Mr South Africa 2022, Fuad Williams; founder of DDEM Management Dennis Davids and The Face of DDEM 2023, Craig Turner. Picture: supplied
Dennis Davids is an events-and-marketing guru from Hangberg. His goal is to motivate his community, showing them that anything is possible and that they should dream big and start early to think about their future plans.
“The youth in our community have few role models to look up to, and I'm hoping that I can motivate and inspire them to go out in the big world and do something with their lives. If I could do it, so can they,” says Mr Davids, 40.
He is the youngest of five children. His mother was a domestic worker and his father was a fisherman. He attended Sentinel Primary School and Hout Bay High.
In 2005, after graduating from Boston City Campus, he was offered a position as their marketing and events coordinator. “That’s where my love for this field started,” he says.
Sentinel News wrote a story about him when the newspaper turned 21, and he was chosen as our beneficiary, receiving R10 000 which, he says, he donated towards children's school fees at Sentinel Primary School and Hout Bay High.
In 2011, he went solo and started DDEM (Dennis Davids Events and Marketing) Management. He also launched a model competition, the Face of DDEM, to attract followers to his social media platform.
In 2020, the event came to a standstill when the pandemic hit and events were banned. But it made its return earlier this year.
“In February, we hosted an open casting for the public to attend and more than 30 models pitched and met a panel of judges,” says Mr Davids.
The top-15 models were selected and invited to a formal red carpet dinner and prize-giving on Saturday May 13 at the Protea Hotel Fire & Ice! where Craig Turner, of Kuils River, won the title of The Face of DDEM 2023.
The event also attracted national celebrities including Mr South Africa 2022/23 Fuad Williams; Idols SA winners Karin Kortjie and Sasha-Lee Davids; Brett Herron from the Good party; and the royalty of the Cape Town drag scene, former Miss Gay Western Cape 2019, Maxine Wild, who was also the Face of DDEM 2019 winner.