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The culture of conferences has slowly but surely arrived in India and is definitely here to stay. Winter months are favoured as it is the best time to attract foreign delegates. However, such meets are no longer restricted to winter months and are fast becoming a throughout the year activity.

The conference manifestos are distinctive and depending upon the objective, some are

training-based while others have a marketing purview. There are conference alert software that manage annual conference calendars for academicians and professionals, besides maintaining a database and marketing the events.

While conferences have been prevalent in private sector for a long time, it seems to have entered education sector quite late, but has definitely caught up in past couple of years. Health sector woos doctors with proper grandeur. The annual conferences are held in exotic locations. It is like an annual holiday for their families, all expenses paid. The finest hotels, sightseeing in rental cabs, everything is borne by the sponsoring company. Pharmaceutical companies have always been in the news for influencing doctors to prescribe their drugs. Sometimes, it starts at the very beginning - at the research stage. Research of medicines is often funded by pharmaceutical companies and after production, medical representatives find creative ways of getting the medical practitioners to prescribe their drugs. Conferences seem like a good way to do so, since few sectors need constant updating of knowledge as the field of medicine does. Leadership seminars sell like hot cakes. Since all C level managers are hungry for knowledge and there is a constant need to be updated with changes in policy matters (that can have a direct impact on their business), there are annual leadership conclaves that easily charge registration fee up to Rs1 lakh for a two-day symposium.

Recent times have seen conferences as a big time affair and it can sometimes cost a six-digit figure to set up a high quality international conference. With India being a big market for almost all services, foreign delegates are more than willing to visit and explore business opportunities. In the education sector, the Indian student bank is a big source of foreign funding for most universities. Foreign representatives are more than willing to attend conferences and visit institutions where they can interact with students. The information they offer about admission processes indirectly helps them solicit admission to their campuses.

Conferences are a win-win formula. Most organizations either have marketing or training budgets. Staff up gradation and capacity building is a necessary cost for organisations. The employees get to travel and holiday while attending these conferences. Hotels and food business thrive, shopping and places of sightseeing flourish due to influx of visitors.

A few years ago, planners of metropolitan cities were concerned about lack of hospitability services to cater to conferences. The scenario is completely changed now. Mega cities are more than equipped and new urban cities are well on their way to become conference destinations.

The writer is an entrepreneur and educationist