When Baba Ramdev landed at Goa airport to speak at Goafest, there was an army of about 5,000 people waiting with aartis to receive him. To get him out of the airport and to the venue safely, one had to wear the hat of a security manager. It was quite an experience. As was receiving Amitabh Kant at 4 am in the morning. The list is endless and it is these speakers who add to the magic of the festival in their own ways.
Twenty minutes before she was to speak, Mary Kom said she wanted to wear a saree. A hotel staff had to be requested to lend hers. Two hours before he took stage Siddhant Chaturvedi of Gully Boy fame decided that he wanted to perform and needed a guitar. The audience loved all of them, making it worth every effort over the years.
The year Kapil Dev went up to speak, the ballroom was packed and overflowing. The session extended beyond the stipulated 45 minutes and when it seemed like it would never end, I had to prompt him. The audience shouted at me for trying to stop him and to allow the legendary cricketer to continue speaking. We had to. It was another thing that another great, SS Rajamouli, who had a flight to catch, was waiting in the green room for his turn to speak!
Whether it was Arnab Goswami, Kapil Dev or Sanjay Dutt who we had asked to speak on ‘Learn from my Failure’, it has become evident over the years that the audience is seeking inspiration, not presentations. Powerpoints don’t work at Goafest, points of view do. While knowledge sharing and industry issues are critical and continue to be an integral part of proceedings, we have realised who we are catering to and what they want.
The grammar of Goafest is ever evolving and I have learnt this by working closely with Ambi Parameswaran, Nakul Chopra, Ashish Bhasin and Srinivasan Swamy, all of whom brought their styles and perspectives into play.
The fest is about networking, awards, celebrations and after-parties. The mood is one of a holiday, where you also soak in learnings and more importantly inspiration. To get people who have stayed up till 3 am into the conference hall at 10 am, you need magnets. To get people to wake up after a morning of talks and a hearty lunch, you need entertainment.
The mantra we have arrived at is: Inspiration in the ballroom, knowledge in the master classes. The breakaway masterclasses started in 2016 and continue to date. Even with masterclasses, one on ‘mindfulness’ had to be run four times a day because of the interest it evoked. It showed us what the audience wanted – inspiration to be creative, irrespective of whether one is from creative, media or marketing.
Sixty to 70 percent of delegates are under 35 years of age. To make the content relevant and interesting for them is the greatest challenge. Experiments over the years have taught us the way forward. Swami Sukhabodhanada and Gaur Gopal Das worked as magically well for us as any celebrity who was invited to speak. Keeping with the times, we had a power-packed panel of influencers sharing the stage last year, as well as players from OTT. We had to be ‘with it’ to engage the largely young audience. We were also getting the senior delegates from the first three rows charged up to perform their leadership roles when they got back.
This journey of being involved with the speakers is its own reward. Not just for me and the organising team but for the entire audience, there are moments that they will carry forever. With the late Pradeep Guha, who I am greatly indebted to, I went to receive Piyush Pandey from his house to get him to Goafest in 2016 when the industry felicitated him for the Padma Shri that year. The tears in his eyes as he went up on stage, is something I will remember for life.
Goafest as an experience is the sum total of these moments. This is what people are coming for. It’s our job to give them the complete package and send them home, inspired.
(The author is Chairman, Goafest 2023 and Founder, Another Idea. Views are personal. As told to Gokul Krishnamoorthy.)
(First published by The Free Press Journal BrandSutra. Content powered by MediaNews4u.com. Feedback: [email protected])
