New Beginnings

Published in November-December 2021 Issue

Viraf Pocha

When You Lying Face Down in a Ditch – Stop Digging

The world has started turning and all of us in the event industry are praying that the momentum picks us up very soon.

Green Shoots are Sprouting. Let’s pray for hospitable rains and fair weather for the new plants to thrive.

While we are caught in the euphoria of New Beginnings and all of us are desperate to get back to work in any shape or form, let’s pause for a bit

This long period of forced inactivity (at least for some of us) has allowed us to pause and be alone with our thoughts. All of us have experienced despair at some point. Followed by the joy of being with our families and being refreshed in their company.

Some of us may have picked up hobbies, attended to our outstanding health issues.

Some of us would have faced the tragedies of losing friends and family too soon.

Tumultuous Times.

Now it’s time to renew ourselves and head back to what we love doing. For some of us – it’s the only way we know how to make a living.

Give pause my friends and review our experiences and our learnings.

This piece is meant for all of us to remember where we started in March 2020 and where we are today.

As work cranks up – I hope our experiences lead to wise choices and we don’t forget our resolutions as soon as the pressure builds.

One of the most gratifying developments is the initiation of Industry Bodies. Some industry Bodies that were caught completely unawares (Understandable perhaps) have made attempts to renew themselves.

This to my mind is critical for our industry to grow.

History has shown that far too many people have taken advantage of both sellers as well as rental houses by playing one against the other. Squeezing advantages away from our Technical Services Trade.

Hopefully, these new Industry Organizations will hold strong and this scrambling that we used to do will stop.

Do Our Clients need to fear these industry bodies? I hope not. The Bodies do not aim to form cartels and create a stranglehold on anything. The Bodies would like to (From what I have seen of them so far) understand that healthy competition is the best way to take all of us forward together.

I sincerely hope this mindset persists when the work picks up. It Will. Let’s not even consider the opposite.

Our Government in its wisdom has created a new set of rules to conduct our business.

Unfortunately, while our business forms a tiny fraction of the trade the new regulations wish to control, it has an outsize effect on our people whose job it is to send expensive equipment around the country at a moment’s notice.

That is as it is. Let’s just accept it on the chin. We are just not in a position to make any structural changes but will need to figure a way out around this.

The associations have hired competent professionals and hopefully, they will streamline our collective way of doing this.

The more frequently the authorities see our industries paperwork done in a particular format. The more they will trust us and life will ease for all of us.

This brings me to address an idea that has been expressed too many times from diverse sources.

‘Bas Ho gaya. Now it’s each man for himself. I will only think for myself and do what’s best for me – damn the collective.‘

As my above tiny illustration shows – in the long run, please don’t expect it to work.

We are a collaborative industry. We need each other to go forward. We need to learn from each other and teach each other.

Which brings me to another fallacy. In our Business, Technology is King. Technology is definitely important – But In our Business, the most important link is the nut behind the wheel. We are a service industry and service mean people. Ask any management consultant – Happy people provide Great Service. Think about this and track the benefits of introducing this culture in your organizations.

A while back the head of one of the larger Event Organizations was moaning to me about the lack of discipline in our industry. My answer did not please him. I pointed out that over the last ten years his organization along with many others had created a culture where their executives fed their creativity on YouTube. It made for cost-effective presentations, and then the entire focus of the organization was how to get it done in the cheapest possible way that they could get away with, in front of their clients. It took him a while to accept my cheekiness and buy me a drink. I hope things change in his organization.

That’s the sad part. Our Industry (on the most part) has focused on cheap delivery, not on the best.

Of Course, the Business and Industry have grown. Today it’s possible to rent/ buy a decent set of speakers and a respectable light inventory in almost every small town in India. That’s wonderful. These vendors are still at plug and play level. Technology has made it possible for even young inexperienced technicians to set up and run shows in hours.

I’ve seen too many of these fellows come and go. Few Thrive. The common feature on everyone that survives and thrives is simply People. Those guys invested in their people almost as much if not more than they did with technology.

One Lot had Trafull’s of equipment lying around gathering Dust. On-site, they would whisper to us ‘ Sir Who do light ka bulb kharab hai. Sambhal ke use karna.’ Or if you ordered 12 lights – 24 would show up. ‘ Bigad gaya to replace kar dena’

That’s the expediency that will kill us. Think of costs tied up in wasted investment.

Hey – I’m not pointing fingers. We all have to do what we need to survive.

I’m just urging you to play the long game and THRIVE.

I sincerely hope these NEW BEGINNINGS will be fuelled by thought and ideas and we have all used this time off to regroup and come back stronger and BETTER.