Mumbai: Coming February, Kerala will be ready to welcome marketing, advertising and media professionals. As this year, the International Advertising Association (IAA) will be hosting the IAA World Congress at the Grand Hyatt Lulu International Convention Centre, Kochi from February, 20 to 22, 2019.
More than 2,000 delegates from nearly 25 countries are expected to participate at the function. Some key attendees of the event will be Reliance Industries Ltd, CMD, Mukesh Ambani; Unilever, CEO, Paul Polman; Qualcomm, CEO, Steven Mollenkopf; non-executive Chairman of Infosys and former Chairman of UIDAI, Nandan Nilekani; CEO of Softbank Investment Advisors, Rajeev Misra and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan will also speak at the event. Yet another Bollywood talent and social influencer, Deepika Padukone will attend the function too.
Some of the other speakers include tennis great Andre Agassi, Vijay Amritraj, Alibaba Group Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Tung, Facebook VP of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson, co-founder of Skype Jonas Kjellberg, President and Chief Executive Officer of BBDO Worldwide Andrew Robertson and Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy Worldwide Piyush Pandey will embellish the occasion.
Pradeep Guha, Chairman Steering Committee, IAA World Congress, said “This is being planned as the most significant event covering marketing, communications and related technology areas in the world. We have assembled a stellar array of 35 speakers, each one a global leader in their own rights.”
Apart from the Congress, there will be three evenings of great entertainment which will include ‘welcome to Kerala theme nite’, a Fashions and flavours of India theme nite with a fashion show curated by designer Manish Malhotra featuring 42 models, and a farewell Bollywood Nite which will have some of the top Bollywood stars in attendance.
Srinivasan Swamy, Chairman and World President IAA, added, “The IAA is an 80-year institution headquartered in New York, having a presence in 55 countries, and having as its constituent’s advertisers, advertising agencies and the media. The World Congress is held every alternate year in important destinations around the world. I am very pleased that the 44th. World Congress is being held in India.”