Goafest 2013 kicks off on a positive note

Goafest 2013, the eagerly awaited awaited event by the advertising fraternity kick started yesterday on 4th April 2013. This year’s events boast who’s who of the advertising & media industry. Conversations centred on the exciting  upcoming  sessions  and panel discussions with most  anticipating the unexpected to occur given the fact that the theme for the current year is ‘Expect the unexpected’.

Looking at the buzz, we at Adgully thought of taking a vox pop about what people are expecting at Goafest 2013. We spoke to Gaurav Dhawan, Vice President and National Head sales, ET Now and Times Now; Narayan Devanathan, Executive Vice President, National Planning Head, Dentsu India Group;  Subhash Pinnapola, Executive Creative Director, Leo Burnett Solutions Inc; R. S Sodhi Managing Director, Amul; Amitava Sinha, Chief Operating Officer, Rediffusion and Sanjeev Kotwal, Dainik Bhaskar to take their views on the upcoming advertising festival.
Gaurav Dhawan said, “Goafest has always given us amazingly fresh ideas and an opportunity to meet the new talent of our industry. As like always it will be a success this year too. This is one place where one can meet the stalwarts and the budding talent of the media industry.”

Sanjeev Kotwal expressing his opinion said, “Expectations are undefined to a large extent. Believe in this celebration of advertising and one will most probably get an insight, idea or thought and that will make it worth the while.”

Narayan Devanathan expects Goafest to live up to the expectations of the attendees. He says, “Since this is my second time  here I  expect Goafest to live upto its theme, viz. “Just what you unexpected.”

Subhash Pinnapola says, “All that I expect is to learn a lot from Goafest 2013.” R. S Sodhi said, “Since this is my first time at the fest I am  not  in a position to compare but all that I can say is I am loving the environment and also the people with whom I’m with.”

Amitava Sinha says, “We will get to see and learn more of new media. It would be great to see how the new mediums are being used among the young people of our country.”
In terms of line-up of speakers, Gaurav Dhawan felt that the line-up is quite decent. Interestingly this time there are more of Indian experts than foreigners so they would get a chance to inhale Indian ideas and also get a sense of the Indian market quite literally this year.”

Narayan Devanathan believes that the speakers have been  well chosen and the positive side is the ‘not so common’ line-up this time round.

Sharing his views on this ,Subhash Pinnapola says, “The line-up is quite well balanced in terms of markets and the veterans. We will surely get huge content and ideas out of it.”
Amitava Sinha too believes that the agenda and the speakers both are well chosen. According to him it will be interesting to exchange ideas with all the stalwarts present this year.
R. S Sodhi believed that with the presence of awesome speakers this year they could look forward to a great  exchange of  thoughts.

Next we took their opinions and thoughts on this year’s winner. In this regard Gaurav Dhawan said, “Well we have a lot of fresh talent so we expect some credible and deserving people to win this year, as like always.”  

Subhash Pinnapola was of the opinion that it does not matter who wins, but what matters is that we will get to see great work.” Amitava Sinha believes that since the big guns are out they can expect the unexpected.

Sanjeev elaborating on his views said, “Ogilvy not joining is a definite let down. In such an event not having an agency that defines creativity in Indian advertising is a loss. But then it always has been a level playing field and who ever wins is a winner.”

“I would hate to hear someone comment that so and so won in the absence of Ogilvy. Let's celebrate. I believe it is more of a loss for Ogilvy. If the bolt pulls out of a race the winner is still celebrated and there is no surety that the  bolt would have won,” added Sanjeev.

Thus we can conclude that all the attendees are definitely looking forward to Goafest 2013. They have arrived at the venue with high expectations and hope to gain insight into an era of the new media and interact with stalwarts from the advertising industry.