Events
Running corporate events, dealer meets and conferences in India — budgets, timelines, venues, and the things that go wrong on the day.
Most of what is written about running events in India was written for somewhere else. The permissions take longer here, the power is less reliable, the venue rule changes on the day, and the guest list arrives with people nobody invited. None of that is a problem if it is planned for, and all of it is a problem if it is not.
These are working notes rather than theory — what a quote actually contains, how long a permission really takes, which contingencies get used, and the difference between an event that is organised and one that is directed.
The destination wedding that does not leave the city
A destination wedding used to mean Udaipur or Goa. Increasingly it means a resort on the edge of your own city, with everything a destination promises and none of the flights.
7 min read
A hybrid event is not half an event
The room has two hundred people in it and a laptop at the back streaming to four hundred more. The two hundred had an event. The four hundred watched a meeting.
6 min read
A launch is not one day. It is three.
The launch day gets the budget, the photographs and the nerves. The two phases on either side of it decide whether the product actually arrives in the market.
6 min read
What a wedding planner is actually for
You can book the venue. You can book the caterer. The question is who is standing there at 6am when the flowers have not arrived and three hundred people are coming at seven.
6 min read
Choosing an event management company: eleven questions to ask
Every agency shows you the same photographs. These are the questions that actually tell you which one will be standing next to you at 6am on the setup day.
7 min read
Conference, dealer meet, offsite — three different animals
They cost roughly the same, they look roughly the same in a photograph, and they do completely different jobs. Most disappointing corporate events are the right event of the wrong type.
7 min read
What does event management actually cost in India?
Nobody publishes this, which is why everybody asks it first. Here is how the number is built, what moves it, and where the surprises hide.
9 min read
How to plan a dealer meet people leave feeling backed
A dealer meet is not a conference with a different guest list. The people in the room decide whether your product gets pushed or shelved, and they can tell within an hour whether you respect them.
8 min read
The corporate event checklist nobody hands you
Most checklists you find online were written for a different country. This one is for events run in India, where the power can go, the permission can take three weeks, and the venue rule changes on the day.
10 min read