"We need to get macro approach to see dreams come to light" - Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Event Crafter

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

EEMA Election 2020 Siddhartha Chaturvedi Event Crafter

Also, read in the same series - 

"I am a people's person & would like EEMA to be like that too" - Rajeev Jain, Rashi Entertainment 

"We are united by our belief in EEMA" - Harjinder Singh, ShowWorks Event

"The 'virtual' experiential is presently the way to go" - Sagar Pingali, Owner, Catpro Events

With the upcoming EEMA NEC & Zonal Elections 2020, industry delegate Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Founder CEO, Event Crafter, and Festival Producer, Taalbelia will be seen contesting for NEC - General Secretary position.

Siddharth has been a part of the events industry for over two and a half decades. Working across the entire realm of experiential and being an innovator and entrepreneur, he is an experienced event professional and understands both the micro and macro aspects and issues of the events and experiential space. As a member and a key stakeholder in the industry, he has always put his passion, love, and growth for an industry first and started initiatives on his own instead of being complacent and waiting to be a part of the NEC. Over the years, Siddhartha believed in growing the community, knowing the community, working with the community, and bringing the community together with EEMA.

In an exclusive interview with EVENTFAQS, Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Founder CEO, Event Crafter, and Festival Producer, Taalbelia shares insights on his agendas, changes he plans to bring, and more ahead of EEMA Election 2020.

How will your proposed agenda/plan for EEMA help the association with real gains/achievements?

- High Government Engagement

There is a serious need for the government to start seeing the Events and Experiential industry as an important industry. We need to bring together the right set of influential members from across the country to be a part of the task force that regularly dialogues with the government both at the state and central levels and ensures this message is trickled down.

• Special Task Force will work on all the financial matter with the government including GST slab reduction and discharge of RCM on sponsorships and TDS rate standardization – A very good example of this is how the catering association which is a part of our supply chain got together across regions to lobby with the government and got their GST down from 18% to 5%. If they could, then imagine the wonders that we could all do together.
• Continuous dialoguing with the governing bodies
• Create permanent engagement
• Establishing our industry as the key drivers of the experience economy
   

- Skill Development & Making EEMA a Certification Body

This is very close to my heart and could be a game-changer for EEMA. Good talent and skilled talent and a need for templatized education have always been a key issue for the industry and what we really need is to impart the right industry-ready skills to the upcoming talent and future leaders. The focus has to be on Skill Development and making EEMA a Certification Body.

• Templatized Education
• Industry Ready Resource
• Setting an Entry Benchmark
• A new business model
   

- Co-Existing & Co-Participation

• With leading representative organizations from allied sectors of Travel & Hospitality, Advertising & Media, Convention Promotion Bureaus, Content Platforms, Licensing bodies representing to the government in key matters. 
• A cross-exchange of memberships with the following associations: FAITH, AAAI, CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM
   

- Maximizing Brand EEMA

This would be a two-fold approach – One where we need to create programs and educate, upskill and help existing members and their employees for the new normal and two where we further grow the community across the country.

• Internal
  • Task force will be made for workshops specific skill development for employees
  • Creating a well-defined HR SOPs
  • More engagement and interaction amongst the members on a regular basis
• External
  • To reach out to the farthest of corners and deepest of districts of the nation in joining EEMA as a member and affiliates.
  • Regions to be pushed for higher engagements in other event centers around the epicenter town
  • Raising the bar for new EEMAGINE and other flagship events and initiatives
  • Outreach program to invite corporates to join EEMA
     

- Stronger We Care

I have always maintained that women are better workers and better leaders. With women constituting a large majority of the events workforce, it is imperative that they be given a larger representation and we work towards building more women leaders.

• “We Care” Task Force 
• More amplified campaign with the active helpline
• Regular workshops at each city briefing the Vishaka Guidelines to all stakeholders including employees, partners, artists, etc.
   

- Smooth Secretariat

• Monthly Virtual Town Halls to be introduced for better communication with members
• Secretariat needs to be given more functional powers to conduct and oversees various events and workshops across the country
• Regular and timely circulation of MOMs and overall engagement information.
• A smooth, diligent and transparent working which engages members across the board
   

EEMA is still looked upon as an elitist association, do you agree? (Please substantiate and suggest what can be done?

Yes, it is. It saddens me to see the current membership base – for an industry as large and diverse as ours across the country we should have thousands of members and not hundreds. Meanwhile, we also need to empower our current members, i.e. the gold, silver and associate members. In such important general body elections, each and every member should be able to exercise their franchise. The world is changing and we in fact have a new normal now. To be more relevant and present and move along with the times, I propose to have a task force to refresh the constitution and for it to be made more inclusive and up to date.

This next executive committee needs to be driven and dedicated to a post-COVID new normal, what are your efforts going to be to revive and assist the industry in the next 2 years?

We are losing out on time. Time that is costing us our livelihoods, people, and money. And so we need to work relentlessly towards this. We need to set up a task force that becomes the main spokesperson with the government, industry, and industry partners.

• Set SOPs of conducting safe events in COVID times
• Display confidence to Govt. and other stakeholders like Hotels
• Conduct a workshop for both vendor partners and employees
• Consultancy to members to obtain scheme based MSMS loans to smoothen working capital
• Task Force will be made to take workshops for employees and partners for making a ‘safe event’ a habit. 
• Plastic and flex-free events
• Achieve a lesser carbon footprint per event
• Creating a benchmark, we will create to check on reducing carbon footprints
• External audit agency to be hired for a mandatory HSS audit for member events
   

What in your opinion are the wrongs of EEMA that should and will be corrected in your tenure, should you be elected?

EEMA is the single largest business body with the largest representation of a 10,000 crore industry, an industry employing millions of people and with hundreds of ancillary industries associated with it. Now, that is the kind of responsibility and onus that lies on EEMA and our elected representatives need to understand that and the huge level of impact that their positions and decisions can make. We need to start putting the industry good before us and the day every single person starts realizing that is when politics will take a backseat and good work, a bright industry future, a happy and kind industry, an industry that attracts some of the best talent will flourish. In all these years as a member, I have lived and worked exactly with a view so what probably sounds too idealistic a viewpoint to a few is a reality for me and simply my way of living. We need to stop being micro and get macro in our approach for only then will we all see our collective dreams come to light. We need to penetrate deeper in the regions and make this a body that represents over 100 cities including Tier 2 & 3 cities, not just the top 5 cities.