Tag: Piyush Sharma

 

It’s Goafest and while the knowledge sessions, masterclasses and awards, are on offer, it’s the networking and meeting old friends and making new that people look forward to. And in the spirit of things, the inauguration happened with champagne.

 

The four heads of the organising committee – Ashish Bhasin, Ramesh Narayan, Raj Nayak and Nakul Chopra – appeared delighted that the event took off sans any hitches. Day 1 of the festival saw the Industry conclave with Archarya Balkrishna of Patanjali Ayurved being the star attraction. Other speakers included UpasanaTaku of Mobikwik and Hemant Malik of ITC Limited. The Media and Publisher Abbys were presented in the evening.

 

Speaking about the event, Nakul Chopra, President –  Advertising Agencies Association of India said, “Twelve years ago, Goafest began as an event for people from the world of advertising to get together to network and celebrate quality work. Today, it gives me immense pleasure to see how this festival has grown into becoming one of the foremost events in the creative calendar. It’s extremely encouraging for us to see so many young people participating in the event with such enthusiasm – and not just attending the Abbys but also showing immense amount of interest in the varied seminars that we have lined up this year. The quality of work that has been felicitated today just goes to show how India has today become a tour de force when it comes to creative thinking. If the scene on day one is anything to go by, I’m pretty sure the next two days are going to be just as exciting with some exemplary speakers taking the stage and some must attend seminars taking place.”

 

Added Raj Nayak – President, The Advertising Club: “Goafest is the world’s largest industry event in the advertising industry – organized by two industry bodies coming together. In the true sense, it is an event by Indians, for Indians and completely made in India. This year, we had over 300 jurors from across the country coming together to judge the entries for which awards will be presented over these three days of the event…with almost 112 of them judging tonight’s Media and Publishing Abbys. Goafest, when it started was only a creative awards ceremony. However, today, in its twelfth edition, it has become a festival of knowledge, wisdom, entertainment, fun and a great networking opportunity.”

 

Elaborating upon the event, Ashish Bhasin, Chairman, Goafest 2017 said: “With changing times, Goafest has also evolved. For the first time Goafest is going green in part by getting the delegates visiting the event to conserve water and taking other baby steps to our bit for the environment. This year we have heavily subsidized entry to let more and more young people to attend the event. It is extremely exciting for us to see so many young people participating in the event and appreciating the changes we have brought in. Curious young minds are keen to attend seminars and talks by interesting speakers this year. Day 1 has been such a huge success. We can only see this getting better and better over the next two days.”

 

Said Ramesh Narayan, Chairman of the Awards Governing Council of Goafest 2017: “The atmosphere at Goafest is always filled with excitement, camaraderie and a whole lot of fun. And this year is no different. It is absolutely heartening to see members of the advertising and marketing fraternity sending in some wonderful entries this year which have kept the jury on their toes. Judging any award is a difficult process and more so when you’re pitting one excellent entry against another. All I can say is, all the winners tonight are truly deserving of the honours that have been bestowed upon them. Judging by the level of excitement today, I’m sure that the next two days are going to be absolutely spectacular.”

 

Karan Bajaj kicked off the Discovery Channel presents Industry Conclave on the topic ‘Role of brands in changing India’. “The brands that we experience in this room have a deeper impact on our lives than we realise. I’m happy to be in a roomful of people who are impacting people and lives,” he said. The UpasanaTaku, Co-Founder MobiKwik, came on stage to talk about demonetisation, the growth of digital payments and powering 55 million users and 1.4 million retailers in India. “Brands have played a role in transforming India. Consumer choice drives brands, and brands have the power to transform an entire country. 86% of India’s spending is cash. It’s a massive amount of money that moves in an unaccounted manner. I truly believe it’s the era of mobile wallets, and won’t deny that demonetization has sped up the journey,” she said.There was much anticipation for the session by Hemant Malik, Divisional Chairman of ITC’s Food Business, who also spoke about e-commerce and digitisation, while acknowledging the evolution of Goafest. “We are the only carbon positive company in the world.”

 

But the session that everyone waited for was by Acharya Balkrishna, CEO and MD, Patanjali.  “If you learn to applaud yourself sometimes, the world will learn to applaud you,” he said. “The nation is ours, the children are ours, the life is ours. We must take care of it ourselves. Always remember, for the world India is just a market place; for us it’s our home,” he said.

 

Earlier, the ceremonial lamp was lit by M K Anand, MD & CEO Times Network, Piyush Sharma, CEO New initiatives India Zee Entertainment India, Karan Bajaj, Senior Vice President & General Manager, South Asia, Discovery Networks, Asia Pacific, and Nagesh Alai other than Nayak, Chopra, Bhasin and Narayan.

 

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Media – Abby 2017 | Publishers – Abby 2017