WOW Awards 2022: Meet the Jury Members of the LQ and Experiential Venues Group

by  Mugdha Gaonkar Business Events | June 29, 2022 | News

WOW Awards 2022 Live Quotient Experiential Venues Group

WOW Awards - Asia’s largest business and recognition platform for the Experiential Marketing, MICE, LIVE Entertainment and Wedding industry is all set to host its 13th edition.

The WOW Awards Asia 2022 is now open for entries in 125 categories across 5 groups. The five groups of categories are Experiential Marketing (Group A), Experiential Celebrations (Group B), Experiential Management (Group C), Experiential Venues (Group D) and Live Quotient (Group E).

With a two-phased judging process by jury members, audited and validated by KPMG, awards will be announced during the glittering ceremony. Each Jury member is selected from complementing backgrounds with extensive experience in the industry to ensure complete transparency in the judging process. Jury members are particularly very knowledgeable and thus have an upper hand in deciding the most deserving winner.

While you enter your best work in the event & experiential domain with the intent to take the coveted metal home, it’s time you meet the jury members of the LQ and Experiential Venues Group at the 13th Edition of WOW Awards Asia 2022.

Experiential Venue known as Group D is the category that celebrates the best MICE & Wedding Venues of Metro India, destination India and destination Asia including Business Events, Intimate Weddings, Lifestyle/ Luxury Events, Big Fat Weddings, and Convention centers. 

The esteemed Jury of LQ and Experiential Venues Group are:

Bhavnesh Sawhney, Founder, FB Celebrations

An accomplished entrepreneur, Bhavnesh has the experience of working closely with international and national celebrities with a practiced ease. Today, as an event planner par excellence he has, to his credit, not only spearheaded some of the most reputed weddings but also been bestowed with some of the most prestigious industry awards along the way. He is also the Founding Member & Board Committee Member of MEWA (Middle East Wedding Alliance).  

Bhavnesh believes in crafting spectacular events seamlessly with the emotional experiences of priceless moments while reinventing the banal way events are handled. For him, each event involves pushing the boundaries of creativity beyond the expected and most importantly building a relationship with clients and vendors.

Harish Babu, Director, Impresario Event Management India

With many hats to wear, Harish Babu  is an event manager and I believe It’s all about versatility! He dons multiple hats of a Project Manager, Creative Director, Procurement Expert, Marketer and Budget Officer.

Jueta Hemdev, Director, Yolo Entertainment and Weddings

Jueta Hemdev, the founder of YOLO entertainment and weddings is a powerhouse of talent. She brings nothing short of enthusiasm, creativity, patience, dynamism and dedication to every event she organises. She believes in curating weddings that seamlessly harmonise with a couple’s taste and preferences. At the same time, she ensures to weave exclusivity into every aspect of the planning and execution. She ensures to build a strong connect with every couple and generates exquisite themes rooted from unique ideas. She understands client choices well enough to create an event that’s not just suave but also resonates with the couple and reflects their personalities. No wonder YOLO weddings infuses a fresh touch in every wedding, turning it into a series of magical and unforgettable moments for the couples. Apart from the brand's attention to detail, it also blends tradition with modernity. It is this dynamic approach that makes YOLO weddings stand apart from the rest.  YOLO weddings will make your picture-perfect wedding dream come true with a highly personalized approach!

Mahesh Shirodkar, Managing Director, Tamarind Global

A self-made entrepreneur and now a veteran in the field with over 40 years of experience in the hospitality industry, Mahesh Shirodkar is known as "Bossy" by one and all. The man behind the vision of Tamarind Global, Bossy can be recognized by his resounding infectious laughter, love for cigars, food, malts and wines, insatiable energy, passion, perseverance, high benchmarks, and attention to detail. What sets him apart from the rest is his compassion towards people from a chaiwala to the chairman. Though promoting tourism is his first love, he has built a reputed brand in the event, wedding and corporate space and has over the years, planned and executed several big ticket weddings and social events.

Meenu Varma, Director, CRI Events 

A highly driven and successful event professional with 20+ years in the experiential industry, she boasts of a stellar track record of delivering impeccable experiences cutting across sectors.

A management post graduate with specialization in marketing, her career kicked off with a very humble beginning. Her simplicity, innovative bent of mind and a germane approach in the next few years led to the acquisition of some key clients that shaped the future course for the organization. She proudly flaunts an array of awards & recognitions that her campaigns have earned over the years.

Her expertise lies in driving business development efforts, profit and loss oversight, staff development and in achieving organizational goals. She is adept in overseeing a wide variety of operational and fiscal responsibilities to ensure optimal business performance and realize substantial revenue enhancements. 

She is an operational perfectionist with cross industry expertise, who thinks her reputation is at stake with every single project. Two decades of proven dedication has catapulted CRI Events into an award-winning agency under her leadership. Meenu lives by conceptualizing strategic initiatives to propel corporate goals, streamline operations, maximize staff performance and deliver flawless ROI driven experiences.    

Prairna Khuller, Director, Eventz Inspired

With a Corporate banking background of working for over 10 years with the fortune 3 companies of the world - GE Capital, American Express and HSBC Global.

