Post the Covid Age - Comes the Content Age: Gitikka Ganju Dhar, Curator, Ministry of Talk - Made in India

Gitikka Ganju Dhar is the most sought after Anchor and Moderator with a vast experience of hosting innumerable live events. Her uncanny ability to guide the discussion of the focus group in the requisite direction is well-regarded and has helped her to make that smooth transition to the screen and as a virtual host. 

In this exclusive article, Gitikka shares how relevant content will play an extremely crucial role for the event and experiential industry even after we are done with the pandemic.   

What the importance of suitable, good content is, can be indeed expressed in words. But, I don’t need to pen the words that enunciate the reasoning. From the deathly hallows has escaped the light of content. (The after effects of reading too many Harry Potter books!) Now, more than ever, content is the core, the mantle and the crust of this life that we live on earth. CoVid 19 has shifted everything, everyone, everywhere - Online. And everything online is for keeps, for posterity. For Everyone Unlimited to see, read and listen to. Bits and bytes of content are accepted and rejected every second. Now, more than ever, content will be the differentiator. Now more than ever, the content creator and the content writer will make a staggering difference.

For the larger part of the past two decades, I have been a small part of the Indian experiential industry as an emcee, content writer, voiceover artist, moderator, talk show host and a humble soldier of EEMA. I have both experienced and observed that, the potential of suitable, good content was not fully comprehended by many in our tribe. Mostly, content was viewed as the thing that came free with something big or small the agency did for the client. Stepmotherly and stepfatherly treatment never allowed for the great expectations to be met. The discontent was palpable. And then, slowly, but surely, visionary men and women in the experiential space, began to push the envelope and drive the change. They did their bit by rendering the action. The clients, the paymasters, though, have taken too long a time to render the reaction. To date, mostly, paying for content as a standalone is frowned upon by the lords. The zsa zsa zsu that good content can make you feel is heady. I have said this repeatedly, every agency, Platinum, Gold, Silver, or None of the Above, should have a content vertical to meet its content needs or should attempt to charge the client to in turn pay content partners who can do the needful.

Even when it comes to the emcee script, the bane of everyone’s existence, I think times have changed, for better or worse, let me not be the judge. Those were the days, when a Brian Tellis or a Roshan Abbas or a Siddharth Basu or a Vandana Mohan drafted their own content, the superfluous kind, may I add. Then dazzled many more of our tribe, who continued their legacy. From a Mini Mathur to a Shivani Wazir Pasrich, Joe Baath or Manpreet Brar, hell, even the maverick Nitin Arora drafted his own itemized content. I continue to write scripts for the shows I host. Then came the new, many of whom were skilled hosts but not very skilled writers. But they were still being told to write. And they had no choice but to do the writeful! And this is where the twist in the story should have come. The quality of writing for stage had begun to deteriorate. Do I blame the zesty, cool millennials for not being able to write suitably for stage? Hell, no! Things change, deal with it, Masters. What I want to say is, now that, you the agencies see the gap, address it, post accepting the reality. Outsource emcee content to professionals who possess the specialized skill to write for stage and to be fair, the emcees who are capable of and still want to continue writing their scripts, pay them more than the ones who cannot or will not.

I may have devoted an entire paragraph to content vis-a vis emcess, but grant me the excess. I have been an emcee for many years. It runs in the blood. But, the emcee-script-slice is the smallest piece of the content pie in the experiential universe. Film Narrations, Sound and Light Show Content, VoiceOver Scripts, Slogans, Taglines, Social Media Content, Website Content, Stories, Articles, Profiles, Panel Design, Speeches and Presentations, all of these and more, I know, await, more muggles with the requisite skill set.

Content will be our Judgement Card each time we make a pitch, each time we stage a show and each time we stream a session. In the times to come, content will indeed be, queen.

I believe if the Indian experiential industry across the board, accepts the inevitable, the quality of live staged in India will bloom like never before.

I rest my case. Till I open it again. And, again.

Stay connected and try and stay contented.

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