Luxury now has a new VKonect

After witnessing a resounding success on hosting the VKonect luxury show in Delhi, Punam Singh talks about what prompted her to come up with the concept and how she has more shows for MICE and the leisure market lined up next year.

What was the thought behind VKonect? What prompted the move?

What I went through is the experience that I had over 10 years of being an exhibitor. Any such show is a responsibility for the exhibitor and the buyer to have successful interactions with each other, meaningful and hopefully something which converts into business at a later stage. What was happening at a lot of platforms was that the hosted buyers were never seen, the physical meetings were not happening in a desirable format. From an outbound perspective, you didn't know that the agents you were meeting were actually outbound agents or ticketing agents or domestic agents. There was nobody as an overseas supplier to guide you whether you were at the right platform. What I wanted to do was to focus on something only for the outbound market and I wanted the suppliers and the hosted buyers to have a no- interruption meeting with each other and to do so in ideally one day if not in one and a half days. We had 900+ meetings.

The profile of the hosted buyers is slightly different from what we see at most shows?

I have kept the big boys out this time very deliberately. They have the advantage of backing and experience. The hosted buyers here are individuals or family-run businesses where there have been a lot of personal efforts to put packages together. These people know the end clients very well and the temperament of the end client. In the supply chain somewhere the personal interaction tends to get watered down and for the luxury market, one very important requisite is that the personal interaction is strong. It's a one- onone interaction.

There are going to be 3 shows - Luxury, MICE and Leisure. The shows are going to go across India at different stages. This time, the hosted buyers from the North region are slightly more; next time, it may be the West region and similarly we'll go to East, South and Central India. Not only will there be a hosted buyer focus, but the region of that particular part of India will also be showcased, so whereas this is an outbound effort, inbound of that particular destination will also benefit from so many people and the marketing efforts.

What are the other cities you are looking at?

We've already shortlisted a couple of places; we are looking at the Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad; we are looking at one of the cruise ships in Goa which also has a floating casino. The Oberoi Group seems reasonably convinced so they are happy to talk to us for Agra as one of the destinations for the next show.

Once this is over, we are going to sit and toss them around, and decide which one fits the MICE bill and which one fits the Leisure bill. The next show which is the MICE show will be held next year in April but we need to decide and make sure that it doesn't clash with any other MICE shows, that is, because we want to work with everyone together in a symbiotic fashion. Around July-August, there will be the leisure show and in October-November next year will be the next luxury show.

What is luxury to you?

Luxury is an experience, it's very much of a perception; luxury is not just money, it is the entire experience together. It's how you make it memorable and how you make it a little more than what your expectation is. India has come of age and the luxury market has now evolved over the years.