Exclusive Interview with Vijay Arora, Touchwood Group sharing about their IPs, Future Plans & More!

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | June 25, 2020 | Interview

Touchwood Group

With diversified work scope and large scale weddings, Touchwood Group has always been in the limelight of the industry. In an exclusive conversation with EVENTFAQS Media, Vijay Arora, Director, Touchwood Group gives insight about their journey, experiences, new IPs, future plans, and more!

In the wedding industry from more than 2 decades, take us through your journey of how Touchwood Group has grown over the years since its inception.

My journey over 2 decades has been extremely engaging, entertaining, and challenging needless to say fun as well. At a time when we started with events, things were traditional and mainstream. This industry has evolved with time and so have we. As an agency, we’ve seen many ups and downs. But with time and experience the team has only gotten stronger and better.

What were the biggest challenges faced during these years and how did Touchwood Group cope up with it?

As a business enterprise, we face challenges day in and out. Challenges make us stronger and more equipped in handling day-to-day operations. We started when event management was a mere time. Being pioneers in the industry we paved a way for ourselves.  From explaining to a client what wedding management actually means to monetize it, we’ve seen it all. Our systems are designed in such a way that the client a clear picture of what is being planned and executing resulting in them trusting us blindly with their special day. Other smaller challenges include sealing of venues, ban on gensets, demonetization, and now COVID the biggest of them all. We’re working on preparing our teams to fight through and rage as soon as we resume normalcy. I genuinely believe no challenge is too big if we face it together like a team and family.

Touchwood Group recently entered the IP space with 6 successful events; tell us how important it is to curate IPs in today’s time?

As an agency, it was a collective decision to build IPs directly or indirectly related to our core competency since that space was untouched. In times like these where physical events have taken a backseat, we invested our time, energy, and creativity in building something long-lasting. The earlier the better since it takes almost a year to start an IP. In times where our main source of revenue generation slows down a bit, it’s the IPs that keeps us running up and about. IPs are something that yields results and after a certain point revenue, annually. 

According to you how important it is to build communities and keep them positively engaged during such a crucial time?

As it’s rightly said an empty mind is a devil’s workshop, it’s imperative to keep everyone positive and engaged at such a time. The scenario is so gloomy and dull that people tend to lose hope and get discouraged. However, we need to stay connected and move ahead together. Sharing positive thoughts and discussing ways to tackle challenges has been a ray of hope to a lot many people.. Collaboration between agencies is a very important and useful tool. We should learn and grow with each other’s support and strength. Event managers must collaborate with one another to build a community where the workload can be divided according to competencies and each other’s strengths could be used to their advantage. Hence it’s essential to build communities and encourage one another to work towards a better tomorrow.

Touchwood is one of the leading event companies in India; tell us about your progressive plans for existing projects and IPs.

I truly believe, different times come with different opportunities. It’s on us how to cash on these opportunities.  We’re concentrating on IPs that are directly or indirectly related to events and allied services. With time and resources in hand, we’ve invested ourselves in research and creative thinking. We’re gearing up in sorting the back end to curate and launch effective and innovative projects. As of the existing IPs, we aim at bringing something new on the table every time.

Virtual Events now being the new normal in the industry, how do you position Touchwood, and what will be your key focus to function?

We understand virtual events are the need of the hour and mostly everybody would opt for these in the near future till things become better. The idea is to bring something new and unique to the table every time we go live with a virtual event. Understanding the client’s needs and requirements, brainstorming ways to bring the idea to life, and executing it; the entire process should look like a smooth sail.  In these tough times, more resourceful and effective measures need to be taken to provide digital solutions for almost everything.