Return of physical conferences & expos sparks new excitement

Many countries across the world are moving to loosen pandemic-related restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings. So is the same in India. In-person conferences, events and expos in the news media industry in India are back as stringent pandemic restrictions have been relaxed and removed to a larger extent. With the prospect of a lasting change on the horizon, everyone seems to be excited about going to in-person events. Eventually the time has resumed for face-to-face meeting with industry fellows. We finally want to be on the road, at conference halls, and doing all the things we enjoyed in the pre-pandemic days.

With an eye to the varied mix of possible perspectives to boost business to another level, it’s now right time for every one of us to think more carefully about the persona-based marketing. Those reluctant to return to physical events need to develop a targeted aim as pandemic times have put us more in the marketing mindset to recover the lost business. Now, it’s essential, and it’s demanded. Everybody needs to work, and for many that means meeting people in person.

Let’s not forget how we struggled when we were confined to stay at home or within our own country. For us, the return of the physical conferences and expos are nothing but welcome news—a welcome to the new business. For time being, we all have engaged in a series of virtual events and webinars, which at any cost would never be comparable to the thrills and opportunities we receive in physical events.

For the print media industry in India, most of the newspaper houses say they have attained to good business levels in the months of July, August and September this year. In these subsequent three months, many publishers have been quite positive both in terms of advertising and circulation revenues. Sources from some of the leading Hindi dailies in India have indicated that they have garnered promising month-on-month growth as compared to the same period in 2019.

As almost all market segments have started responding strongly, circulations of leading dailies in national and regional arenas gain momentum as advertising from sectors like grocery, delivery apps, OTT, edtech, etc. has seen a surge after the long pandemic break. Some newspapers witnessed big acceleration in August, which is a great month for advertising. A few of regional editions registered strong double-digit growth, when they compared the figures to what they achieved in August 2020.

All market clusters mentioned above are continuing their thrust and they are also seeing newer business models and innovative marketing ideas. Of course, despite the comeback to normalcy from the pandemic-induced lull businesses, print media houses still have some challenges like steep hike of newsprint prices which was shot up by 20 percent in the wake of subsequent lockdowns.

After all, getting value out of participating in physical conferences and events may also be a moving target. Come together. It’s time to gather for a change!

Sonal Khurana
[email protected]