I didn’t know that
Hyderabad had a pillarless hall that could accommodate four thousand people at
one time. I didn’t know that there is this huge network between professionals
dedicated only to conferencing. They prepare the master checklist, analyse,
inspect and select venues, write up the contracts, plan the budgets, arrange
sponsorships, sell exhibition space, and more. There are tickets to be bought,
ground transport to be organized, supplies and exhibition material to be packed
and moved across continents… it’s all
very complex. It goes well beyond hotel and airport hospitality, which by
itself isn’t an easy thing to achieve. The nitty gritties involve preferences
of lodging and food. Forts or beaches? Jain or Japanese? Language can be a
major hurdle, so there are interpreters/translators to be arranged for. And
medical stand-bys. What about audio-visual equipment, signages, banners and
props? Daily newspapers during the event? Business centres and secretarial
services for the busy delegates? Other
specialized services start with design and conceptualization of the exhibition,
all the way to construction of stalls. If publicity is required, a team of
experts has to present to take care of the publicity, arrange press conferences
when desired. There may be technical visits or tours on the business circuits
or pleasure trips. Behind the scenes, there are brochures, trade booklets,
invitation papers and abstracts, even publicity material, to be printed. I
remember, once during a big conference in Goa about nine years ago, at eleven
at night, we were asked by an ex-naval chief why Goa couldn’t give him colour
Xerox copies by morning. He grumbled. I wondered then, why in his position, he
couldn’t do something about it himself. He should have thought of what he
needed, he had selected Goa as a sleepy, go-back-into-time destination, and
then he wanted something fast-forwarded?! Never mind my opinion then, it’s a
fact that if one wants to say ‘come here’ to upmarket clients, we have to
present a lazy front, but give all the slick modern goodies nevertheless.
Including assuring every aspect of security and safety.
The range of customers
that are being wooed is varied: from wholesale rice dealers to science congress
to seminars on obstetrics. It’s important for Goa to bear in mind that a study
says that very large conferences are few. It’s the middle level conferences
where the big money lies. We needn’t aim to catch up with Singapore or
Thailand, or Las Vegas: they’re fifteen years or more years ahead of us and not
in the same league. Goa’s existing hotel rooms could be put to better use with
just one or two good conference halls, but with very stringently planned and
executed management. A single agency like the ICPB can make a difference.
We need more MICE
organizers. MICE= Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events. We need to know
that technology plays a role, even in tiny things like making customized name
badges to complete payment and refund management to customized data
presentation in (sometimes) hundred formats.
All this I learnt in
detail when I was invited by the India Convention Promotion Bureau for a
presentation cum dinner at the Taj Land’s End. The Ministry of Tourism,
Government of India, is trying hard to sell India as the “Incredible Place for
Meetings’. So much it already happening, but the key word to expanding this
‘industry’ is co-ordination and discipline. We need more professionals, not
ad-hoc business persons. We definitely need more professionalism, a change in
attitude. The guy who picks up your luggage at the airport, the guy who drives
the taxi, the owner of the restaurant that serves you homemade food, all must
know what’s required of them and deliver it perfectly, every time. Goa is
amongst the few states where this could happen, we are supposedly ahead of the
others. Yet, the best money-spinners aren’t coming here because we haven’t
grown out of our ‘let’s-earn-enough-for-this-season’ attitude. If there is a
single valuable study done by any hotel, or hotels, or students or
institutions, on habits of visitors, I’d be surprised. We have a habit of blaming the government,
but what the heck, surely some things should be done by those directly affected.
A bit of cohesion will go a long way. Whether it’s advice on supplier sourcing,
selection and negotiations, or developing databases or having control and
co-ordination strategies, a lot of teamwork is required if Goa has to pull
itself up. Team India is leaping ahead.
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