Gone are the days when every family member was involved in
organising a wedding or a party. Parties now are outsourced in Bangalore.
Thanks to the several event management
companies in the city, residents now have all the help they needed for
their parties, and they don't mind the heavy price tag either.
So much so, that now
Bangalore is now the new hub for event management companies. "Earlier the
hub was Chennai, but now it's Bangalore," says Pradeep Naik, founder and
CEO of Bangalore-based event management company, Fuel-India. Despite the
growing competition most of the companies have recorded an annual growth
between 30 percent to a whopping 112 percent.
The growth story
In the past few years, more companies have opened shop and
thus, the competition has gone up. Besides this, the economic slowdown also
raises its ugly head time and again. But, none of these challenges has hit the
industry, thus owing to an exponential increase in demand.
The growth of Fuel Events substantiates the above fact.
"Our business is growing. And we often have to limit the number of parties
we organise to give special attention and superior quality. On an average we do
at least 15 parties every month, business has grown to 112 percent from last
year.
Similar is the growth trajectory for Fuel India, "In spite of tight
competition and a slowdown in corporate space we are seeing 40-50 percent
year-on-year business growth.
Ilyas Akthar, CEO of Bangalore-based Idreams Events is happy
with the business growth. "We have seen an average growth of 30 percent
every year. The numbers may seem low. But going by the fact that the event
industry was hit pretty bad during recession, the numbers are fair."
Akhtar also attributes the growth to an increasing number of
youngsters in Bangalore and spending power of the residents. "I think with
the growing youth population in Bangalore we see an increase in the clients'
budgets." he says.
According to the report by Ernst & Young and Event &
Entertainment Management Association (EEMA), the organised portion of the
Indian event management industry has grown at over 20 percent during the last
two years and has been estimated around Rs 2,800 crore in 2011-12. The industry
is expected to reach Rs 4,375 crore in 2013-14 driven by weddings, sports and
higher spends on below-the-line promotional events.
The report also states that there is a large unorganised
events and activation sector as well, which could be as large or even larger
than the organised portion of the industry.
Demand for Personal Events
The event industry has two markets to cash on, personal
events and corporate events. According to industry players, there is a slowdown
in the corporate events' market, but personal events seem to be slow-down
proof. For Event-u-all, the personal events' segment in Bangalore has grown by
20 percent, whereas, the corporate event segment has seen a downfall by 50
percent.
Event Mechanic's director Rajiv Stephen reiterates the same:
"Corporate companies are now cost-cutting as far as events are concerned -
they have cut costs by as much as 30 percent."
Pradeep echoes the same trend. "Spending patterns in
personal parties are increasing, but corporate budgets are getting
tighter," says Ashwin. He also adds that number of personal parties or
events has shot up in last two years. "From last year, the number of
personal parties has increased by 45 percent."
According to various event managers, the Bangalore market
has become more 'glamorous' or in other words, 'Bollywoodish' with regard to
weddings. Functions like 'sangeet' that were earlier unheard off in South India
are now being organised by the event management companies. A client in Bangalore
is ready to pay Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh for adding dash of glamour to wedding
parties.
"Bangalore has the right clientele for event management
companies. Lot of high net worth individuals live in Bangalore, who want to
have lavish and glamorous parties," explains Narayan. The last wedding
that his company organised was for Rs 50 lakhs.
Theme Parties
Over the years the event management companies have seen a
considerable rise in demand of theme parties in Bangalore. "Apart from
weddings and sangeet there is a huge demand for theme parties.
For, Fuel India,
queries for theme parties have grown by 70 percent from last year. And
otherwise, the number of theme parties has gone up by 40 percent. These parties
are usually organised for children. And parents are ready to shell out an
amount of Rs 30,000 to Rs 35,000 depending on the theme and the size of the
party. "Themes like Mickey Mouse, Disney Princess, Chota Bheem, Little
Krishna are some of the most popular themes in Bangalore,"
