We’re Bracing Our Team and Infrastructure for Phygital Events: Lalitt Gattani, Showcraft Productions

by  Mugdha Gaonkar Industry Watch | November 19, 2020 | Interview

Showcraft Productions Lalitt Gattani

Showcraft Productions is a leading marketing solutions and event management agency diversified into varied verticals of the entertainment business such as Events, Solutions, Displays, Sports, and Films and AVs. EVENTFAQS Media reached out to Lalitt Gattani, Chief Executive Officer of Showcraft Productions, to know how the agency is coping up with the pandemic, its key focus areas, new initiatives, future plans and more.

As the industry is teeming with virtual events even as Unlockdown 5.0 unfolds, how is Showcraft Productions seeing growth in the events and activations space?

We feel that the overall growth in terms of numbers will be pretty slow as virtual events aren’t high value. Clients are also realising that a lot of communication activities can happen through virtual/online events and hence we strongly feel that physical events will surely take a hit even when things get back to normal. The activations space will see steady growth as human connect is still the most effective form of communication. Only certain types of events like awards functions, immersive events, etc., may see the light of day but we don’t foresee any growth in them compared to pre-COVID times. 

Which are the trends and best practices of this time that are likely to stay in the industry beyond the COVID-19 pandemic?

The most important or rather the disruptive trend is the advent of virtual/online events. They are reaching out to a much larger audience and at a fraction of the cost of physical events. Surely, they are here to stay and eat into the realm of physical events. People are more exposed to their mobile handsets, iPads and laptops and in these last few months, they are getting pretty comfortable with looking at virtual/online experiences. We strongly feel that the 3D content using Oculus or similar products may gain huge popularity, sooner than later. Online/e-gaming is the future in this domain and we will see more and more launches getting linked to various games.

Tell us about some milestone events that Showcraft Productions has executed in the last 4-5 months.

We at Showcraft have executed over 250 ‘phygital’ events in the last 4-5 months. The virtual rallies called Jan Samwaad for BJP have been landmark events as we were using the phygital format for the first time and the events reached lakhs of people. The traction generated by these events was huge and people were getting hooked to this new medium. The ICCR International Webinar on the 100th birth anniversary of Lokmanya Tilak, unveiling of Swami Vivekananda’s statue at JNU are a few more events by us that have been cherished by the audience and drew huge traction.

What are your plans going forward? What future initiatives are in the pipeline at Showcraft Productions?

We intend to strengthen our team and infrastructure for phygital events. We are also expanding our ‘Inspired Displays’ division where we provide turnkey solutions for retail projects. Our focus is also on preparing for executing large format immersive experiences, which would be the major driver of growth for us in the next few years. Out creative team is being fortified and we have also invested in our production facility by bringing in automation and other technologies.