I am Anna - Eventfaqs

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F E A T U R E
been in existence in rural areas for ages. “Experiential
marketing is all about the experience, it is about giving the
five senses appeal of a product, and that is what people in
rural areas want. Before making any purchase, they want
to experience the product, so experiential marketing can
very much expand into rural areas.”
The speaker sessions for the second day of EEMAGINE
2011 ended on this note. Participants were then taken out
for an outdoor team activity by D’Frens, which involved
building a racing car. The day culminated with cocktails
and dinner with entertainment by the Vyas Brothers –
Sanjeev and Sandeep Vyas and a variety of international
acts by Red Entertainment and Yogis Angels.
Learning from History, Seeking the
Future
The final day of EEMAGINE 2011 began on a historic note
with Viraf Sarkari, Director, Wizcraft, giving the audience
a walk through the history of Wizcraft and, in line with the
theme of the convention, how the agency scaled up to
becoming a global event management company.
Sarkari spoke about Wizcraft’s most prominent property,
the IIFA Awards, and its growth to becoming an event with
more than 700 million viewers around the world, making
it one of the most watched Indian events. He walked the
audience through how Wizcraft started with a small event
back in the 1980s called ‘Conga’ and expanded from there
to managing events like the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth
Games, the Oman Military Festival: Tattoo, and many
other large scale events. Through this journey of Wizcraft,
Sarkari gave audience pointers on how to scale up their
organizations and businesses.
Following Sarkari’s presentation, it was time to give the
event and experiential marketing industry a lesson in PR.
Ashwini Singla, Managing Director and Chief Executive,
South Asia, Penn Schoe Berland, spoke about the media -
online, print and broadcast - and provided tips for the events
and entertainment industry. Singla asked the industry to
keep an open mind about social media or online media like
Facebook since the reach of this medium is even more than
the print and broadcast media. He further emphasized the
need to consider what message the industry wants to give
out through the media and what image it wishes to portray.
The industry’s focus on innovation and taking substantial
steps towards its goals will, in turn, garner the required
media coverage.
Speaking to ExM on the sidelines of the convention,
Sarkari expressed his appreciation for the creation of
such an association for the events and entertainment
industry. He recommended that the association should
focus on capacity building and professional building. “The
industry needs to think about the main purpose - building
thought leadership, building capacity. Focusing on building
capabilities will garner the needed media attention.
4 September 2011, EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING 59
The need of the industry is professional credibility and
not publicity,” Sarkari said. Talking about how event
companies can leverage the media, Sarkari added that
“event management companies are in a B2B business
so they need to do substantial activities. They need to
Viraf Sarkari, Director, Wizcraft
Ashwini Singla, Managing Director and Chief
Executive, South Asia, Penn Schoe Berland
Deepali Khanna, Additional Secretary, Ministry of
Information and Broadcasting
move from logistics to something more substantial.” He
further suggested considering changing the name of the
association from Event and Entertainment Management
Association to Experience and Entertainment Marketing
Association in order to better reflect the association and
its members.
The convention on the third day, also witnessed its first
step to engaging the government, as Deepali Khanna,
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Information and
Broadcasting, as well as representatives from the tourism