Industry Stakeholders Lay Groundwork for the Next EEMA President

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | February 6, 2018 | News

EEMA Sabbas Joseph Victor Tango Entertainment CRI Events Ice Global

EVENTAFQS Media had previously reported that with the current Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) President Sabbas Joseph’s tenure coming to an end, EEMA was to select a new President in the month of January 2018 itself. It is also believed that the newly elected President will work alongside Joseph and the current committee, in the lead up to the 10th edition of EEMAgine scheduled to be held in May 2018.

Also Read: Who will be EEMA’s Next President?

While the next President follows exemplaries like Michael Menezes, Brian Tellis and Sabbas Joseph, who have each taken up pertinent tasks during their tenure with utmost seriousness and dedication, the effort must continue. Joseph has been credited to new benchmarks of time, effort and leadership, dedicated to the association. So, in order to create some starting points and lay down a little groundwork, EVENTFAQS Media reached out to members of the association to decipher what are the next challenges and issues of the industry that the next EEMA President should work on. Here are some of the key points, the members highlighted. 

Let's have a look at what each of the members said:

                                  Roshan Abbas, MD, Geometry Global Encompass Network

There are a lot of expectations riding on the next EEMA President as these are crucial times for us as an industry. The next EEMA President should:

1- Work towards getting a tax rebate in GST for the events industry.
2- Solve the long-pending IPRS, PPL, and licensing issues.
3- Focus on attracting and developing skilled talent to the industry.
4- Make the association a relevant voice with the other industry bodies.
5- Stop celebrating all the time and start doing.
6- Create CSR engagements focused on supporting education and insurance.
7- Give equal weightage to all segments of the industry such as sports, government, venues, personal and corporate event sectors and others.

                                                        Gitikka Ganju Dhar, Emcee

The new President will lead a resurgent EEMA, thanks to Sabbas Joseph's most productive and popular stint as President. The new President may think of nurturing brand EEMA both within and outside the industry. Secondly, concrete advantages need to be framed, as take home for EEMA members. As a result, I think he or she will then be able to give a solid push to EEMA's membership drive.

                                    Navneeth Mohan, CEO, Laqshya Live Experiences

In my opinion, the next EEMA President should focus on resolving basic industry-related issues first. The most important amongst these are government policy issues, vendor management issues, employee welfare and industry norms, artiste engagement efficiency and last but not the least some stands on client outstandings.

The next EEMA President needs to have a strong vision and he/she should also focus on taking the industry to the future, work towards global benchmarking.

                                      Rajesh Varma, Founder & Director, CRI Events

There are a lot of challenges that we as an industry are facing today. I hope the new EEMA President addresses the issue of corrupt employees and lays down stringent guidelines on how to tackle them. Additionally, it is high time that we set up an EEMA certification for agencies and educate corporate and social clients about it. We also must try and get the supply chain to adhere to strict deliveries and safety standards.

    Reema Sanghavi, Managing Director and Founder, Maximus MICE & Media Solutions

The next EEMA President should definitely work towards making the association a more recognized body. Being an EEMA member one should be able to enjoy enhanced credibility with corporates and clients. Also, he/she should work towards creating awareness about the events industry in top schools/colleges to showcase the multiple career opportunities in the world of events.

                                   Tabassum Modi, Founder & Director, Victor Tango

I would like the next president to be connected to the grass root realities that agencies of all sizes face and take up agendas that will ease running of day to day business for us. He / She should address issues like Tax Deductions, GST, and HR policies etc. which will actually make a difference.

We also need to start addressing some bolder issues like client non-payments etc. Right now, even though we have an industry body we cannot expect any help if we are facing a real/genuine problem. Protection of Intellectual Properties is another area that the next EEMA President should work on.

                                    Sushma Gaikwad, Co-Founder & Director, ICE Global

According to me, the next president should be high on integrity and leadership values. It is important for the next president to have the ability to take EEMA to the next level. Their key objective should be to consolidate the industry which has agencies of various sizes and drive best practices of HR, finance, safety etc. Also important is to collaborate with the government to enable industry benefit.

                             Kanishka Singha, Director, Creatives & Content, THOT Media

The next EEMA President should work on:

1-The idea of pitch cost being borne by the client instead of the agency.
2- Eschewing of clients using designs/ideas of one agency with another. An impartial arbitration panel should be set up by the association for same.
3- A common group insurance policy that covers employees of all participating agencies against illness, accident or death.

                                       Daryl Sheldon, Director, 7ty7 Entertainment

The next EEMA President should:
1- Help distinguish the benefits of EEMA Agencies v/s Non-Members.
2- Establish clear guidelines for agency ethics when clients share someone else’s designs to execute the same at a cheaper cost.
3- Address the issues of employee poaching in the industry.
4- Work towards getting national and International recognition for the association.

                                        Mandeep Malhotra, Director, The Social Street

Credit verification of clients is one thing that the next EEMA President should definitely work on as even today there are a lot of clients don’t pay up. And, Experiential agencies (individually) don’t have the bandwidth to fight and extract the due monies. Additionally, a relieving letter should be made a must before an employee of the industry is allowed switch / accept jobs at the other member agencies.

                                          Deepak Choudhary, Director, Event Capital

EEMA president has to largely look at following areas:
1- The leadership should be able to keep different minds connected.
2- Sorting the fresh talent issue.
3- Establishing a strong foothold in the industry by registering as a federation in the minds of government and other relevant stakeholders.
4- Getting one integrated technology platform in place for national data and connectivity.
5- Be well-connected with international markets, through learning and sharing with associations like IAA, RMAI etc.
6- Think regional in a big way and capitalize on the opportunity and talent there.
7- Encouraging the youth and next level employees to also be a part of the system.
8- Prepare the association for the year 2020.

                                             Vinod Janardhan, Director, Team Rustic

Being the President at EEMA is not an easy job. Welcome to our divided yet single world.
1- He/she would require 'decisiveness'; an uncanny ability & willingness to be decisive.
2- The role would require keys to translating his or her vision for EEMA's future into action?
3- He/she must be a catalyst who can bring groups with polarized opinions together so that all voices are at the table.
4- He/she must be able to inspire his or her team to provide the highest level of service to members.
5- Young people like employees, students have to get engaged in greater numbers than ever before in EEMA.
6- He/she should be able to create an environment for innovation within his or her leadership team.
7- To round off; the next candidate would need to be Independent, patient, courageous, confident, cohesive, decisive, accountable, committed, proactive and an action man or woman.

                                              Khantil Mehta, Director, GoBananas

In my opinion, the next EEMA President should work towards:
1- Increasing regional effectiveness with inclusive approach without alienating regional event bodies.
2- Focus more on industry growth than personal vested agendas for growth.
3- Create a robust framework for knowledge seminars/workshops which are 100% free. The real dedicated & passionate talent lies here. The cost can be covered by pulling in sponsors who are targeting youth with the might of industry veterans.
4- Focus on collective industry growth through each zone coming up with its own EEMA owned IP. This will bring in loads of revenue rather than 2-3 national forums which drain out people.
5- Create a central nodal body to launch a one-point window for all information/grievance redressal/ B2B / artists, vendor ballpark rates etc. on one single hotline number/web / or an app-based system.
6- Focus on the well-being of event employees and do focus events/exercises to address the same.
7- Making EEMA a part of various international event bodies across the world so that our event managers can expand their portfolios to wider regions globally.