（株）イベント21は奈良県香芝市に本社のあるイベント会社（社員162名）で、イベント企画・運営、イベント用品レンタル、イベント会場の設営、看板制作及び販売などを行っています。営業地域は日本全国、海外にわたっています。顧客は「アミューズメント・レジャー」「ファッション」「自動車」「広告・出版・マスコミ」等々、多分野の企業や団体で、結婚式の二次会用のイベントなど個人顧客の要望にも応じています。社長の中野愛一郎さんは開口一番、昨日は234件の見積もり依頼があり、4件は海外からとおっしゃいましたが、年間4万件以上の問い合わせがあり、新規の見積もり依頼は10年連続で対前年20％以上です。売上は2006年度1億円強に対し2018年度見込み16億円と急伸中です。

中野さんは26歳になった2007年に創業者の父親の突然の死去で取締役に、10年4月に代表取締役社長に就任しました。経営を引き継ぐのは嫌だったそうです。同社ホームページには取締役就任前の職業が「旅人」と記されていますが、35か国を一人旅し、発展途上国の貧困を目の当たりにしました。将来は世界の中心であるニューヨークに住み、世界に貢献できる仕事をしたいと思っていました。しかし、父親の人生そのものでもあった企業も大事にしたい。では、この企業をニューヨークに進出させよう、そうすれば自分の夢もかなう。

最初にやったのは、16年連続債務超過だった企業の再建。言い値で買っていた資材の仕入れ先を代えるなどして、経費を50.4%削減し、黒字転換させました。社員の給料もあげ、年間休日を40日から80日にしました。次に、売上を一社に90%依存し、価格もたたかれ放題だった従属経営からの脱却。この手段になったのが、今や経営の支柱となっているウェブによる情報発信で、猛勉強しました。その甲斐あって08年4月ウェブからイベント案件を初受注し、とてもうれしかったそうです。09年10月にはウェブからの受注に追いつかなくなり、社員の一般採用を開始するほどでした.。

社員が20名になった10年4月、同社のもう一つの柱である経営理念「you happy, we happy あなたが幸せなら私達も幸せ」を発表しました。イベントを通じ世界を幸せにする。「旅人」時代に抱いた中野さんの思いの追求です。この理念に共感する若者が集まり、社員の平均年齢は26.5歳。先輩のバックアップの下、新人にも責任を持たせるシステムで人が育ち、他のイベント会社が特定の領域に特化しているのに対し、どんなイベントも手がけられるようになりました。

海外との取引額はまだ2,000万円程度ですが当初から海外に目を向け、国内に支店を出す前にホーチミン市に支店を開設しました（国内に現在5支店、間もなく２新支店開設）。海外との取引はインバウンド事業（海外企業の日本でのイベント開催支援）、アウトバウンド事業（海外でのイベント用に鏡開きの道具など日本文化に満ちたものを物販）、コネクト事業（例えばベトナムのアオザイショーのパフォーマーを日本でそれをやりたい人につなぐ）があります。今、海外事業が大きく飛躍しそうです。夢だったニューヨーク進出です。イベント21のホームページを見た米国人が息子に紹介しました。オハイオ州立大学を卒業し、日本に留学経験もある若者です。スカイプを通して中野さんたちと面談。アメリカでも経営理念を掲げる企業はあるが、言葉だけが多い。面談を通じ、この企業の理念は思った以上に本物だと感じたそうです。私が人生のビジョンは何ですかと尋ねたところ、世界のためにハッピーな出会いをつなげることだと答えてくれました。顧客の満足度を高めるのが楽しみだそうです。会社の理念が自分の理念にもなっています。2021年にニューヨーク支店の開設が決定しています。彼はきっと大活躍するでしょう。

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Event21 Co., Ltd. is an event company (162 employees) headquartered in Kashiba City, Nara Prefecture, engaged in event planning and management, event equipment rental, event venue setup, sign board production and sales. The business area covers all over Japan and overseas. Customers are companies and organizations in various fields such as "amusement / leisure", "fashion", "automobiles", "advertising / publishing / media", etc., and they also respond to individual customer requests such as wedding events. Mr. Nakano Aiichiro, the president, at the very beginning of his speech, told me that he yesterday received 234 requests for quotations, and 4 were from overseas. There are more than 40,000 inquiries a year, of which new quotations are more than 20% of the previous year for 10 consecutive years. Sales are growing rapidly to 1.6 billion yen in 2018, compared to over 100 million yen in 2006.

Mr. Nakano became a director in 2007 when he was 26 years old due to the sudden death of his father, the founder of the company, and became president in April 2010. He didn't want to take over the management. In the website of his company, his occupation before joining the company is written as "traveler." In fact, he traveled alone in 35 countries and witnessed poverty in developing countries. In the future, he wanted to live in New York, the center of the world, and work to contribute to the world. However, he also wanted to cherish the company that was the life of his father. So he thought if he could move the company into New York, it will make his dream come true.

The first thing he did was to rebuild the company that had been insolvent for 16 consecutive years. By changing the supplier of the materials that were bought at the asking price, he reduced expenses by 50.4% and the company returned to the black. He also raised the salaries of the employees and changed the annual holiday from 40 to 80 days. Next, he aimed to break away from subordinate management, where sales were 90% dependent on one company and prices were all-you-can-eat. The means to do this was to disseminate information via the Web, which is now a pillar of management, and he studied hard for that purpose. It was worth doing it, and he was very happy to receive the first order for an event project from the web in April 2008. In October 2009, he couldn't keep up with the orders received from the web, and he started hiring employees through general recruitment.

In April 2010, when the number of employees reached 20, he announced the management philosophy "you happy, we happy, if you are happy, we are happy", which is another pillar of the company. This is the pursuit of Mr. Nakano's thoughts during the "traveler" era, to make the world happy through events. Young people who sympathize with this philosophy gather, and the average age of employees is 26.5 years. Under the backup of the senior employees, young members grew up with a system that makes newcomers responsible, and while other event companies specialize in specific areas, they are now able to handle any event.

Although the amount of transactions with overseas is still about 20 million yen, he turned attention to overseas from the beginning and opened a branch office in Ho Chi Minh City before opening a branch office in Japan (currently 5 branches in Japan, 2 new branches soon). Overseas transactions include inbound business (supporting overseas companies to hold events in Japan), outbound business (selling items full of Japanese culture such as tools for the New Year's event of cutting a cake of pounded rice for overseas events), and connect business (for example, connect the performers of Ao Dai Show in Vietnam to those who want to do it in Japan). The overseas business is likely to make a big leap now. It was his dream to advance to New York. An American who saw the homepage of Event 21 introduced it to his son. A young man who has graduated from Ohio State University and has studied abroad in Japan. He had an interview with Mr. Nakano through Skype. He said, there are companies in the United States that have a management philosophy, but they are just many words. Through the interview, he felt that the company's philosophy was more genuine than he had expected. When I asked Mr. Nakano about his vision for life, he said it is about connecting happy encounters for the world. He is looking forward to increasing customer satisfaction. The company philosophy is also his philosophy. It has been decided to open a New York branch in 2021. He will surely make a big success.