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fitting the brand image.” Increase in Brand Recall, is among the things Pore feels such event deliver well on. He underlined the importance of the segment, pointing out that customized products for the category are also a regular feature today. He said, “Our recent offering - Let’s Rock pre-paid plan, is a revolutionary student friendly pack targeted at the youth. The pack is a unique combination of value coupled with an unmatched mobile experience.”

Besides Malhar, Tata Indicom has also been part of Horizon of DY Patil College, and the Mirchi Cool Jock Hunt of private FM player Radio Mirchi, a contest for college students.

Zapak, Intel and Lenovo also plan to target youth at college fests with ‘Campus Gaming Star’. Intel and Lenovo have joined hands with Zapak to organize ‘Campus Gaming Star’, an annual college gaming championship. The property would be conducted across 30 leading college festivals in the country, and is conceptualized and executed by Zapak Live, the activation cell of Reliance ADA Group’s gaming portal Zapak.com.

The activity kicked off from the capital on September 19, 2008, at IIT Delhi’s annual fest ‘Rendezvous 2008’. It will now move to Zephyr’08 at the Thakur College of Engineering, Mumbai, from September 26 to 28. The property will travel to 15 cities in India, and will conclude by February 2009, when the college festival season ends.

The event features hardcore and casual gaming titles played on a 30-seater gaming rig. New product launches and demonstrations would be conducted at the Intel

and Lenovo pavilions, coupled with workshops on laptop DJ-ing and digital art.

Suresh Kumar, Director, Mindspark Consulting, says most brands see college fests as a vehicle to supplement their core marketing campaign. “So, it works as a reminder medium to enhance a brand’s visibility among youth,” he said.

Building and cementing bridges with this core college TG, youth channel Bindass has tied up with the various college festivals as a TV partner. The list of festivals that the channel partnered includes Malhar of St Xavier’s (Aug 15 and 16), Umang of Narsee Monjee College (Aug 15 to 19), Kaleidoscope of Sophia’s (Sep 6 and 7), Pulse of AIIMS (Sep 16 to 22).

Ashok Cherian, Marketing Head, Bindass, explained, “The best way to reach out to our core TG (18 to 21 years) is to present them a touch-and-feel factor of our offerings. Hence we have tied up with college festivals. We are not just branding ourselves at events but also reaching out directly to the youth by organizing games for them.”

As a part of this partnership, Bindass set up Bindass Zones where students will be able to play innovative and ‘Bindass’ games like BMX cycling, sumo wrestling and few others. They have also infused special Bindass rounds into competitions like Bindass Street Funk and Mr and Mrs Bindass. To add to the fun at these college fests, street magician Ugesh Sarcar also performed tricks at the Umang fest.

“This is an extension of our brand to the students. Apart from being a good marketing drive, we have also integrated a programming element to it,” pointed out Cherian. A new show on Bindass called Bindass Campus Attack

will capture the spirit, the competitions, the raw talent, highs and lows of the youth at the festivals and air them on the show. “Through Bindass Campus Attack, we also want to reach out to students who are unable to attend these festivals,” he added.

Blender Magazine, focused on music, also participated in IIT Delhi Rendezvous 2008. Sam Lal, Editor, Blender Magazine, said, “We wanted to be part of something that was unique and would connect with our readers. So we associated with an event that revolved around music and gave us mass audience.”

The trend of college fests being big draws is here to stay. Today, brands are building elements of their messaging and brand experiences into college festivals regularly. The day is not far off when college festivals will be conceptualized and co-created by brands and students. It is a win-win situation.

Some recent brand associations with college festivals College Festival Main SponsorNarsee Monjee Umang Bru Ice Cappuccino (HUL)St. Xaviers Malhar Tata IndicomIIT Powai Moodi BindassSophia's Mumbai Kaleidoscope Vodafone

“My favourite off site location is North Point at Khandala. It’s the campus run by Lintas. The reasons for this being my favourite are many. Before I get into them, let me add here that the last two off sites that we have had have been at this very location, and both these strategy meets have been very successful in terms of output.

