Eve(nt) Manager

`Home event manager' is what all women actually are. We are all too acquainted with the various events we manage on the home front, aren'...

`Home event manager’ is what all women actually are. We are all too acquainted with the various events we manage on the home front, aren’t we ? It is not all that surprising then, that women are doing so well in the field of `event management’.

There are specialisations here too. While some concentrate on sales promotion events, others prefer to go in for managing entertainment do’s or find challenge in fields like conference management. The techniques used in the home-front seem to work equally well on a more macro level as well.

The first to hit the Pune scene was, of course, the unbeatable duo-Suchita Kudale and Shirley Sequeira, with their Entre Nous. “It means between you and me, since close interaction is what it is all about,” explains Suchita. “We’re actually event creators. We’re the ones responsible for introducing a lot of new concepts in Pune,” she stresses. She was an avid Jaycee who capitalised on her organisational skills that had come into practice while organising events for them.

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Others too, soon took up this line. One was Manisha Shringarpure with her `Magic Promotions’. With an MBA from the Institute of Management Education under her belt, she first ventured into market research and merchandising. Her first client was an industrial packaging giant who soon roped her in to do sampling and event management for them. And that is how Manisha stepped into sales promotions, doing image building and PR activities.

Her `Best Stall’ prize for a Juice Promotion program at the Airport encouraged her clients to hand her the job of promoting their new milk packs. Like any good hostess would at her own private party, Manisha had gone into every detail of organising and entertaining. Though Magic Promotions was launched barely a year ago, Manisha’s hard work is paying dividends.

For Kausar Khan who managed the May Queen event at Boat Club it is the entertainment business. It could be fashion shows, seminars, dances or acting, her `K’s Entertainment’ organises it for you. Although only 23, Kausar had a vast experience in the area of dance and theatre before she turned to event managing.

Kauser is also building up her own team of models. She teaches them personal grooming, speech, diction, facts about sound recording and how to move on the ramp and on stage. In fact it is a total package on how to project one’s personality.

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Dipti Kapadia’s organised skills has ensured a success story for her `World Express’ which is all about conference management. A former Mumbaite, Dipti worked as Accounts Executive for an advertising agency and then as a Programme Controller of popular television serials. Exposure to conferences in this job gave her a head start in experience when she set up her own travel agency with a conference division.

Explains Dipti, “Conference management actually involves many diverse aspects. When delegates arrive they have to be received and their stay has to be arranged. At the conference hall one has to arrange for all equipment. And finally there is the sightseeing and give-away gifts.”

According to Dipti, an eye for detail and touches of home which a woman adds, is what is responsible for their success in this field. It is just an extension of playing hostess at home. "They can make a vocation out of their avocation."