Hybrid is the way to go
Anmol Zutshi, GM, Ashok Events, ITDC, shares their experience of organising Bharat Parv virtually and why he thinks that hybrid events would be the way forward
Ashok Events is the division of India Tourism Development Corporation, which handles events on behalf of various government bodies, ministries and PSUs. Anmol Zutshi informs, “We provide logistic support in terms of branding, audio-visual photography and other collaterals of handling an event. We are also the executing agency for handling events, with an MoU with MOT, which is our administrative ministry. Under that purview, we have been handling and executing mega events like Bharat Parv or Paryatan Parv for the MOT.”
ORGANISING BHARAT PARV VIRTUALLY
He shares, "This year because of the COVID protocols, the 7th Bharat Parv was held virtually from January 26-31, with the theme Dekho Apna Desh, Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (pairing of states) and Atmanirbhar Bharat. Even on the virtual platform, we had the pavilions for states and MOT, where people could enter and view the videos of various states showcasing their tourism products, handloom products, handicrafts, cuisines, cultural performances, etc. MOT had three stalls, including Dekho Apna Desh, Statue of Unity, and Incredible India.
EMBRACING TECH
When asked about handling the technological aspect of a virtual event, Zutshi explains, “Even earlier for physical events and other technological aspects, we had our own empanelled agencies for delivering things like branding, audio-visual photography, conferences as well as event and manpower requirement registration. In this case also, we have been doing hybrid events for a long time. There is a part, which is physical and then for the virtual, web and other aspects, we already have in place the tech support with our service providers. It was of course scaled up and started happening more due to the restrictions during COVID-19 times. The platform was made with our technical team and with our service providers.”
HYBRID EVENTS WILL INCREASE
However, he believes that while it's comfortable to attend a virtual event, face-to-face is important for human beings. “On a virtual platform, it becomes slightly impersonal. However, people have got used to it. It's not a great challenge, but we feel as a hospitality company that physical events are costlier for clients and mean more revenues for us. The virtual event reduces that aspect of earning revenues as we do for a physical format. Hence, that is a new challenge. We always look forward to having physical events, since we are hospitality professionals. With the times having hybrid events is a new scope, and such events will increase. With the new restrictions, there would be a happy mix of virtual and physical events,” adds Zutshi.
With the new restrictions, there would be a happy mix of virtual and physical events