‘Hotels are the nucleus of all event activities’

The panellists Nanni Singh, Chief Executive, Showcase Events; Soin Anuj, Radisson Gurgaon GM; Ruchin Kohli, Director, Occasion Xperts, and Siddharth Chaturvedi, CEO, Event Crafters, discussed how venues can adapt their physical layouts and designs to accommodate evolving event trends and the demand for versatile spaces along with pertinent topics like sustainability and support to manpower at the venues.

The panel was moderated by Sohini Ganguly, Senior Correspondent, exchange4media.

“It is very important to have an experiential venue, we all believe in customisation and personalisation,” said Anuj. “Whatever may be the event, seminars or weddings, people prefer to have the venues which customise their needs, personalise their needs. That is why, providing that flexibility to the consumer is very important.”

Singh shared that post-COVID, when everyone went back to live events, it was noticed that the venues were also turning around a lot. “There were many things that they had absorbed, apart from just the sanitisation and hygiene perspective. Venues were now willingly giving us dedicated leased lines, which was the biggest challenge, in case of a hybrid event,” she added.

Kohli gave an example of a recent carbon-neutral free event conducted by them at Crown Plaza, Gurgaon, which was certified by the United Nations. “You’ll be surprised to know that this was done at a hotel which didn’t even have a water bottle plant. Getting this certified by the UN was a tough task, they get into a lot of details. There were a lot of late nights, pre-discussions, but we’re very proud of it,” he said.

Chaturvedi feels that a hotel is the nucleus of all event activities. “Any new hotel opening up is a new livelihood for thousands of people related to events. It’s a relationship where both sides are dependent on each other. For the hoteliers also, events are the nucleus of their economic activities. It’s a win-win situation,” he mentioned.

He further highlighted that with the changing times, the new GMs of the hotels are realising that the revenue is majorly coming from the events. “I was moderating a panel of hoteliers, I asked them if they realised that the person who is working for them everyday, who is the lowest in the pyramid chain is a labour. If there is no labour, there won’t be a stage or lights or anything else for that matter. What is being done for them?” Chaturvedi shared. He mentioned how hotels do not even have a designated water area or food for the labour. “It is high time that these issues are spoken about openly.”

Speaking of wastage that happens, Chaturvedi pointed out how there are no audits for waste management happening at hotels. It turns out that the youth, Gen Z are actually asking the event organisers about what the hotel is doing about the food. However, he added, after 20-25 years of events getting evolved, now a time has come where both sides are sitting across the table having a healthy discussion about what needs to be done.

On similar experiences, Singh spoke about an event called Inclusive that was organised recently. It was mainly around disabled people, some were on wheelchairs, some were blind etc. “We had the event at a hotel in Delhi, excellent hotel, warm staff, good deal everything was fine. When the client came for the first time, she pointed out that the ramp was broken, it would be difficult for people in wheelchairs to use. Three months down the line, the ramp still wasn’t fixed.”

Another point was that the hotel staff wasn’t trained to check in the blind delegates. “It isn’t their fault, these things are not a part of the training at all. High time these are included, because then the hotels can have rooms which are disabled friendly,” Singh said.

There were also a lot of points around sustainability that the panel touched upon. For instance, Anuj feels that sustainability is not only about being plastic-free etc. but it is way beyond. “It starts from when guests book an event with us. I am in talks with Spabla, to enhance digitised bookings. Also about the food wastage, we as a hotel are promoting more live counters, to facilitate less wastage of food,” he concluded.