Hope for events  Industry!

HYDERABAD:  There is a lesson for all of us in the way Germany handled its events – by putting to use the drive-in concept. We all witnessed how the Germans hosted rave parties, concerts and even a circus using the drive-in concept where they maintained social distancing and contactless audience by ensuring the audience remained in their cars. 

Will India adapt too? “Give me a month and I can host a drive-in concert in Hitex itself,” says   Vinay Hegde, who heads the Hyderabad-based Colors Events Solutions, the events company that  brought Sunburn and Sensation concert to Hyderabad. “Most venues in Hyderabad are built around plug ‘n’ play and therefore we can certainly think of it. If we can set up a stage and arrange for the music through personal speakers near cars or through Bluetooth and take care of food by handing it over to the audience in cars, we can do this. Of course, there will be challenges such as tackling drink and drive cases, but nothing we cannot resolve,” says Vinay.

He says that the events industry is just taking time as they want the government to tackle the more important issues such as transport of migrant labour etc before they can broach the subject of a concert or an event. From weddings to the Indian Premier League, and everything in between either got postponed, downsized or cancelled. Naturally, the events industry was among the worst hit. According to a survey by Events and Entertainment Management Association EEMA during the Covid-19, the events and exhibition sector in India is expected to take a `1 Trillion hit as almost all big scale events across categories have been postponed or cancelled because of the outbreak.

These two sectors account for the employment of 60 million people of which 10 million were directly affected due to the crisis.  “This is the first time that we have witnessed such a lull in the events industry. To be able to accommodate the new normal, we are working on designs and brainstorming on how to organise events with less manpower while being able to track the health of our staff,” say Vardhaman Jain and Lokender Jain, event conceptualisers under the name Shooting Starz Events and more who have been doing events and weddings for the last seven years.

They feel that trade bodies should currently help event managers like them to lobby with the government and come up with a more relaxed structure in terms of obtaining license, permission, lowering taxes in our field of work once the situation is under control. “Encourage to host entertaining events and provide government  managed venues at competitive prices post the pandemic. Earlier events were not part of MSME scheme by Govt, but now due to the event bodies even we can reap the benefit of new policies,” they add.

Says Deepika Mahidhara, anchor, corporate trainer and actor, “My main revenue streams for the last 4.5 years as a solopreneur have been from anchoring and moderating conversations professionally, besides corporate training.” She says that in the past, there have been two occasions when work hit a low and she had to start from scratch. “I feel unabashed about having to do it all over again if I must. The confidence of being able to overcome what comes my way runs parallel to the fear of the unknown that I feel at the moment.” What steps has she been taking personally to stay relevant in the profession going by what to expect in the future? “Curating and facilitating interviews and conversations  (recorded or online), exploring online content ideas and engagement activities, doing more auditions and voice samples and putting basic equipment in place for these, increasing my coaching clients, pursuing the course in advanced psychotherapy that I began in Jan 2020  - all of these have been work in progress since the second half of 2019.

For virtual events, voiceovers, audition tapes and basic filming, I already have equipment to start off with such as a high-speed broadband connection, 4G devices and backups, a studio mike, noise cancellation headphones and a flashlight that can be added on to a camera or a phone,” she says.
She has moderated web conversations and hosted webinars for industry bodies as well; this alongside the diverse conversations  facilitated on her own platform on Instagram live. “I do miss on-ground events and I pray it all will be back with a bang,” she says. Sean Joseph, of SV Event Management & Services,  also a Governing Council member of Telangana Events and Exhibition Management Association (TEEMA) with 15 years into Events and also heading SV Caterers which is over 40 years old, says, “We advise event managers to take steps to increase hygiene standards and stay updated with the latest information. ”

— Manju Latha Kalanidhi  kalanidhi@newindianexpress.com  @mkalanidhi