Wizcraft, Laqshya, BOI Media emerge big winners at e4m BW Applause Awards 2017

The tone for the conclave was set by Mr Sabbas Joseph, founder, Wizcraft who delivered the Keynote Address and Dr A Velumani who talked about ‘Romancing with Risk’. What followed was a tightly programmed day of knowledge based sessions featuring close to 20 industry experts including Mr. Shoven Shah, Founder, Enchanted Valley Carnival; Mr. Bhavik Vora, Founder, Black, White, Orange brands pvt ltd.; Mr. Indranil Das Blah, CEO, Mumbai City FC, ISL; Mr. Tushar Dhingra, CEO, Smaaash Entertainment; Mr. Anirban Das Blah, Founder, Kwan and others who threw light on insightful subjects like Making Offline Events Matter in an Online World; Event Merchandising and Licensing; What Millennials Expect From Brands and Brand Experiences; Advancing Your Event Career during Pregnancy and Parenthood. 

The highlight of the evening was an inspirational fireside chat with pro-wrestler The Great Khali conducted by Anurag Batra, Editor-in-Chief and Chairman, Businessworld.

The event was hosted by the young and energetic Arpit Sharma. For the awards ceremony he was joined by the gorgeous Gitikka Ganju Dhar making for quite an entertaining pair.

The highest honours were awarded to Sabbas Joseph who won the title of BW Applause Person of the Year 2017, Vijay Nair, founder, OML, who won the BW Applause Entrepreneur of the Year 2017, Neha Kirpal, founder, India Art Fair, who won BW Applause Woman of the Year 2017, Gitikka Ganju Dhar and Kubra Sait who shared the title of BW Applause Emcee of the Year- Female and Siddharth Kannan who won Emcee of the Year- Male.

Apart from these, select agencies were felicitated for their contribution to the industry in areas of weddings, experiential initiatives and hallmark experiences. These included Samit Garg, E Factor Entertainment; Vijay Arora, Touchwood Events; Rajeev Jain, Rashi Entertainment; Bhavnesh Sawhney and Farid Khan, Wedniksha; Sanjeev Pasricha, CS Direkt; Atul Nath, Candid Marketing; Mandeep Singh, CPM; Roshan Abbas, Geometry Global Encompass; Brian Tellis, Fountainhead Mktg; Poonam Lal & Vishal Sethi, Innobuzz Marketing Solutions; Michael Menezes, Showtime Events; Ankur Kalra, Vibgyor Brand Services; Oum Pradutt, Phase1; Sameer Tobaccowala, Shobiz Experiential; Sabbas Joseph, Wizcraft International; Harindra Singh, Percept; Vivek Singh and Anil Singh, Procam International and Vijay Nair, Only Much Louder.

Wizcraft International, Laqshya Live Experiences, BOI Media & Entertainment Pvt Ltd and Mindshare emerged top winners at exchange4media BW Applause Awards 2017. These awards recognize and honour the quality work experiential agencies are producing in the space of events and experiential marketing across all 35 encompassing categories.

Wizcraft International, BOI Media & Entertainment Pvt Ltd and Laqshya Live Experiences were the Gold winners in the Best B-To-B Event, Best Business Conference and Best IP of the year categories.The other Gold winners included: Ankita Chugh Weddings & Events Pvt Ltd, (Best Wedding, Best Destination Wedding), Percept ICE (Best Social Event), Mediacom Communications Private Limited (Best Social Media Amplification), Show Genesis (Best Use Of Technology), Mindshare India and Event Capital (Best New IP Of The Year), SportzConsult (Best Event For The Govt.), PR Pundit (Best CSR Event Or Activation Initiative), TV Today Network Ltd. (Best Rural Engagement), Langoor Digital Pvt. Ltd (Best Sports Event/Activation Ceremony), DB Corp. Ltd. (Best Use Of Integrated Marketing Communication) and  CS Direkt (Best Trade Show).

Some of the Silver and Bronze winners this year included: Raymond Apparel Limited (Best Trade Show), Aura Integrated Solutions Pvt. Ltd (Best Sports Event/Activation Ceremony), d'frens Management Consulting (I) Pvt Ltd (Best Product/Service Launch Event/Activation), CPM India Sales And Marketing Private Limited (Best Mall Or In Store Activation), Mathrubhumi Printing & Publishing Co Ltd (Best Use Of Integrated Marketing Communication) and Netcore Solutions (Best Rural Engagement) among others.

The jury for the 2017 edition of the e4m BW Applause Awards was chaired by Karan Bajaj, SVP & GM, South Asia, Discovery Communications India. The other jury members included names like: Abhishek Joshi, Marketing Analytics & Content Syndication, Digital Business, Sony Pictures Network, Anirudh Pandita, Founder, Pocket Aces, Blaise J Fernandes, President & CEO, The Indian Music Industry, Kartik Kalla, EP & National Head, Programming Marketing & AudaCITY, Radio City, Manish Maheshwari, CEO, Network 18 Digital, Manjit Singh Gill, Corporate Chief ITC Hotels, Manav Dhnada, Group CEO, SAB Group, Piyush Sharma, Former CEO, New Initiatives, India & APAC,  Zee Entertainment, Runa Barua, CEO, Creativeland Asia Group, Shalini Raghavan, CMO, Consumers Products Division, L’Oreal, India , Shantanu Gangane, Head Marketing, Viu India, Vikramjit Roy, Head Film Facilitation, NFDC , Manu Seth, Former Sr. Director, HTC South Asia and Ishita Mookherjee, Director Corporate Communications GroupM.

The entertainment factor at the glittering awards ceremony was heightened by an innovative dance act by originator of Realms of Dance, Zia Nath who performed the 'Whirling Mandala’ along with Odissi dance exponents Ankur Ballal & Sanatan Chakravarty. Popular singer Vipin Aneja curated a special act for the show and floored the audience with his mesmerizing voice and high energy. The evening closed with Shashwat Singh who performed a medley of Hindi and English vocals.

The event was organized with support from Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA), Stage Gear, Sound.com, Invi co Rubaaiyat, The Award Gallery, Imprint LED, Fratelli, Bar Solutions, Event Tv Live, Rinsha Enterprises, TM Talent Management, 24 Frames and Videogram.

A part of Businessworld group, BW Applause is a bi-monthly magazine that provides content for the experiential marketing and event category within India. It serves the information needs of brand- side event marketers, experiential agencies, event professionals, and event service providers in the country.