event has arrived. The white-label capability was one of the features Maxwell highlighted as standing out most from the entire experience.
Real-Time Presentations — No More Chasing SlidesAfter every previous convention, the same pattern repeated: attendees would contact speakers after the event asking for their presentations, and the team would scramble to distribute them. With Eventify, that problem was eliminated entirely. Presentations were available in real time inside the app — and Maxwell's team made a deliberate decision to stop sharing them through any other channel. If attendees wanted the content, they joined the app. Once they did, they were immediately impressed, and many asked why it hadn't been used sooner.
Navigating a Disease Outbreak in Real TimeDays before the Rwanda convention, a disease outbreak in the region triggered a wave of last-minute cancellations from international guests. With ~500 attendees expected and no way to track who had actually withdrawn, the team faced a crisis that manual systems simply couldn't manage. Eventify's check-in tools gave Maxwell's team real-time visibility on exactly who had arrived and who hadn't — something that would have been impossible with their previous paper-based approach. For those who couldn't travel, the team directed them to download the app, where they could chat with exhibitors, connect with other attendees, and access presentations from the event floor. Without a full live stream, Eventify created a meaningful hybrid experience that kept the wider community connected to the convention regardless of where they were.
Meeting Scheduling That Supported Industry Deal-MakingFor Maxwell, success at the Africa Tea Convention is measured by deals sealed — connections made between tea producers, traders, and exhibitors that translate into real commercial outcomes. Eventify's in-app meeting scheduling gave attendees and exhibitors a direct, structured channel to set up those conversations in real time, without relying on informal approaches or post-event follow-up. For an industry convention where the value lies in who meets whom, this feature supported the event's core purpose directly.
Gradual Adoption That Built Its Own MomentumIntroducing a new digital platform to an audience that had never used one before — in a region where technology adoption in event settings was still developing — required a careful approach. Maxwell's team made app access the only way to receive presentations, which created a clear incentive to engage. Once a critical mass of attendees was on the platform and experiencing its benefits, the momentum built itself. Those who joined became advocates. By the end of the convention, the dominant question from attendees wasn't why the app existed — it was why it hadn't been there before.
"Finally, I had an app on the Play Store with my name — attendees could download it, get presentations in real time, and schedule meetings through the app." — Maxwell Mbugua, Africa Tea Convention & Exhibition
East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) is a non-profit organization established in 1956 that promotes and supports the tea trade industry across East and Central Africa. The association manages the Mombasa Tea Auction, one of the world’s largest tea auction centers, and works with tea producers, exporters, buyers, and brokers to strengthen the global tea market and maintain industry standards.
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