The platform to showcase new talent has shrunk

For over 10 years, I have been creating, curating and executing small and large scale events in an individual capacity, where the focus was to assist charitable causes and corporates. The concept has always been to first understand the vision of the client, and the event goals. Then to create an innovative concept and work plan so that on the day of the event everything is executed flawlessly and professionally.

Organising events has not been much of a challenge. What makes things unworkable and exceptionally difficult for us in the events industry is always the financial implications involved. The cost of the event, whether a musical or any other, can be varied, depending on the type of the event, and the fee of those involved, the various vendors and service providers. It is their livelihood. While executing any event, be it a conference, a corporate event or a musical, my prime intent is to ensure that all stakeholders are well compensated. This can only happen if the there are good sponsors. If there’s good funding support, be it corporate, individual or government, the events industry will be able to grow and develop and bring out the best that otherwise might and will get missed for sure. This is a big gap which needs to be filled.

Many corporates and individuals like to step in for charity as they are then able to get their necessary tax exemptions and rebates. That too has reduced now as the focus has shifted heavily towards marketing and branding and publicity. The response towards events, of any sort, is so poor and weak, despite offering customized deliverables. This hesitation needs to go…the trust factor needs to come in.

An area that is seemingly hard to penetrate, is to be able to promote the exceptional talent in our country. No one wants to step forward and support unknown or lesser known artists. This is so unfortunate as the struggle to showcase their talent becomes more intense. As an events person, when we approach for funding whether for charity or for a commercial event, the ask is always for a big, known name. I strongly feel that this is very sad and unfair to those artists who have phenomenal talent but will never be known because of this limitation and attitude.

India has a rich cultural heritage, but to promote the music, art and culture from any specific region is a hard task.

Sponsorships are becoming harder and this restricts people like us to be able to exhibit super talent which lies in our country’s legacy.

I started executing fundraiser events for two charities as Head of Events; organised regular Fundraisers to support critically ill, under-privileged children. I did small and big events, but purely with a mission to raise funds. This included music festivals and musical evenings. I feel music creates positive and happy vibes and is a happy meeting ground for both the musicians and the audience. In this journey, I came in contact with a lot of amazing musicians and felt that independent and traditional music needed a serious voice and representation.

Our first traditional production is a musical showcase of the legendary families of Rajasthan who, in a completely curated set, presented the different flavours of Rajasthan-LIVE. This show has 18 musicians from different parts of Rajasthan and from families that have either made these instruments or have passed the talent down the generations. The show showcases sensitive instrumentation and folk vocals.

We are searching for corporates and individuals who believe in true music and talent and will step in, unhesitatingly to promote this and a lot more independent music, with us. Unfortunately, the first question that comes our way is who is the artist and on hearing unknown names the response becomes weak.

We want to start and take on this change of mindset to be able to bring forward a positive response from the Industry of sponsors, supporters and music lovers, who can help build this. Also those that believe in good quality of events which do require certain funding.

In India today, there is no dearth of good talent and good quality service providers. Thus the part of doing events becomes non-challenging. The biggest challenge is the financial constraints, which then discourage people to do things which will enhance and showcase our culture and traditional arts.

This gap needs to filled and this should not be an events challenge anymore.

Author is Founder and Chief Executive of ShowCase Events