All you missed at EEMAX Global: Day 1

The first session was graced by Mr. Sandeep Aggarwal, who shared his tale of unbeatable enthusiasm and passion for entrepreneurshipin a conversation with Mr. Anurag Batra, Chairman and Editor-in-Chief, Businessworld and exchange4media. Sandeep, who owns a considerable share in the billion dollar value Shopclues and the fast growing 330 million dollar Droom, both first-of-their kind ecommerce platforms in India, had faced major setbacks, as a venture capital fund retracted its investment offer in the beginning of Shopclues, and all FBI came hunting for him on charges of leaking a potential Yahoo-Microsoft deal, to hedge-fund SAC, in July 2013, when Shopclues was only a baby. Sandeep quit his executive role, rather focusing on the strategic inputs and company goals, over phone from the US. With speculations from investors, and less inflowing funds, 750% year-on-year growth was reduced to 100% in four months, but they rose again with the timely apt decision of handholding from the outside. The incident will remain a beam of guidance as to how it is intrinsic values ,strong root propositions and a prepared crisis buffer plan can keep a business going in tough times. “Your career has so far actually has trained you to be really world class entrepreneurs.Now if you combine that along with what is happening at the macro level and see as an opportunity, you can actually carve out a very sizeable business for yourself,” was his message to the entrepreneurs in the differentiated field of events.

Mr. Josie Paul, Chairman, BBDO India engaged the audience with trademark powerful content that had led BBDO India to grab the Black Lion for Creative Effectiveness at the Cannes Lions. As he described the creative urge that caused him to take the ‘Road Not taken’, he stressed on the fact that think Global, Act Local could not be practically possible. It was important to think local and act in the range and increase the range of thought, content and action simultaneously.

As the evening advanced, the cheerfulness and amiability reached a high. Roshan Abbas caught the crowd in the perfect mood, as he came on stage with a special session of ‘The Storytellers’ with an bevy of ladies, who have proved their mettle and made their mark in the industry, and therefore had compelling stories to tell. Panelists included Anushree Agarwal of Themeweavers, Tabassum Modi of Victor Tango, Actress Tisca Chopra, Poonam Lal of Marketing Solutions, Sushma Gaikwad of Ice Global and acress and emcee Mini Mathur.

Sated with stories, the evening sessions broke to give way to socializing and an after party at Sircus.