At IIWC Experience We Tell You Things Beyond What You Know
As the date of the second edition of India International Wedding Connections Experience (IIWC) inches closer, we spoke to Pramod Lunawat, Founder & CEO Millennium Event and Marriageuana Wedding Planners,and curator of IIWC about the highlights of the event. Here are some edited excerpts
What will be the big focus areas of IIWC Experience 2023?
As you're aware, 2023 is the second edition of the India International Wedding Connections Experience. We are focusing this year on greater connections, more conversations, and effective collaborations. So, effectively this is our credo this year because we realise that people from different geographies can help each other with the unique experience levels they have.
Tell us about some of the top attendees this year.
Our attendees are all largely luxury destination wedding planners, as is a focus area for this event and the engaging community. This year we'll have participants from 18 to 20 countries. From India, of course, we will have a major chunk of people. Ali Behnam Bakhtiar, one of the all time greatest wedding designers will deliver the opening keynote. Antonio Paraiso, one of the most popular consultants and practitioners from Europe is delivering yet another keynote address.
Gideon Hermosa, the most trending floral designer in the world, is taking a Masterclass. Samit Garg, President EEMA and wedding planning maestro, Majeda and Sewar the mother-daughter duo are also taking masterclasses on very relevant and interesting topics.
We have some very interesting wedding vendors, wedding hotels also participating essentially to network with the luxury wedding planners.
Most of the participants are masters in their own rights in the Indian Wedding Fraternity because they have been trail-blazing entrepreneurs who started a couple of decades back. And today they stand at an inflection point. These are people who have excelled in various spheres of activities and they will all bring together that experience on the table for sharing with peers and surely people can gain from that knowledge.
What is your vision for IIWC Experience?
We want to have the IIWC experience as one of its kind where the Indian wedding fraternity, not just gets to learn but also gets to retreat after a hard year of work or months of work and connect to each other, and have conversations.
We have realised that many other wedding events like this have sessions where people talk about their own work and kind of make it an advertising pitch, et cetera. Here at the IIWC Experience, the idea is to tell you things beyond what you know already.
So for example, we have sessions where you will be told about how you should grow your business further or how to then start enjoying your life after you've made your money, there will be sessions that will tell you about how to forecast trends.
So, our vision will always be to tell you what you do not know, not advertise others’ work on our platform that would remain our key focus area. And going forward we will be going to different parts of the world and those will have to be destinations where Indian weddings will probably be welcome. So, Sri Lanka, this year is chosen on that account only because it's a destination that can offer a lot for Indian weddings.
In your view how can India become the hub of global events?
In terms of the availability of venues and talent, India is no less than any other place. The problem here is with ease of working because there are so many permissions, licences, etc. that need to be procured. That is now of course getting easier. But once we start promoting that ease of business as a country to the world that we are open to getting world events in here, it will be a big game changer for the industry.
It will also bring in a lot of revenue to the Indian event industry and a lot of focus on India from the world. I'm sure that not just Indian weddings, but other events also will keep coming here.
And why Indian weddings? I mean for that matter, people want to get married in palaces on the lovely beaches of Goa, on the Rajasthan castles and palaces. They would realise that India is the place to go to. The only thing that we need to propagate is that India is open to all these with extended arms. It lays a red carpet. It will probably give you incentives to come to India and that will propel India as a global events destination.
