In July 2017, KW Conferences (KWC), India’s leading Professional Conference Organiser (PCO) stepped into its 25th year of operations. When Jon Wade, the founder of the company, set up the company in 1992 around a dining table in Delhi, little did anyone envisage that this small initiative would one day become India’s premier PCO. “We came into existence, when Ministries were getting PCOs from UK to manage events in India,” admitted Monimita Sarkar, Managing Director and founding member of KWC. The concept of bespoke conference services evolved over a period of time. KWC offers turnkey services ranging from preparation of country bids, to post event reports covering the entire range of services.
After the untimely demise of John in 2005, the current board was formed, with Monimita and Rashmi Hazarika along with Sumitro Sarkar taking over the reins of the company. “Our first approach was to consolidate our business and provide solidity,” said Rashmi Hazarika, Director (Operations). “That is one of the reasons that we inducted Sumitro to the board. We knew his technical qualifications and experience would give us an edge at the time when the MICE sector was beginning to turn to technology and adopting innovation.
As Senior Technical Director in the Government with a background of implementing large IT projects at the national level, Sumitro feels that the challenge facing IT managers in the conference industry is to get clients to realize the difference that spending more on IT can make. He says “IT is the backbone of every conference, but the spend is significantly less than 7.5% of the overall budget, and a slight increase could vastly improve and streamline the entire delegate experience”
Twenty five years is a milestone in any business, but at KWC it’s not yet time to celebrate. “We are only just beginning,” expressed Anirban Sengupta, CEO, “Until recently we were operating only in the PCO space. But we realised that there was capacity to take on new initiatives given the positive equity of the brand and the strong sectoral knowledge.” Since last year KWC successfully entered new territories such as Corporate meetings, outbound incentives, education roadshows and exhibitions. The company recorded a 94% growth in turnover and a significant growth in gross margin owing to its expansion strategy. “We are on a rapid expansion mode and will maintain our momentum for the next couple of years by adding more services to our growing portfolio,” added Anirban
To support its expansion strategy, KWC is also increasing its geographical footprint. Headquartered in Delhi NCR, the company has its presence in Hyderabad and Mumbai currently. “We will soon be increasing our presence in the South with offices in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu” said Arjun Narne, Director (Business Development). “We will also look at East India and subsequently overseas presence as well.” KWC has a partner office in UK and has plans to open an US office later this year. KWC is one of the founding members of World PCO Alliance, which gives it a network in 20 countries with strong regional footprints.
“Our focus for the future is on innovation,” shared Monimita. “Unfortunately our sector has been devoid of game changing innovations, which operates on basic level of technology. This is an area where we hope to bring change.”
KWC is the first and only company member of the International Association of Professional Conference Organisers (IAPCO), setting an industry benchmark. “IAPCO is the universally accepted benchmark for quality within congress organisation and is the global branding of excellence for the meetings industry”
KWC focus has been on client servicing, meeting the needs of every client and building an effective organization. The foundation of KWC has been built on understanding the requirements of the client and delivering it seamlessly. Our team works ethically, transparently and consistently to provide the best possible outcomes for the client.
With multi-cultural clients from across different geographies our teams are trained to deliver world-class services as expected by international associations globally. The pursuit of professional excellence in our individual capacity as well as leaders of the company has helped us develop a company where the team members are client focused and ‘customer satisfaction’ oriented while being equally committed to professional excellence. The corner stone of the KWC delivery process, is made of multiple building blocks, trust, confidence and a spirit of collaborating with our partners.
As associations mature, they are looking at holding increasingly sophisticated and
complex association meetings. Within the changing association meetings landscape, KWC has had to constantly innovate and develop newer models of engagement with clients and their members through technology, process and continuous upgradation of skills to build enduring partnerships. “As we work towards ever expanding scale and scope of service our motto is to empower collaborations,” Monimita Concluded.
Some of the Upcoming Projects of KWC: 
- World Congress of International Federation for Cervical Pathology and Colposcopy – IFCPC 2020, Hyderabad (1500 delegates expected)
- 14th Asia-Oceania Association of Otorhinolaryngology Societies – ASIA-OCEANIA ORL-HNS Congress 2019, Hyderabad (http://14asiaoceania.com/ – 6000 delegates expected)
- 19th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association – INTERSPEECH 2018, Hyderabad (http://interspeech2018.org/ – 1300-1500 delegates expected)
- 12th Conference of the Asia Pacific Musculoskeletal Tumour Society – APMSTS 2018, Jaipur (http://www.apmsts2018.com/ – 500 delegates expected)
- 43rd Annual Meeting of the International Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes – ISPAD 2018, Hyderabad (1000 delegates expected)
- General Assembly & Congress of the International Union of Crystallography – IUCr 2017, Hyderabad (http://www.iucr2017.org/ – 2500 – 3000 delegates expected)
