The second edition holds Friday, September 25, 2026, at the Eko Convention Center, and organizers are expecting 2,500 people, up from 1,381 at last year’s sold-out debut. Keynote duties this year go to GTBank co-founder and FATE Foundation Chairman Fola Adeola, OFR, mni. House of Tara itself has been adopted as a teaching case study at Stanford Graduate School of Business, and convener Tara Fela-Durotoye has just wrapped a four-city East Africa tour.
According to Nigeria’s Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), roughly 80% of Nigerian small businesses shut down within their first five years — most don’t survive long enough to even think about legacy. Following a sold-out debut, the Building Beyond You Institute has confirmed the return of the Building Beyond You Conference, a one-day event built around a simple question: what happens to your business the day you’re no longer in the room? The second edition takes place on Friday, September 25, 2026, at the Eko Convention Center, Lagos, and organizers are expecting 2,500 founders, business owners and executives this year, up from 1,381 at the maiden edition.
The conference is convened by Tara Fela-Durotoye, founder of House of Tara International — Nigeria’s first indigenous makeup brand and the country’s pioneering professional makeup academy, which she built from her living room at age 20 while still an undergraduate law student. It’s aimed at founders and executives trying to figure out how to keep a company running, and growing, without needing them for every decision.
In April 2025, Tara Fela-Durotoye stepped back from the day-to-day running of House of Tara International, the beauty business she grew over 27 years into Nigeria’s first makeup academy and first indigenous makeup brand. She handed the role to Rosemary Layode, the company’s first substantive Managing Director — in plain terms, she gave up the wheel while the business was still working well, instead of waiting for a crisis to force the decision for her. Tara Fela-Durotoye wrote about the handover in Building Beyond You: The House of Tara Story, a book that took her seven years to finish. It came out in April 2026 and has already made the Amazon “Business” bestseller list in both Canada and the United States. The House of Tara story is now taught as a case study at Stanford Graduate School of Business in California, which organizers point to as proof that founders everywhere, tech and venture-backed companies included, are paying closer attention to how a business survives a change at the top.
The Institute shared the vision at the first Building Beyond You Conference on September 18, 2025, at Harbour Point, Victoria Island, Lagos. Coca-Cola, MTN, i-Invest and House of Tara sponsored the event, which was headlined by Atedo Peterside, Chairman of the ANAP Foundation, with sessions from Tara Fela-Durotoye and Ibukun Awosika, entrepreneur and former Chairman of First Bank of Nigeria. “If you want to flip your company for profit, this conference is for you. If you want to hand over to your children, this conference is also for you,” Tara Fela-Durotoye told attendees, framing the event around deliberate choice rather than a single exit path. For the second edition, organizers have unveiled Fola Adeola, OFR, mni, as keynote speaker — co-founder of Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), where he served as pioneer Managing Director/CEO from 1990 to 2002, and founder and Chairman of FATE Foundation, which he set up in 2000 to train, mentor and fund young Nigerian entrepreneurs.
Tara Fela-Durotoye has since taken the conversation beyond Nigeria, touring four East African cities, Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali and Dar es Salaam, to mark the book’s release. At the Kigali stop, held with Rwanda’s Private Sector Federation and Nigeria’s High Commissioner to Rwanda, she said: “Legacy is not makeup for me. Legacy is not beauty for me. Legacy is the impact of the lives that I developed, that I built in the institution.” RwandAir is now offering a 15 percent discount on flights for anyone travelling to Building Beyond You 2026.
VVIP and Regular tickets are selling at a pace organizers say matches last year’s sold-out run, and VIP early-bird pricing is still available for a limited time. There’s also an Online Viewer option for anyone who can’t make it to Lagos in person.
“Legacy is not an event; it is a culture of building that outlives the builder,” Tara Fela-Durotoye said. “This conference is not about stepping away from your business. It is about stepping up — to leadership, to structure, to the discipline of building something that will still be standing, and still be growing, long after you have left the room.”
Anyone interested in attending can register at www.buildingbeyondyouinstitute.com/conference. Brands looking to sponsor or partner with the conference can reach out at partnerships@buildingbeyondyouinstitute.com.
About Building Beyond You Institute
The Building Beyond You Institute is a business development and legacy hub equipping founders, visionaries, and executives to build systems, institutions, and brands that outlast them. Through its annual conference, published works, courses, roundtables, and community, the Institute teaches, mentors, and mobilizes leaders across Africa to move from personal success to generational significance. Learn more at buildingbeyondyouinstitute.com.
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