International Convention of the Wedding Fraternity (ICWF) 2019 Hosted at ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkata
by Madiha Khan Industry Watch | September 3, 2019 | News
ICWF ITC Royal Bengal, Kolkala GIWA Pritesh Sharma Samit Garg
The seventh edition of Asia’s biggest wedding convention ‘International Convention of The Wedding Fraternity’ (ICWF) in association with Sanya Tourism made its way to the enchanting city of Kolkata at ITC Royal Bengal on August 23rd, 2019. Describing International Convention of The Wedding Fraternity, Ildirim Ganbarov from Pasha Travels said, “ICWF has been so far the best show that I have attended in India, definitely the best one on the topic of weddings. As you know the wedding industry is immune to recession and economic downfall which is a great opportunity for a lot of industry professionals both in India and internationally to leverage this opportunity. So far it has been a great experience; to put in three words I would say it’s a very classy, very well-organized and very lucrative event for all the entities.”
ICWF is an exclusive convention that features all each and every aspect related to weddings. Organized by Pritesh Sharma, Samit Garg, Rajesh Varma, Atul Nath, Jaideep Singh, and Mandeep Malhotra, ICWF is a platform for the wedding industry professionals to discuss their vision, dreams, achievements, and goals.
Hosted by ITC, ICWF extended a warm welcome to the speakers and guests in traditional Bengali style followed by a lavish cocktail dinner. The seventh edition of ICWF witnessed a growth of around 50% in terms of its guests with 650+ guests and 70+ international guests from around 15 countries.
The sessions in the 3-day convention kick-started with the inaugural address by Sanjoy K. Roy, President EEMA and Atul Bhalla, ITC Area Manager East on day two. Topics like design, entertainment, fashion, food, wedding travel, and tourism were discussed at the sessions among others at ICWF. The list of speakers had Anamika Khanna, Ceci Johnson, Luc Petit, Emily Wallace, Shri Surendra Singh Baghel, Roshan Abbas, Sabbas Joseph, JJ Valaya, Nitin Desai, Atul Bhalla, Badal Jain, Bina Ramani, Chef Vijay Malhotra, Chetan Vohra, Dipak Haksar, Emmanuel Dufoing, Fiona Liu, Gitikka Ganju Dhar, Jai Thakore, Jaydeep Mehta, Joseph Radhik, Jurgen Bailom, Jürgen Thomas Schrod, Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, Mahesh Shirodkar, Mandeep Malhotra, Mandeep Singh, Masterchef Priyanka M, Mungo Denison, Nishi Vadhera, Prashant Yadav, Preetham Kiron, Rajesh Gupta, Ratna Chadha, Sanjoy Roy, Sri Muttamsetti Srinivasa Rao (Avanthi) Garu, Utsav Parekh, Virginie Corteval, Yamini Singh, Yogesh Gajwani, and Zorawar Kalra. ICWF also hosted UFFH Calcutta, The ICWF Gala on the second day and launched the second edition of ICWF Magazine.
ICWF 2019 was a grand success in many terms. An LOI between the Government of MP and ICWF was signed wherein ICWF will counsel the MP government to understand the requirements of the wedding fraternity and the government will take essential actions to make it easier to execute weddings and events in MP. ICWF was organised to acknowledge the hard work and passion of the wedding planners concluded with the closing address by Dipak Haksar, CEO ITC Hotels, and Welcome Hotels followed by ‘The Great Indian Wedding Awards’ (GIWA).
GIWA is a platform that recognizes and acknowledges the passion of wedding planners. Hosted by Gitikka Ganju Dhar, India’s most awarded live host, GIWA 2019 was a runaway hit with an overwhelming response. The top metal winners for GIWA were Touchwood Entertainment ltd, YS Design Studio, Purple Tree Event Solutions, CineLove Productions, Rashi Entertainment Pvt Ltd, and A P Events. Check out the complete list here. Speaking about it Keyur Patel from Prasang Events said, “It is one of the best awards in the country where everyone is pitching for a piece of cake. It’s a prestigious award, it’s like the Grammy for the wedding fraternity.”
The eighth edition of ICWF will be held at the Grand Hyatt, Kochi from September 11th to 13th 2020, early-bird registrations for which are now open.
ICWF is an exclusive convention that features all each and every aspect related to weddings.