Thought it’s only an hour or so away (and perhaps because it is), I would readily categorise it as a getaway in the true sense. People unfamiliar with the terrain tend to club Lonavala and Khandala as one. The truth is different. In North Point, Khandala, your are locked away with no temptation to exit, as it’s far away from the madness of Lonavala.

Logistically too, this location is a dream. It’s fairly easy to reach from Mumbai. And for those coming in from out of Mumbai, it’s a little more than an hour’s drive from the airport. A stay there definitely brings out your creative juices. And it helps you think clearly. There’s something

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What’s makes the offsite experience? When it comes to creating an offsite experience to remember, there’s

obviously more than one factor at work. One of the factors that goes to work even before the offsite begins, is the choice of venue.

There’s an aura and an expectation about most travel destinations that gets audiences excited at the very mention of the place. Soon, computers in office are busy googling away to find out what the attractions are, and what to shop for, among other things, once there.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are a whole lot of people who believe that offsites have become ‘annual picnics’ and need to change track to focus on learning. Quite visibly, different organisations have different expectations from their respective offsites.

My favourite offsite location...

By Niloufer DundhChief Sales Officer, OOH Media, in conversation with EVENTFAQS

For a majority of organisations in the media and advertising space, offsites are as much about brainstorming and strategy planning as they are about a motivating fun trip for internal teams.

In this, the first part of our dedicated section on MIC (Meetings, Incentives and Conferences), we spoke with a couple of professionals in the media space. This part of the series is focused on destinations and the offsite experience, with a focus on media professionals.

While Niloufer Dundh exchanged notes on her favourite offsite location, Abhijit Pradhan underlined the need to create new levels of excitement at offsites.

An offsite is about creating new levels of excitement...

By Abhijit PradhanChief Explorer and Executive Coach, Superstar Business Solutions, in conversation with EVENTFAQS

in the air...The last two trips we made there were serene. The first was during the pre-monsoon and the second at the fag end of the monsoons. The great weather helped add to the wonderful experience. From what I’m penning here, it might seem as though the entire experience is about getting lost in the midst of nature. There’s a lot of activity too, if one is interested. I did notice that there were many takers for the Indoor and Outdoor sports on offer.

The great internet connectivity helped when you needed to connect to the world outside. And given our nature of work, we better be connected! The service was excellent too, with home cooked food, and the hosts always willing to ask you what you want!

With three different venues, there’s no dearth of variety. Space is another huge advantage, with not many other conferences taking place there at the same time. We look forward to having our next meet at North Point again.”

“The last offsite I attended was when I was with Mid-Day. It was in March-end this year, and we had everyone from the 125-odd Marketing and Sales team attending it. We took off to Malaysia. I think it was very successful, and what contributed was a combination of factors. One of them was that Mid-Day hadn’t done an international offsite for three or four years then.

The other was the entire ‘Genting’ experience the foreign city offered. It was about some serious partying, and also about showcasing what Mid-Day had achieved over the last one year. We were very clear that everyone from the Marketing and Sales teams should be part of this experience. Of the 120-plus people, more than 40 had never travelled abroad. It was time to take all of them along, together.

To my mind, an offsite is about creating new levels of excitement, and each offsite has its other specific objectives too. It does a lot to the morale of the team. And yes, it is about learning and sharing notes too.

This last offsite I am referring to did have its elements of conferencing and learning, but the entire feel was about the fun and excitement. We went the whole hog, from branding it ‘KLPD’ to creating a logo for KLPD! We didn’t have a full form for ‘KLPD’, but that didn’t matter – it was all in the spirit of the thing. We could always call it the ‘Kuala Lampur Police Department’!

We realised that it was about the production of the event elements too. Among other elements, the Audio Visuals screened at the conference told the team what the industry perceived Mid-Day to be. That helped a lot.

When it comes to choice of venues, Goa is a favourite when you’re looking at locations within the country. It gives you a feel that you have gone out of your city, but it is also quite affordable. Internationally, organisations regularly creating trips for senior people have looked at exotic locations. When I was with the Times Group, the first offsite I went on was to New Zealand. Exoticness of the locale helps, especially in the media scenario.

