#2022: ‘Hopefully things will be back on track in March’: Thanush Joseph, Seventy EMG
by Komal Darji Industry Watch | January 17, 2022 | Feature
Thanush Joseph Seventy EMG
Overcoming obstacles, adapting to changes and moving on is what the pandemic has taught the event industry. Due to Covid 19, live in-person events came to a halt for a few months in 2020 and again in 2021. These gave rise to new ideas for dealing with the situation.
The year 2021 was a challenging one for the event industry. It was not just perceptions of what an ‘event’ is that gradually started changing, the very definition of what entails an event changed. So did constructs, strategies, objectives and execution.
We at EVENTFAQS Media reached out to Thanush Joseph, Founder and Director, Seventy EMG, to understand his views on ‘normal’ physical events returning and his ‘highest high’ and ‘lowest low’ of 2021.
“Things hopefully will be back on track in March”
- Thanush Joseph, Founder and Director, Seventy EMG
Undoubtedly, April, the second wave, was the lowest of 2021. Just terrible times, I’m so glad we are over those days. So many people were affected in so many different ways, so my hope is we all come out of this with compassion. In that sense there’s so much to be done. We are very grateful that we kept the team together, that everyone is safe and our planning helped us survive these last two years quite well.
H2 2021! What a high, after the April / May doldrums, it really felt like things were finally cheering up and we could confidently work from office. Kids were back in school, at least partially, and we even sneaked in a few weekend holiday trips!
On the back of the Covid mitigation protocols available, we went on to do an India International Jewellery Show edition, safely this time in Bengaluru with a Union Minister as Chief Guest, back-to-back weddings, fashion shows, drives, launches, including the world premiere of the all new Skoda Slavia sedan and what have you. It was the season of in-person events, something like revenge travel for events! We felt confident enough to announce India Bike Week, and it was one our most successful editions on Dec 4 & 5 at Amby Valley and the first in-person IP of this scale to return post pandemic.
No one knows the actual prognosis of this virus. Maybe there will be more waves, but it’s humanity’s prayer that the Omicron variant is the last big one and the future variants will be classified as a common cold or flu. Evidence from other countries point that this wave ebbing by February, so things hopefully will be back on track in March.
EVENTFAQS Media reached out to stakeholders and asked them to recall their ‘highest high’ and ‘lowest low’ of 2021 and understand their outlook for a return to ‘normal’ physical events in 2022.