FHRAI Produces 52nd Annual Convention, 2017 Managed by Evenflow Experiences

by  Shantanu Jain Business Events | September 21, 2017 | News

Evenflow Events and Experiences

The 52nd Annual Convention of the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) was held from September 14 to 16, 2017. The convention, of which the venue location is selected in rotation among the North, East, South and West regions of India, was hosted in Bengaluru with delegates coming in from across the county and the globe.

The theme for the convention was ‘Hospitality 2025 - The Future Is Now’ wherein the various Hotel and Restaurant Associations that comprise the FHRAI urged the need to find innovative new routes to propel India into a leading tourism and hospitality destination by 2025.

The high profile list of guests for the convention included Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar who inaugurated the event, along with Honorable Chief guest of Karnataka Sri. K. Siddaramaiah, honourable Union Minister for Parliamentary affairs, Chemicals & Fertilizers, Sri. Ananth Kumar and honourable Minister for Large and Medium Industries, Government of Karnataka, Sri. R. V. Deshpande.

Speaking at the convention, Gurudev Si Sri Ravi Shankar said, “Hospitality is in the DNA of Indians just like teamwork is in the DNA of Japanese, precision in that of the Germans, etiquette in the English, and marketing in the Americans. India is still lagging behind and needs improvement in infrastructure. We need to have Greece as the benchmark where tourism is soaring.” He also emphasised on the need for more colleges to educate youngsters on hospitality."

Addressing a crowd of a thousand audiences, Sri. R. V. Deshpande, Minister for Large and Medium Industries said, “Tourism is the highest employment generator but India's biggest concern is employment as automation is taking over the human touch. Infrastructure has to be definitely looked at and we are getting there.”

The three day long annual convention also saw many dignitaries from various leading tourism and hospitality firms deliver talks on myriad topics that dealt with improvising the existing tourism and hospitality sector. The business sessions held on the second and third day saw guest speakers deliver their viewpoints as well as creating roadmaps for improvement at panel discussions.

The highlight of the convention was the signing of a tripartite agreement between Nepal, India and Bhutan on working in close conjunction to improve hospitality and tourism for the three countries.

The southern chapter of the convention that was planned managed and executed by Bengaluru based Evenflow Experiences was held across three separate venues, namely the Shangri-La Hotel, The Lalit Ashok and Taj West End. The venue was set up in tandem with the choice of location, i.e the state of Karnataka. Design elements for the venue were based on the cultural, geographic and historical prominence of the state. Each day of the event ended with networking dinner hosted along with artistic performances by singers, dancers and other fine arts performers.