The Essentials To Hosting India’s Most Iconic Events

FROM THE IPL to Lakme Fashion Week, and Beauty And Beast to the Coldplay Concert of 2016, the event industry in India is growing at a phenomenal rate, with grand concerts, stunning award ceremonies, and spectacular sports events becoming commonplace. But for all the glitz and glamour that one would associate with this line of work, and all the developments we’ve seen in technology, economics, and people’s attitudes towards entertainment, the fundamentals of event management have and always remain unchanged.

Hosting an event is a very intricate procedure, akin to painting a masterpiece or composing a great symphony. There’s a lot that can go wrong, and the final product is a mirage that people see, without the faintest hint of the processes that conceptualized it, put it together, and help keep it running from behind the scenes. Like every great work of art or music, each facet of an event needs to be executed perfectly and function in unison, because every flaw is easy to spot, even with the untrained eye. While pulling off an event is rather difficult, and can only be learnt on-the-job, the essential components that make it possible are fairly straightforward. Here are some of the most essential facets of hosting any event, and a few ways to get them right, based on personal experience:

The Venue

When hosting an event, the first thing one must consider is the venue. The size, quality, capabilities, and location of the place you choose should depend on nature of the event as well as the budget and expected audience. For example, a Broadway-style theatrical performance, like Beauty And The Beast would require a smaller venue with good lighting, props, and a versatile stage, while an A.R. Rahman concert would require a very different kind of set up, i.e. lots of space, large speakers, and several screens.

Permissions and Regulations

In India, perhaps the biggest challenge to hosting an event is obtaining all the permissions required. From the health safety clearance to non-objection statements from the police and civic administration, getting the necessary documents to legally conduct your event is a daunting task, even to the most seasoned and best-connected event management veterans. Aside from permissions, one must be well aware of the national, state, and regional laws regarding public assembly, noise, alcohol, and food distribution in order to properly comply, and it always helps to set a little money aside for any eventuality.

Sponsorships

Sponsorships are the lifeblood of the event industry. Even when one includes the sales of tickets, refreshments, and merchandise, sponsorships account for a substantially higher percentage of revenue for the host, allowing them to properly distribute their cost. Before seeking out sponsors for an event one needs to properly ascertain the occasion’s USP, and whether or not it’s compatible with the sponsor’s brand messaging and target audience. For example, a musical like Aladdin would be extremely attractive to a jewelry brand while an e-gaming competition would be far more appealing to a tech company. In the case of more mainstream events like the IPL, or ISL this strategy should be discarded, and one should instead focus on the numerical size of the audience, which is an even stronger selling point for most brands.

The event industry is truly one where dreams are made. Once you master the fundamentals, there’s absolutely no limit to what you can make possible except for your very imagination itself. When I began my career two decades ago, the kind of events we see today would have been inconceivable, if not impossible. And who knows the kind of unfathomable experiences that could come to be over the next two decades. But with all that in mind, the essential steps of event management we just discussed will always hold true.