Prairna has managed to put a streamlined process of crafting an event in a structured manner and Eventzinspired was started 4 years ago by her after being in the events business for 7 years, to execute the same.

The team have been planning, organizing and executing destination weddings for over 7 years now, with young, dynamic, talented professionals who have successfully worked in many destinations in India and abroad. 

Rahi Shaikh, Director, BOI Media & Entertainment

Rahi Shaikh is Founder Director of BOI Experiential  & Actfaqs.com. A pioneer in the Artist, Celebrity and Talent domain. She has been part of the industry for the last 19 years. Her proficiency is in integrating & curating experiential entertainment solution for brands.  She has been working closely with brands and their marketing support agencies in providing comprehensive solution in the mentioned domain.

Reema Sanghavi, Managing Director, Maximus MICE and Media Solutions

At Maximus Events, the team believes that marketing programs and events have the greatest impact and best results when they are designed 'Target First'. Their approach starts with the desired result and then builds the campaign from there – calculated, targeted and done with purpose. We aim at offering our clients the peace of mind that comes with having a solid, secure and professional organization dedicated to creating exemplary productions and events. 

Sanjoy K Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts

Sanjoy K. Roy, an entrepreneur of the arts, is the Managing Director of Teamwork Arts, which produces over 33 highly acclaimed performing arts, visual arts and literary festivals across 40 cities in countries such as Australia, Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, UK and USA, including the world’s largest free literary gathering — the annual Jaipur Literature Festival. Roy has received the National Award for Excellence and Best Director for the film Shahjahanabad: The Twilight Years. 

Roy works closely with various industry bodies and Government on policy issues within the Creative Industries and Cultural Sector in India and is a senior office bearer on several committees working on policy infrastructure for the creative industries - he is Co-chair of the Art and Culture Committee of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and former President of Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) and an advisor to the Arts Council of England Diversity board for theatre. He is on the advisory council of various International Agencies, Federations and Universities.

Roy has also lectured and works in collaboration with Universities including those of Western Australia, DUT, Brisbane, Monash, University of Chicago, Harvard, MIT Media lab, Admas, Symbiosis, University of Houston, Columbia College, London School of Economics, University of York, Swansea, etc.

Sushma Gaikwad, Director, ICE Global  

Sushma Gaikwad is an entrepreneur with over 2 decades of experience and has co-founded Ice Global and Wizcraft MIME. She is an experiential communication specialist, a leadership coach and an educationist.

At the helm of Ice Global, Sushma has worked on strategic projects with leading corporate houses such as the Tata Group, Mahindra Group, DHL. She has also worked on various Learning and Development initiatives with Mahindra Group, UST Global, Atlas Copco to name a few.

She co-founded Wizcraft MIME in the year 2017 with a vision to provide quality education in Media and Education. Recently, Sushma Gaikwad has co-founded Sukhoon, an initiative dedicated to holistic wellness and well being.

Thanush Joseph, Co-Founder & Director, Seventy EMG    

Thanush Joseph, a veteran of 21 years in the company, is one of the founder directors of 70 EMG. He plays a pivotal role in managing the Brand Solutions, Business Development & Marketing and Seventy EMG’s Finance and Legal teams.

TJ – as he is affectionately known in the office – is passionate about automobiles of all kinds; he’s also a guitarist who loves his Blues and Rock. In fact, music is what brought TJ to 70 EMG which has its roots in Artist Management having launched and managed musicians like Lucky Ali, KK and Shaan & Sagarika in the late 90s. At 70 EMG, TJ leads the automobile industry practices and has been instrumental in securing many high-end accounts like Tata Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, Skoda, Mercedes-Benz, Harley-Davidson and Diageo. He has also been responsible for setting up the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, The Skoda Prize – India’s only Young Contemporary Art award and more recently India Bike Week – the largest gathering of motorcycle enthusiasts in India.

TJ brings together creative and strategic event and administration solutions to our roster of discerning clients. He has the ability to think through clients’ problems from both a theoretical and practical perspective, all dispensed with an easy going and friendly charm.

Vidya Alva, Executive Vice President & Business Head – Events, Percept ICE  

Vidya Alva, Executive Vice President & Business Head, Percept ICE has been conceptualizing,
creating and delivering innovative and large format productions, events and experiences over the
past two decades.

At Percept her role has encompassed business management, building strategic plans for events
and experiential marketing projects, managing teams while enhancing the quality of work
delivered to exceed client expectations, event planning spanning conceptualization, planning
modules, supervision and ensuring seamless on ground productions. She is also responsible for
Business and Client acquisition and retention.

Vinod Janardhan, Managing Director and Founder, Team Rustic         

An Indian entrepreneur, marketer, event innovator and re-inventor for events. Vinod’s aim of fun-work is to recognise a charismatic and result driven trait in the people that Team Rustic recruits and channelise their positive energies to carve a revolutionary and influential career both for the Team Member and the company… His one biggest passion is love for transforming “the event industry”.

Useful Links:

WOW Awards Asia website:  http://asia.wowawards.com/

T&C - https://asia.wowawards.com/support/

For more details contact: Charmi Janani | +91 88505 39096 or Priya Gulati l +91 99998 95113

Or Write us at: info@wowawards.com

For editorial related queries, reach us at edit@eventfaqs.com