It almost didn’t happen, but the bravehearts in the Indian advertising, media and marketing ecosystem decided that it’s got to happen. The Advertising Agencies Association of India and The Advertising Club, which jointly organises Goafest, announced the 17th edition of the annual Goafest and 55th edition of Abby for May 29 to 31. In Mumbai, instead of Goa. Overlooking Powai Lake instead of the Arabian Sea. The venue: Westin Powai, what was called Renaissance earlier and host to Ficci Frames for eons.
From the organising leadership of Goafest, Prasanth Kumar, President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India and CEO of GroupM South Asia, Jaideep Gandhi, Chairperson of the Goafest Organising Committee and Mohit Joshi, CEO Havas Media Network India and Goafest 2024’s Co-chair spoke with MxMIndia early on Thursday.
It may be noted that the detailed agenda hasn’t been unveiled yet, but that’s understandable. All the Goafest folks have busy day jobs, and everyone is trying their damnedest to make it a runaway success. And this we know from reasonably close quarters. Even the naysayers are helping. In fact, Prasanth Kumar or PK, as he’s known to the world, is delighted that Goafest 2024 will see each and every association in the M&E ecosystem chipping in. This includes the newspaperwallahs, the broadcasters, the digital folks… everyone.
Gandhi joined him in adding: “Visionaries like Sundar Swamy, Arvind Sharma, Colvyn Harris, Ambi Parameswaran, Nagesh Alai, Nakul Chopra, Ashish Bhasin, Sam Balsara and Shashi Sinha have been key pillars of shaping and scaling Goafest to this magnitude over the last 16 years. Each one of them made unique contributions that made the festival larger, and relevant each year.”
Hmmm. So here’s what our conversation generated.
On Goafest in Mumbai:
The organising leadership had a logistical issue of doing Goafest in Goa. PK: “We didn’t want to take a break, especially in the context of the way the industry is evolving. We felt it’s important for the industry to get together.
Hence, Age of Adaptability is the theme, and, said PK, “in the true spirit of adaptability, we are doing the event in Mumbai”.
On delegates not staying over like in Goa affecting the spirit:
The fact is that if you want to be in the fest, you’ll be there. This is regardless of it being in Mumbai or Goa. We have taken a lot of time and effort to make the three days very interesting. We are going to offer a lot of opportunities for people to network. This Goafiest is not only about Goa or Mumbai… it is the largest event for the entire industry
On registrations:
PK: Good registrations, excellent response.”
Gandhi: Last year’s registration count was upwards of 1600
PK: This year, given the conversations we are having, we could get close to 2000. We are going to see a lot of clients, media publishers, owners, media agencies… We had an early bird entry fee which had a cut of 20% instead of the usual 10%
On Absence of clients/marketers at Goafests in the past, and this year:
Lot of speakers are from client organisations, So we hope to see them at least for a day
On the Agenda:
Joshi: We have over 20 sessions with panel discussions and keynotes. There are close to 50 speakers, and each of them sticking to the theme of adaptability. Industry experts and leaders. We are really excited about the agenda and are sure that people will learn from it.
PK: We are also going to have a large number of masterclasses – From D&AD, some of our own sessions
Meanwhile, the Goafest committee has been able to attract a string of sponsors, and some of them are still being signed up, according to the information received. There is at least one more international tie-up that is being inked, but details of that have still not been unveiled.
Havas Media Group India has bagged the integrated media mandate of millet-based children’s food brand, Slurrp Farm. The mandate includes both offline and digital media duties; and will be handled out of the agency’s Gurgaon office.