The Hindu Business Line : Congresses and seminars

The Indian Merchants Chamber in Mumbai is in its centenary year and is churning out seminars and workshops by the dozen. The AIMA and CII flood my mailbox with details of interesting seminars almost every other week. The advertising community has just returned from Goa where a few of them deliberated at a conclave and the rest flocked in their thousands to raise a sun-soaked, spirits'-drenched toast to creative excellence in advertising.

So what is this obsession with seminars and congresses all about?

Well, let me confess that I have been a congress-freak in my time. In fact, I very firmly believe that attending these events with an open mind receptive to new ideas, thoughts and suggestions can be a great education.

The advertising industry, like most industries these days, has its fair share of `learning events'.

At the international level, there is the Asian Advertising Congress (AdAsia) and the IAA World Advertising Congress that is each held every alternate year. In effect, you have one of them every year. For many years, the AdAsia retained a pre-eminent position when it came to international congresses. Their most prominent speakers were from the West, but their Asian yen for planning and the warmth of their hospitality made them steal a march over the World Advertising Congresses that remained high-profile, badly managed events. In fact the only two well-managed World Congresses I can recall was one held in Seoul, and the other held last year in Dubai.

So what is it that makes a couple of thousand delegates spend an average of a hundred thousand rupees each to congregate at these events?

Well, for starters, it is a change from the humdrum of daily routine. A chance to escape monotony and recharge the grey cells in a different atmosphere. Big names as speakers are a definite draw. You always want to hear the big guns boom. No matter if Martin Sorrell gives the same speech at three successive fora (he did, and I heard it till I knew it by heart). You blame the pathetic delegate for paying to keep hearing him, not the master for being unable to shower new words of wisdom each time.

I have always noticed that most congresses publicise the stars in all their literature. These are the towering personalities who lend weight and stature to an event. These are the heroes every organiser wants to plug. Yet these tired generals have little time to actually think, prepare and deliver something new. Nor can they be expected to pull a new bunny out of their hats so often.

I have noticed that it is well worth the time and money spent to actually sit through the `break-out sessions' where the real nuggets of wisdom are to be dredged. There is definitely a lot to be learned, if one has the attitude and the patience.

On the other hand, there is another dimension to these events, specially the ones that involve travel. I have met the nicest people and built lasting relationships on my travels to these events. Some of the people I count as my friends today are those I met on my travels. The funny part of the story is that most of these people live and work in the same city I do. Yet, the rush of business and the pressures on one's time somehow make it difficult to spend time together in the place you work in. Away from that environment, it is an all-new situation. One that encourages and nurtures the building of relationships that could even blossom into friendships.

At a base level people call this `networking'. Somehow this sounds very pushy and conjures up images of pesky individuals proffering unwanted business cards. Yet, the basic point is that you do have a platform to meet people who are in your, or an allied, profession and something mutually beneficial could come out of it.

Apart from the content that one could benefit from and the relationships one could develop, a good destination provides the unfailing attraction of some new sights that can be seen as well.

I recall destinations like Bangkok and Singapore being more attractive for the shopping and the night life than the congress sessions themselves. Yet, many corporates see a trip like this more as a well-earned junket for their star performers. If the person learns something that can add value to the company, that is just a bonus.

Large events also germinate thoughts and ideas that have the potential to grow into mighty oak trees. I was present at a congress in Manila where a stray, insensitive comment by a senior delegate on the inability of India to hold such large events was the seed that made a couple of individuals vow to prove him wrong. The result, many years later, was the AdAsia 2003 at Jaipur that was by all accounts one of the best planned and executed events the country has ever witnessed.

The recently concluded GoaFest too heard the idea of an Indian Advertising Forum being floated for the first time. I believe that this is probably an idea whose time has come.

Sure, to create an association on the lines of a Nasscom or a CII needs vision and commitment. Yet, the benefits that could accrue to the entire industry could make it all worth it.

Seminars or conclaves do have the ability to throw up such ideas. It is for a few well-meaning and hard working people in the industry to realise their worth, and work towards making them a reality.

In the absence of that, these events remain at the level of the mundane and the ordinary. Desultory pilgrimages that pander to the purely predictable.

(Ramesh Narayan is a communications consultant. Comments can be sent to brandline@thehindu.co.in)

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