Event enterprises stare at bleak future
Avneet Kaur
Jalandhar, June 16
As the sphere of outdoor entertainment has come to an absolute standstill amid the Covid-19 outbreak, event management companies have been witnessing a big blip in terms of revenue.
With Covid-19 cases growing rapidly and community transmission being a real threat, there is uncertainty about when the business will get back on track. Also, companies we were working for are not ready to spend a single penny on online as well offline promotions. They have been citing the lockdown losses as the reason.— Gurjit Kaur, MD, N-10 Tainment
Gurjit Kaur and Mandeep Minhas, MD of N-10 Tainment, an event management group, says they have been incurring huge losses as most of the events scheduled for summer months have either been postponed or cancelled for the time being.
“With Covid-19 cases growing rapidly and community transmission being a real threat, there is uncertainty about when the business will get back on track. We are really clueless about our future as we have no clients at present. Also, the companies we were working for are not ready to spend a single penny on online as well offline promotions citing the lockdown losses as the reason,” said Gurjit Kaur.
She said the current relaxations, too, were of no use to them as no events were possible without big crowds. “We get sponsorships on the basis of how many people will be visiting our event. Secondly, maintaining social distancing in events is really a tough task, so there is no scope of organising any programme in the next six to seven months,” she said.
“We were looking after the promotions of many big brands, including Tata, TRDP Group, LIC India and Orra Jewellers. Besides, we were dealing in organising events such as wedding ceremonies, birthday parties and retirement celebrations. We also provide direct and indirect employment to a large number of people like caterers, stage and floor decorators, electricians, photographers, videographers, pandal operators, tailors, cab operators, makeup artistes, vegetable suppliers and others in the district,” said Gurjit.
However, the Covid-19 had paralysed the industry and had affected jobs of all those who were dependent on such day-to-day events.
On being asked if they are planning to shift online to stay afloat, Mandeep Minhas said, “We can have promotions online, but not events. The presence of film stars and singers in a particular event attracts not only a lot of visitors, but revenue for the companies too, which in case of online is not that successful. We have to wait for the situation to normalise and we hope that happens within the next six to seven months, otherwise it will be hard for us to survive”.
He further said the Covid-19 had taught him a lesson for life that one must always have a plan B and should try a hand over other skills too.
