Community Highlights: Meet Ahmad Khatib of Nxt Generation Entertainment

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ahmad Khatib.

Hi Ahmad, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself. 
It all started with an idea and vision. 

I, Ahmad Khatib (Ack) & my partner Rawad Asfahani (Ray), are the owners of Nxt Gen Entertainment LLC here in Dearborn. 

My partner Ray and I met in year 2015, and upon our first conversation, we figured out that we had much in common when it came to hobbies and interests. After finding out we were neighbors, we decided that we needed to become close friends. 

Considering the timeframe our friendship began, we were both attending university programs. Both of us were in similar fields and striving to achieve similar academic goals and achievement. Although we attended different universities, we helped each other along the way, and both graduated within a year of one another. 

Shortly after graduation, I think it was safe to say that we were both a bit lost in terms of our career paths. But that was soon to change. 

In the next several years, we began our journey to success. From photography and video production to studio and music production, DJing, and live entertainment, we tried it all. 

Like all aspiring entrepreneurs, this journey opened our eyes to something much bigger. Soon we were making plans to open up a business and work for ourselves and little did we know it would lead us to where we are today. 

We both took a leap of faith, gathering all our personal saving funds (along with our parents’ credit cards 😂), and made our first purchase. 

The company started with 4 speakers, a couple of microphones, and a small trailer and was officially opened on March 1, 2018. But that was only just the start. 

Now that we were officially open as a company, it was time for all the hard work. Day in and day out, we tried our best to strategize marketing plans to get our names out to as many people as possible. 

Slowly but surely, we started to gain a bit of traction, then all of a sudden BOOM! COVID-19 takes over the world by storm and EVERYTHING shuts down. Every event we had booked in our calendar was canceled, and we returned all of our customers’ deposits it felt like our 2 years of hard work was flushed down the drain. But boy, were we wrong? 

Covid gave us a chance to take a step back and re-analyze the trajectory of our business. During this time, we planned and plotted what our next moves would be as soon as this was all over. 

As everyone may already know, the economy during Covid was very different, and that’s exactly why we decided to take yet another big leap of faith and invest MUCH more in brand-new, state-of-the-art equipment and technology that would REALLY put us on top of all the competition. 

Considering all our events were canceled for the next few months, we took this time to perfect our craft and become true professionals in understanding, handling, and managing our new equipment. 

Also, during this time, we met someone who would help take our original plan to the Nxt level. 

Zak Iza was yet another neighbor living in the same neighborhood with the same brains as Ray and I, but (x)2. 

We like to call Zak the lighting master. 

Soon, Covid finally started to die down, and it was time to put our brains and equipment to use. 

By the grace of God and more hard work, the bookings and inquiries stared to flow back 10-fold! 

With the increase in bookings, we needed to recruit more team members who were like-minded and as “hungry” as we were to achieve our goals. And at no surprise, most of those team members were also right in our neighborhood. Big shoutout to our top players at Nxt Gen: Zak Iza, Yousef Silmi, Abbas Mallah, Hisham Khatib, Malek Alsabbagh, Mohammad Zahr, & AJ (among others) 

At this point, it was time to go full throttle to really be able to make it to the top! And that is EXACTLY what we did. 

For the next two years, we more than occasionally endured 18-hour days, sleepless nights, and endless labor in order to reach our goals. As the weeks and months passed, our visions and goals expanded beyond the horizon, and our work ethic, drive, and passion pushed our whole team to achieve goals that we thought would be impossible just a couple years earlier. 

And here we are today, still as “hungry” as ever to achieve excellence in every aspect of our business. And God willing, we will keep setting our goals higher and higher as we go! 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Like any local business, we faced many challenges along the way. It was nothing we couldn’t handle, but at times it felt like it was the end of the road. 

But by the mercy, grace & compassion of God, along with our perseverance, we were able to overcome these obstacles one by one as they came along. 

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about Nxt Generation Entertainment?
We are a team of certified Professional Sound engineers & Lighting technicians servicing clients all over the U.S. Our team is based, licensed, and Insured in the State of Michigan. With over 20 years of combined of experience, we promise to provide professional execution and technical production of high-profile weddings, sporting events, festivals, award ceremonies, conferences, corporate events, product launches, and state-of-the-art architectural lighting and sound installations. 

Alright, so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you, or support you?
The easiest way to show support for our company is as simple as leaving us their honest feedback on any of our platforms: Google, Instagram, Facebook, etc. 

We also love receiving calls from new clients that tell us, 

“Hey, I was recommended to you by… so-and-so… and they said you did a phenomenal job and we’d love to work with you.” 

So spreading the word really helps as well. 

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Instagram.com/NxtGen.Entertainment
• Other: https://g.co/kgs/gsSfv2