ES. Informa Markets in India launched its initiative, the ‘Festivity of Business’. How do you measure success of this initiative aiming to run 28 events in three months?
Yogesh Mudras. With India racing to be among the largest economies of the world, it’s truly potent with opportunities for business, connections and celebrations. Thus, the idea of ‘Festivity of Business’ has been to weave together our ingenuous, customer-centric hybrid platforms with the Informa Markets stamp that offer innovative experiences, upgradation of knowledge and skills from experts, and a plethora of valuable connections and engagements — all geared towards enabling progress and powering growth. We measure the campaign’s success from the enthusiastic response to our shows and the feedback we get from our stakeholders for holding an attractive bouquet of turnkey events at just the right time. The attendance at our events has been extremely encouraging and has hit 2019 levels except for the ones in which we had a lot of international presence — The international participation may probably take a bit more time to bounce back to pre-Covid levels. There also has been an impressive percentage of re-bookings. Campaigns such as Festivity of Business really caters to the Indian context and economy and as the domestic presence has been impressive, our customers resonate with the campaign and feel ‘heard’.
This was the year of a purpose-driven bounce back to normality for Informa Markets in India.
ES. Do you think the buzz around virtual has declined massively since the opening of physical shows? Can you tell us how Informa has adapted the mix of Hybrid into its shows?
Yogesh Mudras. It is no surprise that for regions that are especially known to cherish face-to-face interactions like India, the physical events have made a strong comeback and overruled the virtual. Digital fatigue was real, and simultaneously, the craving for human and professional interactions led to ‘revenge’ face to face meetings. However, we know enough of the uncertain world we live in to realise that the virtual is here to stay, either through the hybrid medium or even in a re-worked format. There are immense advantages and flexibility with virtual events. In the future, a slew of virtual elements within the physical events will be incorporated to meet attendee expectations and to measure stakeholder engagement, while providing valuable insights. My estimate is also that with the virtual running side by side with the physical, stakeholders will be in the happy space to cherry pick what’s best for them.
ES. How would you summarize this year for Informa Markets India? What have been the major shows and major highlights for IMI in 2022?
Yogesh Mudras. This was the year of a purpose-driven bounce back to normality for Informa Markets in India. As there has been a growth in the domestic market, 2022 aligned very well with the ‘Make in India’ initiative of the government, something the exhibitions industry has been promoting in a sustained manner. The keen participation of domestic exhibitors leading back to 2019 levels has been noticeable in all our shows. Most developed countries of the world sought to tap the potential of the Indian market, especially after the pandemic subsided. This has worked well for us.
Post-pandemic, we notice some interesting transformations in our stakeholder mindset. Given the craving for face-to-face interactions and the fear of missing out, our customers love attending our shows as soon as they open for business, possibly to gain the first-mover advantage! Again, seeing this ‘revenge flocking’ to the shows, we strive to provide, more keenly than ever before, a number of valuable, afterhours events around our expo — all of which were very well-attended for reasons of networking, knowledge sharing and inspiration.
ES. In light of the increasing recession fears, what do you think its impact on our industry will be?
Yogesh Mudras. It is true that there is a global recession, added to the Ukraine situation. It is likely though that in all factors considered, the Indian market may not be as impacted as the worst hit parts of the world. We do expect our attendees to be more cautious and again the theme of domestic resurgence will come into play because the industries that are export dependent are likely to be more impacted.
ES. Please share your thoughts on your recent activity of special interaction with new employees in your organization. Do you feel it is necessary to provide thorough and structured training for new employees?
Yogesh Mudras. At Informa Markets in India, we have always had an induction process where newcomers are made to comprehend the culture, best practices and business of the organization. Our senior management make the new colleagues understand the different divisions, spheres of influence and structures and how they all integrate to make the organization thrive. Given the multi-faceted nature of our business, this is very important. The induction process couldn’t be undertaken face-to-face like before for the 2020-22 phase given the work from home logistics. Now that the circumstances are different, we decided to add an element of newness by taking the new members out of office for the induction session. To my mind, the induction process is as vital for the management as it is for the new team members – It helps us to understand their thought process. As they come from various backgrounds, they bring in fresh perspectives along with their analysis and solutions from their previous experience. Both sides get to learn so much and integrate these for the benefit of the organization.
ES. What are you vision ahead for the industry and what message would you like to give to the industry?
Yogesh Mudras. I do believe the exhibitions industry is on a very stable footing. As catalysts to the economy, and to carve the growth trajectory ahead, we have a huge task cut out for ourselves. We have learnt a lot in the past three years and now have at our disposal, many new tools and processes to take on the future. It’s almost like finding ourselves at the tip of the ice-berg. The message I would like to send out is that we need to envision events in a much larger scale than we have seen. To get optimal benefit for the industry, we need to strive hard for international participation now. Most significantly, for the overseas market, we need to build India up as a destination for sourcing and not just investment. We should be able to visualize the nation as a base for market overseas. I believe that day should arrive sooner than later if we follow a well-laid out strategy to meet this goal.
