As Things Get Back to Normal, Virtual Events will Still be Preferred: Deepak Pawar, Streamy Tech

by  Mugdha Gaonkar Industry Watch | January 29, 2021 | Interview

Streamy Tech Deepak Pawar Midas Next Media

Amidst the pandemic, the industry immersed itself into the world of virtual possibilities with various innovations and techniques of doing the same thing in different ways. Streamy Tech, a brainchild of Deepak Pawar, National Secretary, EEMA and MD, Midas Next Media, was launched in the midst of the lockdown to offer users a seamless experience through planning, executing, designing and content by integrating them with technology.

In an exclusive interview with EVENTFAQS Media, Deepak Pawar, also Director of Streamy Tech, shares insights on launching a tech platform amidst the pandemic, services offered, his recent work, future plans and more.

Technology has come into the working of the industry in a big way, thanks to lockdown. Was the pandemic the main reason to launch Streamy Tech?

As National Secretary at EEMA, I was instrumental in its digital transformation and during the lockdown, we organized hundreds of virtual sessions. Doing all this, we realised that technology is now playing an integral part in driving all activities and corporates too are looking for professional agencies that could understand the Experiential Marketing business and execute the same on virtual platforms with ease, just like the way it was done during the lockdown. That’s when we decided to start Streamy Tech, that will offer best in class technology and content assistance to all corporates, agencies and other partners to conduct all their events, campaigns and much more.

Tell us about your various offerings – what expertise does Streamy Tech bring to the table? And how is it different from other tech-based companies?

Streamy Tech as a company operates in three verticals - Virtual Events, Streamy Studios and Streamy Platforms. Our studio in Mumbai has an area of 5,000 square feet and has a large Chroma set-up with AI-based environments to capture you and place you on the virtual platform/stage. Virtual events stand on three pillars - 33% technology, 33% content and 33% the virtual event manager. Combining all three to deliver a seamless experience for the client is what Streamy offers. A client would not want to know what happens at the back-end, but would be interested in a pleasing and smooth experience. To give you an example, we order stuff from Amazon and wait for our orders, but do we ever think of how Amazon functions at the back-end, what is their supply chain process, who are their mid-level vendors, etc? No. That's because we're only interested in our requirements and a seamless delivery that will give us pleasure and delight. In the same way, Streamy thinks from a client/customer perspective and their journey, thus delivering a seamless experience.

Please share details about some milestone events for Streamy Tech or brand campaigns it has executed in the past few months.

There are many milestones in this short span of nine months and we’re proud of ourselves as we’ve been able to tap as many sectors as we could, ranging from FMCG, Pharma, Education, Real Estate, Staffing, Technology, to Fashion and Jewellery, etc. Streamy has not only serviced clients from India, but overseas as well, and large ones. We have teams deployed that work with a good number of corporates, executing many events on a regular basis. Apart from corporates, we partner with events and experiential agencies as their tech partners in planning and executing design and content and integrating it with technology. I can't mention names here for professional reasons, I would like to invite anyone that wishes to know the endless possibilities in the virtual world and how Streamy has penetrated far and wide into this sector to our studio.

What is the outlook for virtual events in the industry, now that the vaccine is here, and physical events may open up?

Let's look at it in this way - kirana stores are functioning and at the same time, Amazon and Flipkart are doing business in full swing, ruling the markets, but neither of them ran out of business or stopped functioning. The same goes for virtual events, as it's the only option now, and it will stay even though physical events come into the picture once people get vaccinated. Geography is now history and virtual events will become a 30% incremental business, as people from across the world can be connected on one platform and interact as if they are sitting in the next room. Music concerts and some major Indian festivals are now tapping the virtual space to give attendees a breath-taking experience from the comfort of their homes. When everything gets back to normal in our industry, what is already in full swing now will continue to stay as a preferred option.

What are the initiatives that you have on hand for the near future?

As mentioned earlier, we've created our own platforms with high end servers and technology, and now we're going a step ahead and mixing the ground, which is our studio, with the virtual platform to give clients a seamless experience of going live with a complete event, without bothering how it happened. This will turn out to be a useful platform not only for events, but all kinds of televised and OTT content that will cover live proceedings. Being AI-based, a person can actually operate from anywhere and do a complete game show live without even being at the venue. This will happen through a seamless integration of our studios and virtual platforms, thus presenting the future. We now offer ‘Do Your Own Streaming’ and platform operations for corporates that wish to do their events and campaigns on a daily basis. We're creating virtual spaces of different levels and kinds and providing clients with the key to operate on their own terms. Our list of initiatives will keep getting updated with new requirements pouring in.