Sustainability and the need for environment-friendly solutions is the need of the hour in the event industry. Mamemo Productions has been trying its hand at making sustainability a part of the existing industry. The company has different events to its credit and has taken up the mandate long before other agencies have come to terms with the changing scenario in the event realms. Sam Katiela, Managing Director, Mamemo Productions talks about the importance of sustainability in the event segment in an exclusive with EVENTFAQS.
Why is sustainability as a topic important to understand or to be aware of and how is it affecting India and the region?
The topic of sustainability will be a mega trend to come, which is something everybody needs to be prepared for. Going forward, the law-makers right from the governments to the various institutions as well as the bigger companies will jump in on the sustainability bandwagon in the form of new laws and regulations. Clearly, ‘sustainability’ is the next megatrend to come in the event space as well.
Why sustainability is an important topic to understand is because I believe, we, as a company in the event and marketing industry need to be well aware of the fact that we rely heavily on the goodwill of different legal sectors. The very companies and organisations that lay the basis of the event business will set standard terms and conditions to be sustainable and be compliant with regards to this topic. If we don’t prepare ourselves from now then the business will lag behind because if you don’t invest from the start, you will not be able to comply with the regulations all set to enter the industry very soon.
That’s why I highly recommend everybody to be prepared and adjust their business as much as they can to fulfil the rising demands for sustainability. This especially holds true in India because India is being affected by the pollution of plastic, pollution of materials being produced but not being recycled, wastage of energy, water, etc. Already the government is looking for a lot of initiatives to go against this and I am sure in India, in the near future, you will have to comply with the regulations enforced. So it is best for event companies to hold an upper hand.
How soon do you see the norms coming into force?
I am involved in multiple international summits and I am in contact with a lot of people related to this topic but I can’t give you the exact years. However, I am assured but it will come very, very soon and that there would be standards and regulations being established which we have to respect. Not only governments and law enforcement but it is also an ethical step to take in the right direction. It will be the no. one topic on social media to be discussed the most and already many people not being involved in this topic are now talking about the negative impact of climate change, environmental protection. So from all sides, we will soon be dealing with it, seeing it, and being forced to comply with it. We are not talking about long-term like 20 – 50 years, but it will come surely right within the next few years.
How do you see these sustainability concepts to change the event industry for the better in terms of revenue, ideation, scope and experimentation?
The problem in our industry and most other businesses is that people keep a lot of profit in the bottom line. But now, it’s not only about profit or how efficient you are to meet your margins, but it is about creating the right message, right content, right framework related to the megatrends, to be able to succeed with an impression that you are ahead of others. It’s not only about the framework of your business plan and your brief, it’s about creating your own initiative to make a very proposition out of it to be more sustainable, to be more efficient. This will indirectly at a later stage reduce your cost.
I look at most of the people who spend a lot of extra money because they are not equipped for it mentally as well as experience wise. But to turn the wheel into the direction we want it to go, it doesn’t cost much. It is a little bit about being innovative, being creative, and being willing to educate yourself about a lot of smart ideas you can develop.
For example, a project we created was an initiative which educates people, institutions, clients, governments into the right sustainability of being caring, being careful, and being prepared for the things to come It is not a threat but just something like changing our habits, our attitude to work, our arrogance towards earth, and nature that we have formed over the past centuries.
Any examples, ideas that the planners , creaters can start implementing from this stage itself?
You cannot lecture people without practising it yourself. So we are taking the responsibility since a lot of years. Earlier, people use to laugh at us, on the direction we were going in and now we are perhaps the leaders in our market. We were proudly part from the very beginning of the launch of “Zayed Future Energy Prize”, “World Future Energy Summit”, and “Masdar” – all great initiatives by the Government of Abu Dhabi. We work and learn with them, explore ideas and creativity. We produce these events and as well as come up with our own initiatives. One such example is the MIYAH – World of Water Pavilion which we launched last year. We want to make people around the world aware about the importance of water, water scarcity, wastage, and how the saving of the resource is important.
We also launched ‘ALZAD’ – The World of Food Pavilion this year, where we explained to people about sustainable eating, locally grown foods, the impact of wrong and bad nutrition, packing of food, and food wastage. Next year, we plan to launch a first of its kind Show, SAMIRA – The greatest show on Earth, in LA where we have enlisted the support of a lot of celebrities. The earth is the star of the entertainment show, and through the story, we will tell people how important it is to respect the rules of Nature and habits we have to change for the future of the world.
Is there any other case study that can help understand this topic better?
The beauty is that sources like Youtube, Google, etc have all the information needed. There are endless results with studies, reports which are representative. People should be self-educating, should go online and research. Coming up with alternatives and studying the potentials better is the only way to understand the topic better and to implement it effectively.
