'We want Goafest to be the Cannes of India'

Goafest can be best described as a celebration of creativity with a dash of entertainment.  The three-day annual event -- set to take place between May 24 and May 26, 2023 -- is gearing up to celebrate the best in advertising, media and marketing. 

With artificial intelligence dominating conversations this year, the theme for the fest in 2023 is Generative AI. The industry will shine the spotlight on this disruptive tool and how it will impact media on a greater scale.

As the excitement builds up for the upcoming fest, we got talking to core committee of Goafest 2023 comprised of Prasanth Kumar, president, Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and CEO, South Asia, GroupM; Jaideep Gandhi, Chairman, Goafest 2023 Organising Committee; and Mohit Joshi, CEO, Havas Media Group India and Goafest 2023 Co-chair. They shared with us their vision for and expectations from this year's ad fest.

Sharing their excitement, Gandhi said: "We are all geared working hard making each and every moment of Goa Fest memorable."
While Joshi chimed in speaking about participation, "We have a good number of registrations this year compared to last year., but we have much better conversions this time. We have received participation from more agencies this year. It is a significant step up from what it had been. We have more clients who are going to be present there."

This year ABBY Awards 2023 has got 3,301 entries, up from 3,021 last year. Media companies have increased their involvement to 63 this year, up from 54 last year. In addition, the number of creative companies participating in the awards has grown from 142 to 181.

The festival has gained more than 45 sponsors which include top media houses. The fest is co-presented by Disney Star and Aaj Tak.

Talking about the spike in sponsor interest, Gandhi said: "We are very confident and happy to see people coming forward and supporting this event from across different sectors. The media networks are very supportive. We may have doubled the number to what we had in yesteryears. We have made them a  part of the fest as well with the different sections as it is good to be a part of the learning and the unlearning process. It is a great opportunity for us to do this together. Even now we see a lot more people taking interest in the same."

He added that number is not important but how can they make more people to be a part of this is important. When asked about how it is going to be different this year Gandhi said, "All the years we have been observing and learning. We are in a business where we have to stay relevant and keep an eye on the customer.  So we have increased the masterclasses from 9 of last year to 11. We have discussions on relevant discussions. The collaboration we share with different like ASCI, TAC, IAA, etc we all become one. We look at Goa Fest as one vision and one vision."

Talking about the choice of theme, Joshi said more than just AI, it's about the future. "It raises a lot of questions about the industry, it impacts media, creativity, and everything. We needed something that was relevant to the industry, so I think Generative AI and the future that it will be delivering is very important to us. The whole thing is about futurism."

In a fun anecdote when said will AI eat up jobs, Joshi chuckled and said, "AI will help us to do our jobs better."

To conclude the conversation we asked the speakers about their vision for the event, to which Gandhi replied, "We would like Goafest to be a place where anyone from the media fraternity will wish to be here" followed by Joshi who said, "It is already the Cannes of India, but we do expect more participation." and lastly, Kumar humbly said, "I think it is an opportunity to learn-unlearn, recognize, exchange ideas, and entertainment."