The Hindu : Kerala News : Event management companies mushrooming in State

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Kerala

Kerala

Event management companies mushrooming in State

Staff Reporter

KOCHI : The availability of professional help to ensure that events get that extra shot of pomp, and go on sans any hassles, has been luring companies and people to event-management companies.

"It has come to be a Rs.40 crores to Rs.45 crores per year business in Kerala. Most of the activity is focused around Kochi, the commercial hub," says Ram Menon, director of Impresario, which is considered as the company that set start to event management in the State.

Apart from managing events as they turn up, the company has been organising the annual Miss Kerala contest, the Cochin Motor Show and now the Kerala Property Show. The first Miss Kerala contest was held in 1999. "We started organising events in 1995, starting off with an `exhibition with a difference' at Hotel Abad Plaza. The leading player in each product category was chosen to exhibit his wares. We generally do trade and job fairs, product launches, campaigns, conventions and conferences," says Mr. Ram.

Impresario has planned a wedding exhibition in June-July. On show will be whatever is required for a wedding — beautician, photographer, invitation-card maker, caterers, even astrologers.

"We have been organising high-profile theme-based weddings during the past three years. This is a big hit, especially among non-resident Keralites," he said.

With offices in Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Mumbai and Dubai, the company has 25 associates across the country. It has 60 personnel on the pay roll. The one-day international cricket matches in Kochi saw its foray into sports events as well.

Another notable Kochi-based event-management company is Prime Time Unlimited, which too began operation in 1995. Managing director Ayubi M. says that it was pretty difficult to convince people of how an event could be professionally managed.

"The situation is different now. The market is booming and there is no comparison with what was happening five years back. During the past few years, we did the launch of Tata Indicom, Swarnam-2003 (a gold festival organised by the Department of Tourism) and so on." The company has an independent production unit — Prime Time Décor.

How does an event-management company operate? There is a marketing department, a design and concept-development department, and operations department (which executes the programme).

Event-management companies pursue the following methodology — identify the specific target group; organise an event for the group and maximise the exposure of the advantages of the product to this select segment.

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