Exhibition Showcase Talks To Sanyal S. Desai, CEO, Radeecal Communications

Celebrang Ten Years Of Passion, Commitment & Perseverance

“As it is always said 'Necessity is mother of Invenon' there are some posive outcomes of coronavirus crisis. Though these silver linings are thin if compared with the impact of coronavirus, it has somewhere made us do more business with less or limited resources and has forced us to find beer, cheaper, simpler and faster ways to operate our businesses.” Sanyal S. Desai, CEO, Radeecal Communicaons

ES. Please share with us your professional journey. What have been the major milestones and most amazing achievements and moments in your career? Sanyal. I started my career in the Exhibion Industry in the year 2000 by joining as a Markeng Director of a reputed and well established exhibion organising company. With the experience on hand, I and my partner Mr Neeraj Shah founded Radeecal Communicaons in July 2010. Radeecal communicaons has just became a decade old company while I am answering to this queson.

The first major milestone that we hit in my opinion has to be the concept of organising first ever exhibion from the very scratch – Agri Asia. This was a huge boost to us on both an individual and organisaonal level which filled the team with much more enthusiasm and confidence. All of us at Radeecal Communicaons craved quality more than anything. We knew that achieving the highest levels of quality will inevitably bring success to us. Our team has constantly grown and improved which has helped Radeecal reach out and create a significant mark in as many as 10 major industries. We've gone on to put together 65+ events within a decade and have along the way become associated with DLG, IFW Expo and many more well established and reputed organisaons both in the country as well as across the globe. Radeecal's tremendous growth has pushed me and my partner Neeraj to improve and innovate our vision about how Radeecal communicaons is to be taken forward. Radeecal Communicaons has managed to cross the seas and tap the African markets brimming with potenal especially in the agriculture industry with Agritec Africa. One of our main achievements can said to be organising exhibion focused solely on the niche subject of Nonwoven Industry in India. Over the years we have associated with the Government of Kenya and Government of Gujarat on number of iniaves such as Vibrant Gujarat.

Standing on the verge of a new decade and with an aim of serving various industry fraternies in these tough mes by providing a virtual exhibion plaorm 'I Radeecal'. The experience of the way Radeecal communicaons has grown over the years and the colleagues, clients, and industry patrons I've come across has been truly heart-warming and makes me swell up with pride and happiness.

ES. Please share with us your take on this situaon. Sanyal. The world is sll struggling to understand and adjust to the new situaon due to the coronavirus outbreak. Uncertainty is sll keeping consumers away from spending and businesses

from invesng. The road to recovery requires inspired convicons. Saying this I am also astonished to see many things that have accelerated structurally in terms of going Digital. Many futurisc modules of work expected to be a decade away happened in a week. In my whole life I have never seen ideas travel faster than they do now. But the threat is sll out there and no one knows how long this uncertainty will persist. All we can do is adapt and learn the necessary response measures needed to deal with the situaon that we are in due to the coronavirus crisis. We should somehow get going because post lockdown we are somewhere in a much beer posion to respond to the situaons that we come across in this unprecedented mes.

ES. What do you see the roadmap ahead & recovery guide for Exhibion Industry? Sanyal. As we know our Exhibion & Convenon Industry is one of the worst affected Industry due to the Covid-19 crisis. As per the December 2019 report demonstrated by “Global Economic Impact of Exhibions' states that the Economic Impact of the Exhibion Industry is calculated to be 167 Billion Euros globally. This shows the significance of our Industry. Our Exhibion Industry will play an important role in the reviving of economies across the world. In context to the uncertainty of how future would be, we don't know how physical exhibions will be organized. Several Exhibion organiser associaons and exhibion organising companies across the world have opened dialogues with the governments to show them the readiness and preparedness of our sector regarding organising exhibions, but one cannot deny the levels of risk associated on managing and operang large scale physical exhibions along with the added cost of maintenance.

To keep the wheels of our exhibion Industry moving in this tough mes going digital is only an effecve opon that we are le with. Around the globe many of our Industry patrons at their own pace are digitally transforming by designing virtual exhibion plaorms. These virtual exhibion plaorms according to me are the most appropriate temporary replacements to get things going unl the threat of the pandemic is not over.

ES. What is your take on pros and cons of Virtual exhibions? Sanyal. In my personal opinion I genuinely believe that nothing matches the profound impact of physical exhibion. Maybe for me being physical exhibions can be overshadowed by virtual ones mainly due to the situaon that we are in. With this I will like to add that virtual exhibion plaorm is the next big trend in organising trade shows and exhibions. Virtual exhibion plaorms brings in great amount of flexibility in context to designing and changing what doesn't works unlike physical exhibions where you don't get that leverage of making it flexible.

The freedom of exploring new markets is one of the most important advantage of organising an exhibion virtually as it has no geographic and demographic boundaries liming its reach. Virtual exhibions is a very cost effecve soluon as they are not limited to me, travel and space. The real me data analycs helps to analyse and generate leads immediately which helps to improve company's markeng operaons. Despite the aracveness and huge potenal virtual exhibions are no match to the physical exhibions in terms of face to face visitor experience. There is a tendency of the virtual experience not being a memorable one. Poor representaon of products & services can also hinder the overall experience. Low Internet connecvity can act as a major technological barrier which impacts the virtual exhibions negavely. Along with this the virtual exhibion plaorms can be vulnerable at mes if exhibitors & visitors are not educated properly on how to use it.

