#Congregations India: Events will Never Stop, Just the Format Will Change - Sudhanshu Mittal, IOA

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Industry Watch | January 7, 2021 | News

Sudhanshu Mittal Sanjay Sharma JK Tyre Lalitt Gattani Showcraft Productions

Speaking at the virtual ‘CONGREGATIONS INDIA: Government, Political, Sport & Religious Events Summit’ organised by EVENTFAQs Media on December 24, 2020, Sudhanshu Mittal, Vice President, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and Sanjay Sharma, Head of Motorsport, JK Tyre along with session co-curator and moderator Lalitt Gattani, CEO of Showcraft Productions, shared insights about the future of Indian sports post the COVID pitstop.

Partnering with events industry
“Every year, racing gains a lot of attraction, so it’s not just racing that takes the credit but the event managers get equal credit for re-packaging the whole concept wherein music, entertainment programmes are brought in for the entire family, managing a huge crowd and creating an experience which has changed the fortunes of sports with multitude of followers growing every year. There is a synergy in this. If you need to sell the sport, you need event managers, if you need to package a sport, you need event managers because at the end of the day, sports organisers are worried about the technical side of practising sports,” said Sanjay Sharma.

Speaking about revival of indigenous games, making them spectator-friendly and getting kho-kho recognised internationally, Mittal said, “We have been able to play the game in 35 countries now, and it is not far that we will be able to get kho-kho recognised by the International Olympic Committee. I am very optimistic about the future of this indigenous game. The pandemic has certainly put a question mark on spectator participation in games, and this is a challenge that event managers must recognise and plan the events through innovation to create live-like impact as live telecasts bring in maximum revenue. Today, events are more television-centric than audience-centric in this arena. These events are never going to stop, just the format will change.”

Changing sports infrastructure
“It’s very heartening to see that the Government of India is putting efforts into investing in the infrastructure for indigenous sports, and this competitiveness will see more winners and inspiration for people to adopt sports as a career. Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju is privatising unused sports infrastructure and has already announced that while the federation and sportsman are going to use the infrastructure, it will also be available for event managers and companies to organise events there, making it self-sustaining infrastructure,” concluded Mittal.