Harshad Chavan boasts of a really dynamic career graph as he dabbled from having a serious corporate career to setting up his own event agency Cream Events, which was later acquired by the Edelman group. He then decided to retire at the age of 40 to pursue other career interests but recently decided to make a comeback and has now joined Toast events in the capacity of a Managing Director.
In an exclusive conversation with Everything Experiential,
Harshad Chavan spills the beans his new ventures at Toast events, reasons for his retirement and what brought him come back.
Q-You took a voluntary retirement at the age of 40 after leaving Cream Events. Any specific reasons why you left and what inspired you to come back?
A-Work started really early for me. With a career spanning over 23 years, I have had a fantastic opportunity to juggle from a serious corporate career to setting up my event agency which was acquired by a large multinational. When I retired from Cream Events, it was purely to take time off, travel, catch up with friends and spend time with family and kids.
Coming back from retirement was not on the cards and definitely not so soon. But, when the team from Toast events came to me, with so much conviction and larger than life dreams where they were confident that I would be able to help them get where they wanted to go, I just couldn't get the thought out of my head. After a lot of deliberation and with support my family I gave in and the rest is what you see.
Q-What do you bring to the table as a Managing Director for Toast Events now? What can we expect from the agency?
A-When the team came to me with the statement 'We want to make Toast big. Come on board', it did strike me like a bolt of lightning. They set up a company and were doing some great work and I was on my time off and a mission was the last thing on my mind. Their dreams were big and I couldn't say no. They had too much faith and i wasn't going to let them down. The vision is to make this company big.
We will be expanding across various businesses in due course offering our clients a literal one stop solution for their brands. Talent Management is our first new division. We will work with our talent to creating them into brand themselves. The talents we will be signing on will range across Bollywood, Music, Live Talent, etc. Kangna Ranaut is our very first talent and it only gets bigger from here.
Q-What made you return with Toast Events and not any other agency?
A-Toast Events Pvt Ltd was founded by 5 individuals who i mentored during their tenure at Cream Events Nilesh Gurav, Wilson Dsouza, Trishala Jailwala, Karan Kapoor and Michelle Sanghvi.. Their vision was unbounded and they chose to move on last year to explore themselves. In April 2015, they started Toast Events, little to my imagination the company is 6 months old today and I am on board and adding reality to their vision. Having been employed by a team mentored by me in their previous organisation, makes me feel great to see their evolution. Today, they are a lean (mean) team doing some fantastic work in the experiential space.
Q-Speculations are ripe that you have also financially invested in Toast events?
A-No. My investment here is primarily in the direction of creative guidance and strategy.