ES. Having seen some other virtual exhibions already, what is your take on the plaorm? Sanyal. There is absolutely no doubt that the virtual exhibion plaorms comes in handy in these tough mes when there is air of uncertainty circulang around the commencement of physical exhibions. I have seen many virtual exhibions as part of our research and references as we ourselves are designing our own virtual exhibion plaorm 'I Radeecal'. There is sudden rise in the number of people vising different virtual exhibions due to the global pandemic. As menoned before virtual exhibion is the next big trend but sll it will be too early to say anything regarding the impact & effecveness of the virtual plaorm as they are yet to be tried and tested extensively across varied business sectors. One thing I am prey much sure about is that the virtual exhibion plaorms will stay in trend and will have its own market share even aer the commencement of physical exhibions in the future.

ES. How did you arrive at a decision to organise your own show virtually? Sanyal. At Radeecal communicaons we had given a thought of organising an exhibion virtually way back in the year 2014, when we were for the very first me solely organising an exhibion outside India. But somehow due to one reason or the other, we were not able to focus on the implicaon of the idea since then. Thus, now when the need arise we had that agility to transform ourselves digitally as we already had some references and studies related to the virtual exhibion plaorm.

We have launched our own virtual exhibion plaorm 'i radeecal' in June which is totally in house designed by our dedicated team with an aim of serving various business fraternies through seng up a digital culture which will help to create business opportunies in this tough mes.

ES. What do you see as the upcoming emerging trends going forward? Sanyal. As going forward, I personally don't believe that virtual exhibions will fully replace the physical exhibions ever. On a longer run once we are out of this threat I feel that a hybrid structure designed combining the features of both virtual & physical exhibions would be the emerging trend which will take our exhibion industry forward.

ES. What is the silver lining of this pandemic? Sanyal. We all know that this pandemic is hurng and affecng each and everyone's lives globally. But as it has been said always whenever humanity is going through this kind of difficult me that 'This too shall pass', its me to believe in this phrase and start working on the opportunies that lies in the problem that we all are facing to prevail through this tough me. Well someone has rightly said that this global pandemic is not only a health crisis, but it's also a forthcoming restructuring of the world economies.

This might be an event which can lead to “The Renaissance” which the world needed. The governments and people are likely to take this global pandemic as a 'Wakeup Call' for focusing on things which are neglected from a long me. The Covid-19 crisis with exploing the vulnerabilies it also has and will reveal opportunies too. The crisis have shown the difference to the world that, “What is nice to have and what we really need”. With the inevitable change in financial structuring of the world economies, there also will be more focus on reviving the policies of healthcare infrastructure and many other associated sectors all around.

As it is always said 'Necessity is mother of Invenon' there are some posive outcomes of coronavirus crisis. Though these silver linings are thin if compared with the impact of coronavirus, it has somewhere made us do more business with less or limited resources and has forced us to find beer, cheaper, simpler and faster ways to operate our businesses.

ES. What do you suggest to entrepreneurs who are facing stress in these mes? Sanyal. The world somewhere is on the verge of a transformaon where the dynamics of needs, preferences & demands are changing. My suggeson to the entrepreneurs is to try and find the right balance between what worked before and what needs to be done to succeed in this New Normal.

I believe that in these tough mes 'Agile' organisaons will work significantly in a much beer way. As said before the demand dynamics of people around the world are changing and thus to cope up with the change the organisaon has to be resilient, agile and flexible. 'Digisaon' was a mere buzz in many business sectors before coronavirus which has now somewhere became the necessity for all, thus entrepreneurs should put some more emphasize on transforming their business digitally if the nature of business allows them to do so.

ES. Your 3 takes on how to cope these mes? Sanyal. (1) Dealing with the coronavirus crisis and its aermath would be possible only by culvang Resilience. Being resilient by absorbing the shock and to start working on recovery is the first & foremost thing that is to be worked upon in these tough mes.

(2) Being Flexible & Agile at the same me is very much essenal for any business especially in these tough situaons. Entrepreneurs & Organisaons in response to this uncertain and unpredictable situaon should develop that agility to change the overall working system if needed along with being flexible enough to make changes within the current working system of an organisaon to cope up and sustain in these tough situaons.

(3) Being Innovave: Adapng to the situaon that we are in and finding a way out of it is only possible by being innovave. Many business sectors are providing a perfect example right now of considering 'Solidarity as an Opportunity'. New business models & innovaons could give rise to a completely new trend which can help businesses to sustain and thrive through these tough mes by opening a completely new diversified transformaon of their businesses.

ES. Your message to the industry? Sanyal. Our exhibion industry has a major economic importance globally. Some report suggests that through exhibions total output in business sales including direct, indirect and induced output is €275 billion ($325 billion) globally.

The numbers says it all. I believe that the problems that our industry is facing globally due to the situaon will be overcome soon or we will find a way out, like many of our industry patrons have started working upon by transforming digitally. I think 'This is just a bend not the end' as our exhibion industry will play a major role in 'Unmasking the Masked Economy' of the world.