EMCEEs - what you missed at EEMA Presenters Dialogue?

Swati Sharma Sep 04, 2018

The recent EEMA ‘Presenters Dialogue’ at JW Marriot Aerocity, conceptualized and executed by EEMA north, saw anchors and event managers attend from across India. Coming together to discuss, ponder and unravel ways and practices that can help raise the bar of Talk.

The EEMA ‘Presenters Dialogue’ had a lot of learning for attending presenters, and that was not all, it offered inspiration, encouragement, passion, fun and new opportunities.

From the get go, Atul Chabra of Enthuse Answers hooked the audience with his enterprising anecdotes such as that of Javed Akhtar stating how every emotion is felt through words.

Sanjeev Pasricha of CS Direct, quizzed the presenters on where the term ‘Master Of Ceremony’ came from and revealed the mystery of its origin dating back to the Catholic Church during Roman times.

Sharad Mathur from EMG entertainment had us in splits by sharing the code language of event managers, referring to anchors as birthday cake, since they are to any event what a cake is to a birthday party.

FIRST SESSION – EMCEE CASE STUDIES

Shivani Wazir’s showreel played first which included a glimpse of a body of work that would put anyone in awe. She came up and spoke with rhythm. There were stories of commitment like the time she ran across the road and got into a strangers car to request a ride to her event venue, so she could reach on time. There were Spell binding moments, where she made the presenter’s audience follow her in doing the 7 ODISSI hand mudras like the PATAKA, TRIPATAKA, explaining their essence and teaching through them the art of releasing and holding back on stage.

She shared that her guru mantra for overall success in life is – WAKE UP! DRESS UP! SHOW UP!

Joe Baath was his usual no-filter self, addressing the presenters with a mix of Hindi, English, Punjabi and Haryanvi. He advised the presenters to know their instrument, THE MIKE really well. He shared his personal journey where he felt like royalty travelling 5 star with best of the talent and have done so across generations from DALER MEHENDI to DILJEET DOSANJH. Diljeet describing him as, the man who brings a storm on stage. He empowered and inspired and did it all with a foot injury no one could have guessed he had as he made it seem effortless. He ended his talk with the famous lines – THE SHOW MUST GO ON.

Nitin Arora’s transformation story from a little boy who sold shoes to the most celebrated anchor of Indian experiential industry moved everyone. Sharing how he acquired the Limca record for most number of shows to owning India’s top artist management company with multi crore turn over due to the love he received as a presenter. He touched upon the need for on stage cooperation among co-hosts and passionately insisted on Anchors seeing themselves as one of the Stars of the show.

Gitikka Ganju Dhar who has been awarded with several titles from BEST ANCHOR to ARTIST OF THE DECADE, came up in a black attire and as she proceeded to speak a black magic was cast on all.

She was candidly vulnerable in sharing her struggles when she was planning a comeback after a personal break. From unanswered calls and e-mails to opinions that pointed at her being unfit for stage, and how she just picked herself up, dusted herself off and got ready to turn the tides. Tides were turned indeed and a trail is now created where an artist can simply be an artist – ageless, weightless and free of any judgment beyond the Craft.

Her message to the new and existing talent was to be themselves, be real and be passionate to the core. Seeing every event they do as a MUGHLEAZAM in the making.

Ending with the song – ek din bik jayega maati ke mol , jag mey reh jayengey pyaare tere bol.

Needless to say, there were 8 standing ovations. One each, both at the beginning as well as the conclusion of each of the speakers talk.

SESSION TWO – THE SUTRADHAAR

It listed the expectation event managers had from presenters. Factors such as punctuality, engagement beyond stage time through pre brief meetings, dressing your mind along with yourself through proper homework and study of represented brand, hygiene of language, prior permission to post content related to event and special focus on pronunciation of names, as well as quality of content along with other points.

SESSION THREE - TANA BANA

Listing the expectations presenters had from event managers. actors such as structure of brief, hospitality support in terms of green room, refreshment, booking room close to venue, safety concerns backstage, payment related matters, discussion on practices of control over specific wardrobe for the event and better cooperation in collection of data required to create and update profiles.

Both panels were well balanced with both Event Managers and Presenter’s representation.

Anchors like Shobha Rana, Sanchali Arora, Ghazal Vats , Sonam Chhabra and Sahil bajaj were on these panels with other well known presenters.

Event managers side consisted of views from Ankur Kalra of Vibgyor , Lalit Gattani of Show craft , Harjinder Singh of Showworks eventz, Karan Chettri of ESP India, K J S Gurna of Bellset entertainment, Vipul Pandhi of Workoholics and Aditya Joshi.

One of the conclusions being for more presenters to BECOME AN EEMA MEMBER. That too with a heavy discount on the membership fees from the previous amount.

Address by EEMA PRESIDENT – Sanjoy Roy from Teamwork arts, came as a pleasant surprise in the agenda and his words reflected a deep understanding of both the event managers as well the presenter’s side of the story. He communicated empathy, genuine interest and a zeal for practical solutions.

Also, two memorable takeaways of the day were

Sachin Talwar’s presentation educating on the importance of creating a digital presence with tips such as – Document your life/work , create a logo of your initials and making a mailing list with monthly updates.

And, A video message from Kubra Sait who was pleasantly introduced as KUKU referring to her Netflix Series - sacred games fame. She stated how much she missed being present at the Presenters Dialogue.

FINAL SESSION OF SPEED VENDING – HI! I AM YOUR HOST

Here, 30+ presenters were given 2 minutes each to introduce themselves, while event managers made their notes about each one.

Those who made a great impression with their wit were pitches like Dinesh Soni – “when I see a girl and boy together I visualize a bride and groom due to the number of weddings I have done”. Akanksha Sharma – representing herself as sharmaji ki beti and entertaining with her shinchan voice. Several other innovative pitches were delivered with shayaris, poetry and energizers.

Senior EMCEE’s such as Shweta Rai – Mrs. Delhi crown holder, known for her strong hold in social events, Madhukar Malhotra – known as King of road shows from late 90s to late2000s, with 500+ spots on Delhi time and HT city, and Jitesh Chawla – one man army, with the talent of 200+ voices in one - used the platform to welcome the new talent and thank the industry for their successful careers.

The evening ended with a Musical performance by Singer Suryansh and his band playing popular songs starting from melodies to peppy numbers. While the event industry mixed and chatted on cocktails, old friends engaged in repartee and new friendships and work partnerships were being formed.

The event saw a full house of well known, semi known and freshly introduced event professionals. All names couldn’t possibly be mentioned here, but it was the presence and inputs of each one that made #EEMAPRESENTERSDIALOGUE a huge success. A BIG HURRAY to the organizing team led by Vipul Pandhi of Workaholics Events, Vice President – EEMA north.

(The author is well known writer and anchor based in Mumbai)