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The Chief Guest, Priya Ranjan Das
Munshi, played truant. The CEO of
Sony Entertainment Television, the
principal sponsor, made a token
appearance. Most of the speakers were
present only for their own "performances",
not too concerned about the
rest of the proceedings. There was no
significant attendance from most of
the players from the industries that
the three day exposition was to focus
on. What is with FICCI-Frames? There
is no doubt it has grown in stature,
and has ensured that it is a whopping
commercial success. But is it a success
when measured against the objectives
it had defined when the event was
first conceptualized?
The trouble with FICCI-Frames is
that, over the years, it has become
more of a three day extended networking
session. Some of you may not
find anything wrong with that. Why
not, indeed? We are a truly networked
society today, as one of the speakers at
FICCI pointed out, and the delegate
fee + the air fare + the hotel accommodation
is a small price to pay for a
few hundred e-mail ids and mobile
numbers that many would give an
arm and a leg for.
The problem begins when one looks back at the very
reason for the setting up of FICCI Frames. The point of
Frames was to discuss and thrash out issues affecting
the media and entertainment industries and to try and
come to a common resolution among the decision makers
in the industry so that they could lobby for the
changes at a higher level. The trouble begins when
almost all the speakers seem to have the same thing to
say. Cutting a long rosy story short, India is booming,
Indians are making a success of themselves domestically
and abroad and this is the best time to invest in India.
Young India is wired and will lead the digital revolution
in the country, faster than we expect. We all watched
wide eyed as some of the speakers showed clippings of
what the digital future holds for all of us. If that's really
what awaits us all, are we preparing for it? We have
all heard of the broad rosy picture but what about the
micro issues that plague or confound the industry? Why
aren't people discussing piracy issues, the debate on
Foreign Direct Investment, the shortage of talent, the
need for rules and regulations in the "emerging" outdoor
industry, the urgency to find a solution to the vexatious
television distribution business, the blow hot, blow cold
CAS policy, issues on censorship and certification of television
content, self-regulation on news content, the
need to raise the prices of all forms of content? One
could go on listing pressing matters of a specific nature
- why couldn't FICCI do the same?
You can't really blame the speakers; they are all given their topics
beforehand. But why must speakers subject their listeners, the majority
of whom are paying for the privilege, to the same presentations that
they dished out three months or six months ago, at a digital summit or
a media seminar or a panel discussion, slide by slide? For those who
don't attend so many seminars in a year, you may not notice this particular
behavioral trait. But for those among the delegates for whom
seminars are an opportunity to learn from the experiences of the best
in the business, they really couldn't miss hearing the same thing again
and again - often being subjected to the VERY same presentation. And
that's when one wonders about the sense of it all. Why can't FICCI
decide on topics that are more close ended, more likely to produce relevant
and profitable answers? Interestingly, there was not a single session
on the advertising industry, surely a significant contributor to the
existence and growth of the media and entertainment industries. We
largely missed seeing any of the big daddies of Indian advertising at
the seminar, compared to last year when they were almost
omnipresent. This year's highlights were television programming, animation
and gaming. In contrast, new media did not have as much coverage
as one would expect from a forum like FICCI-Frames. Where
were the Yahoo!, Google and MSN guys?
By the time we go to print, the event would have been more than covered
by the dotcoms (most authoritatively by sister publication
exchange4media.com, through the web offering as well as through
their special print newsletter - the official publication for the event), by
the daily newspapers and by television. We have no intention to take
up precious newsprint to give you what you've already received.
Therefore, TV-like, we leave you with bytes that matter. If you're hungry
for more, log on to www.exchange4media.com.