Howzit Live Opens Vendor Applications Ahead of January 2027 Launch

JOHANNESBURG: Howzit Live, a corporate event marketplace operated by B&W Productions, has opened vendor applications ahead of a January 2027 launch. The platform is recruiting food trucks, bars, disc jockeys, team-building operators, staging and sound crews, photographers and infrastructure suppliers across Gauteng, and will open bookings to corporate planners at the same time.

The commercial terms are set out on the site: listing carries no charge, vendors pay no fee to receive a brief, and each supplier sets its own rates on a per-head, flat or hourly basis. Payouts run on the Friday after each event. Howzit Live said the model is intended to remove the lead-generation charges that suppliers typically absorb before a single booking is confirmed.

The marketplace is organised into nine departments — games, photo moments, food and drink, bar service, sound and staging, infrastructure, entertainment, health and safety, and photography and videography. Suppliers may list in more than one. The site displays a live bench count per department, and marks thin categories as needing more vendors so that applicants can see where demand currently exceeds supply.

“Suppliers are asked to pay for introductions before they have earned anything, and planners are asked to chase twenty separate confirmations for one event,” said Bibi Burness, founder and managing director of B&W Productions, which operates Howzit Live. “Howzit Live is built as the opposite: open entry for suppliers, real briefs from corporate clients, and a production team on the other side that has actually built and run events.”

Burness has worked in events for 33 years, on site, behind the decks and running production for brands across Gauteng. Howzit Live is his answer to the coordination problem that sits between a corporate brief and the suppliers who deliver it: rather than an algorithm matching keywords, the brief lands with a production team that has rigged, staged and struck the kind of event being planned.

That distinction matters most in corporate event production, where procurement requirements arrive before creative ones. Health and safety is treated as a department rather than a line item: venue load-in times, structural sign-off on staging, electrical certificates and public liability documentation sit with the production team that holds the contract. For a listed supplier, that means compliance expectations are set before the first brief arrives rather than requested after a booking is confirmed.

Vendors set rate cards at the point of listing, whether per head, flat or hourly, and keep them current through the vendor dashboard. The platform does not negotiate rates on a supplier’s behalf. Payouts run the Friday after each event, which the company said is intended to shorten the gap between delivering the work and being paid for it — a structural complaint among small event suppliers working on 30- to 60-day terms.

The platform covers the full range of corporate work — year-end functions, team-building days, product launches, company picnics, conferences, festivals and experiential brand activations — and is set up to handle events from 50 guests to more than 5,000. Production is quoted as one scope under one invoice, with games, photo activations, food, bars, sound, staging, infrastructure and health and safety handled inside the same contract.

Corporate planners can register a 2027 event now through the site without obligation. Registration captures the basics of the event and puts the planner on a list to be contacted when bookings open in January. A separate event builder lets a planner select experiences, venue area and preferences and receive an indicative estimate in minutes, with a follow-up from the team within 24 hours.

B&W Productions is fully booked for the 2026 festive season, and year-end gifting orders remain open through its Kugzulu division. Howzit Live bookings open in January 2027. The company serves Johannesburg, Pretoria, Sandton, Midrand and the surrounding Gauteng areas as standard, with events elsewhere in South Africa handled on request.

Vendors can apply to list through a short form that records trade, department, service area and rate card. Applications are reviewed before a vendor appears on the bench, and the company said it will prioritise departments currently marked as short of supply. Compliance documentation, including health and safety and POPIA provisions, is handled as part of onboarding.

Planners comparing Gauteng service areas will find the marketplace weighted towards the Sandton to Centurion corridor, where most of the corporate calendar sits. The company said coverage will widen after launch as vendors join outside the core catchment, with each new department opening a corresponding set of booking slots.

About Howzit Live: Howzit Live is a corporate event marketplace operated by B&W Productions in Gauteng, South Africa. It connects corporate planners with vetted suppliers across nine event departments and opens for bookings in January 2027. B&W Productions has produced corporate events, festivals and brand activations under founder Bibi Burness.

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