Adgully Exclusive | A student of entertainment: Fountainhead's Brian Tellis

Events have been embedded into the basic daily processes of the human life as long as anyone could remember. "Event' is defined quite simply, "as a thing that happens; fact of thing occurring' by the Oxford dictionary. Going by this definition, every episode that has taken place on this earth since the time of the supposedly big bang, including the big bang itself is an event. However such events may have begun to get formalized into an industry only in the mid 90's. Today event management companies invent innovative and imaginative events to either promote a brand or to have a memorable interactive session with their consumers.

According to a report by Bharatbooks, the market for event management in India is expected to witness growth of 25% p.a. and reach INR 23 billion by 2012. This unorganized sector is slowly becoming more organized especially with the establishment of associations like EEMA (Events & Entertainment Management Association). It is the first time such a body has been created which attempts to bring together professional companies within this area of expertise under one roof.

Fountainhead Promotions & Events Director and EEMA, President Brian Tellis, gives his views and opinions on this growing industry by giving us an insight to his early days.

Fountainhead doesn't have any major story to its conception except that it's director BrianTellis have always been and will continue to be "a student of entertainment'. He goes on to say passionately how he always had one foot in the entertainment space be it theatre, singing, compering, on radio and so on even when he was working in the travel and hospitality business. It is not very often that people decide to make their passion their business, which was what Tellis did along with his two co-directors in early 1993. This was at a time when the entertainment economy was just opening up. The biggest challenge that event management companies faced at that time was that there was no industry at all for such a profession. "When you said you were an event manager, people didn't know what that meant. One had to convince people what exactly event management was." He said.

However it was also a time when the international economy was integrating Indian into its economy. A lot of MNCs started entering India around that time. With the influx of these multinational companies, several Indian companies began to evolve in their brand development space. Though the process was slow, Indian companies slowly did understand the importance of having on-ground marketing or experiential marketing. "Getting recognition for the industry was a challenge. Since it was a nonexistent industry, a lot of aspects like sponsorships, talents, permissions etc were a challenge", he further added.

When compared to established industries like advertising, event management is only a hatchling. It is only understood that a young industry such as this will obviously take time to get suitably organized. "Everything has a process, it will take a while before it gets formalized or organized. Primarily this industry is only 15 years old. According to me there is 75-80% that is waiting to get organized, which is what I find exciting. It is like a double whammy. On one hand organized structure is growing within product and brand and on the other we are growing by way of growth of conversion of unorganized to organized sector. It is growing at an exponential rate." He said.

Although he is quick to add that this growth rate is largely because this industry is new and this is the case with any new industry. In the beginning it always sees a high growth rate and after it establishes, the growth stabilizes and is controlled.

"One Tree Music Festival' has been happening for the last four years, however Fountainhead is steering towards a new direction this year with a new festival called the "Blues Festival' which is a high end festival and is expected to be launched sometime in Feburary, Tellis reveals.

Talking about the future, "There are various areas of growth, but one of the larger areas of growth is to take our brick and mortar model extend it geographically and extend it into digitally or virtual space" he said

There are various core areas of competencies at Fountainhead like regular events, brand promotional events, activation to an extent, promotions, etc. Training is the focal point through which Fountainhead empowers its team members. We see ourselves as partner to our brand, whatever the brand requires we are willingly to deliver for the brand. "Fountainhead is chiefly in the business of brand marketing and brand development. Our efforts stems from the brand's needs." he adds on.

Apart from all these hats that Mr. Tellis manages, he also tells Adgully about the first community development radio station that he has initiated under the Union Park Residence Association. It is a FM station called "Jago Mumbai' on the frequency 90.8 which will be from 5 KM radius around Khar, Mumbai. Tellis goes on to say that it is not only an entertainment based station.

This newly elected EEMA president believes this association is the way forward for the industry. Although he is acutely aware of all the internal challenges that need to be dealt with, he is hopeful for the industry as a whole and is eager to develop brand EEMA.

Event management is seen today as an industry with a wide scope for growth and development. Maybe what it requires today are the efforts and creativity of more young minds to ignite the industry with enthusiasm and the visionary of minds like Brian Tellis. | Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]