EEMA to structure skills and safety

Event and Entertainment Management Association's 10th conclave under the theme ‘A Decade of Transformation’ was held from Sep 8-10, at Hotel Pullman Aerocity, Delhi

SAFETY MEASURES

Conducting an event is no easy task. It is the contribution and hard work of many professionals all together. To ensure we retain talent in this sector is the most vital task for the industry makers. Sabbas Joseph, President, EEMA, at the opening of the event, said, “The love and passion, design and creativity that is put into the events that is what gives you perfection. In many ways, the decade of transformation that Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) is celebrating, is the piece of value being put to the test. Over the years, different members, Presidents, advisory councils have worked to make EEMA the most desirable place. In this decade of transformation, we have seen ourselves change but have we changed enough? Are we looking at the environment around and do we know where we go next? We need to ensure that we have safety for women who work with us, be it dancers, hostesses’, colleagues, all need to be dropped home after 8 in the evening.” He continues, “This year we dedicate the conclave to all the women in EEMA. I feel the next president for EEMA should be a woman. Post studying the EEMA report, two of the main things I feel we must focus on are health and safety and talent development. We take safety for granted, it remains our lowest priority, this is a trend we need to change. Health and safety demands no compromise. Safety achieves fault free experiential’s. I ask all our members to focus on safety as well as talent development.”

JOURNEY WITH NOSTALGIA

The event saw a good conglomeration of delegates on both the days. Speaking about the event on the second day, he said,, “Basically, the event brought everyone together, it’s all about sharing the journey with nostalgia while the magical moment were the presence of the three presidents of EEMA on stage together, sharing their journey with everybody. We had around 283 registered members, and an attendance of about 350 people across each of the events. At the award nights, we had around 750 people for the awards for the ecosystem. These were the service partners, artists, etc.”

Talking about memberships he said, “The more you engage with members, the more you grow. It’s a constant engagement exercise, constant promotion exercise. It’s not only to gain members,

The more you engage with members, the more you grow. It’s a constant engagement exercise

but, about being able to make a difference for the members and that is what EEMA’s real aim is.”

EEMA EDUPOSIUM

Empowering and educating the talented is a necessary step. It is also vital to retain skillful employees. On the growing talent, he said, “We have a programme for youth empowerment and education and talent development, the first launch of it was on September 8, 2017 at the EEMA eduposium. We have now looked at management programmes, how can we embellish that with content from the event management companies.”

DOWN MEMORY LANE

Michael Menezes, Brian Tellis, former Presidents, EEMA and Joseph, gathered on the stage for a nostalgic discussion on the hiccups and their roles in the growth of EEMA, the session was moderated by Rajeev Jain, Vice President and Treasurer, EEMA. Jain still remembered the speech made by Menezes in the first convention of EMMA held at Goa, “It was a bit of a pipe dream. The enthusiasm that was there in Goa and has carried on, due to the consecutive President Tellis and now Joseph. Today, we can be proud of the kind of efforts we have put together as a team. It’s a national association and we should be proud of where we have reached.”

ERNST & YOUNG REPORT

Deliberating on the white paper by Ernest and Young, based on a survey of over 60 EEMA members, Joseph concluded, “Revenue of the organised events industry has increased to INR 5,631 cr. Industry has been growing at 15 per cent CAGR for the last five years. This is slightly faster than the 11-13 per cent CAGR of the Indian M&E industry. The industry is on track to reach USD1bn by 2017-18. The expected growth rate of the industry will be 16 per cent over the next few years, which can therefore take the size to over INR 10,000 cr by 2021.” This value represents the revenue of ‘organised’ events and activation agencies and does not include the multitude of ‘unorganised’ event companies spread across the country. The size estimate also does not include the value of telecast rights of events (unless owned by an events and activation management company) the value of meetings, incentives, conferencing and exhibitions (MICE) conducted by pure travel companies, value of IP not owned by event companies and properties managed by inhouse activation teams of advertisers, and the unorganised events segment. Survey respondents felt on average that just 50 per cent of the Indian Events & Activations industry were organised (which is the portion this report tracks), but expected this organised segment to reach 60 per cent within two to three years.

The events industry has been growing at 15 per cent CAGR for the last five years