If it’s a cost and convenience consideration, then a majority from the media space are travelling to locations in South East Asia. But many, many media organisations are going off the track and looking at countries like Turkey.

Lastly, on the activity front, I have seen over-enthusiastic tour managers missing out on some basics. Group activities are important, but they should not be forced on the team 24x7 during an offsite. For instance, one thing that people sometimes forget is that we are Indians, and that we love to shop! So you better give your team some time for that – and to be by themselves and explore the place.

Let them experience the place. You can’t take them to exotica and then deny them that!”

ALL ABOUT MIC

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IRF: Five years on, still going strong

The India Retail Forum (IRF), a congregation of retail brands, companies and minds from across the globe, was conceptualized by

IM Entertainment, the events division of the Images Group, five years ago.

This year’s edition got underway on September 16, and registered more than 1000 walk-ins for the three-day Conference, Exhibition and Awards night. While the conference was held at The Renaissance Hotel, the property drew to a close with the Awards night at the Grand Hyatt on September 18.

This year’s edition of the conference and exhibition was spread over 1500 to 2000 square metres at The Renaissance. IM Entertainment had appointed Performance Audio to supply and manage the sounds for the conference as well as the awards night. For the conference, lighting arrangements were distributed between Star Dimensions and Creative Productions. Spectrum Audio Visual provided the Audio Visuals, while sets at the conference were erected by Benny from WYSIWYG. Hangars used at the exhibition were created by Mumbai-based RM Gupta, while

How has the property grown over the years? This is the fifth year for the property and we have gradually grown since the first year. The entire Retail industry is on the rise, and we have got a very good response from the industry. Retail being a vast category, it has lots of cross categories like fashion, food, health retailing. This has helped us in increasing the areas covered by the event. Typically, how much time does it take to plan and execute an event of such scale? Now, since it’s an annual property, we have yearly plans for the event. We decide and finalize the dates a year in advance, so as to get comfortable dates according to our plans, requirements and space availability. Ideally, it takes planning of almost four months to plan and execute the event in the style and manner that we see it this time. How much manpower do you utilize for an event like this? We have different departments for handling different areas like registrations, media, hotel, delegates, speakers, exhibitors and stall

BY Jagadeesh Krishnamurthy

Pico, an international company, was responsible for the stalls.

For the Awards night, Jag Mag Electrics was given the task of handling lightings, while Vinayak Video Vision is taking care of video services. For the Awards, IM Entertainment took up the responsibility for the set design and erection, and attempted to blend mall elements with an awards setup.

Reasoning their decision to build the sets, Burgess Elavia, Head of Logistics and Operations, IM Entertainment, said, “We decided to erect the sets for the Awards night ourselves as it is our major forte. We believe we understand the property better than anyone else, and can make much better sets than anyone for this event.”

On conference evenings, organizers decided to stick with a DJ and jugalbandi performances, instead of performing acts as the entertainment agenda. The Awards night was hosted by Dalip Tahil and Parizad Kolah. The Awards evening made up on the performances front, with stand-up comedian Ash Chandler and singer Neeraj Shridhar of Bombay Vikings entertaining audiences.

areas. This time around, we had around 70 people managing the show for us.

What has been the response from exhibitors? And, has the number of exhibitors increased? The number of exhibitors at the event has been constant at 150 stalls compared to last year, but we have improved in terms of the exhibitor brands. This year, we have powerful brands like the Kshitij Group, Inorbit Malls, Unitech, E-city Ventures and Sun-city group exhibiting at the conference. We have been getting support from all these strong players for our event over the years, and this has helped us position our event on a different scale altogether. Delegates – it’s the same – profile and number of speakers have increased. We had around 60 speakers on each day over three days. We also had CEO meets every day. We had 30 CEOs sharing the stage at the same time, including industry bigwigs like Future Group’s Kishore Biyani and Shoppers Stop’s BS Nagesh.

EVENTFAQS spoke with Nirav Ganatra, Director, IM Entertainment. Excerpts: