Why we built PLVN
The spreadsheet-and-WhatsApp era of Ghanaian event planning is over. Here's what comes next.
In Ghana, an event is never just an event. A traditional wedding involves extended family hierarchies, kente ceremonies, customary drinks, and a guest list that grows by the day. A funeral in Kumasi can mobilise a thousand people across three days. A naming ceremony is the first time a child is formally introduced to the community — it carries weight. These are not occasions where you want the logistics to fall apart because you forgot to confirm the caterer's deposit, or because you sent a WhatsApp message into the wrong group.
When we started building PLVN, we surveyed over forty event planners in Accra, Kumasi, and Tema. Every single one of them was managing their events the same way: a central spreadsheet, multiple WhatsApp groups, a phone that never stopped ringing, and a prayer. The tools that existed — the generic event planning software designed in San Francisco or London — were built for a fundamentally different kind of event. They had no concept of the vendor relationships that exist here, no understanding of how budget negotiations work, no room for the ceremonial layers that define a Ghanaian celebration.
PLVN is our answer to that gap. A single platform where every element of an event lives: the timeline, the vendor contacts, the budget, the tasks, the day-of runsheet. A verified marketplace where planners can discover caterers, photographers, sound engineers, and MC crews without relying on a WhatsApp forward. A day-of mode that gives the planner a real-time view of what is happening right now, so they can stay ahead of the day instead of chasing it. We are pre-launch, and we are building in the open. What comes next is shaped by the planners and vendors who join us now.
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