Mumbai: This year's Goafest is all about technology and creativity which will go hand in hand and enhance human creativity in the coming years.
Goafest is slated to begin on the 24th of this month, Indiantelevision.com in conversation with the organising committee of the festival - Advertising Agencies Association of India president and GroupM South CEO Asia Prasanth Kumar, Goafest 2023 Organising Committee chairman Jaideep Gandhi, and Havas Media Group India CEO and Goafest 2023 Co-chair Mohit Joshi.
On the question of Goafest going futuristic this year, Joshi said, “Everybody’s talking about the future now and generative AI is something that is going to change our future for sure. There are already a lot of questions around the fact whether our jobs in these domains will get impacted or not, which, in my view, is not a very genuine concern, but we need to see how these things are going to be positively impacting our industry, our work, whether it's creativity, media, marketing, and that's the reason we thought this was very relevant, as a topic for Goafest, because it is an event where all stakeholders from the industry are there, the clients, the agencies, the media partners, and we wanted to talk about this important aspect of Futurism, which is generative AI, and its positive impacts.”
Joshi also added, “Creativity is not going anywhere, humans are going to drive AI and it's not going to be the other way around. It probably may enhance creativity.”
Kumar added to it by saying,” I think there are a few things that will stand out. It's all centred on the theme of the future of creativity. The most important thing is, we actually wanted the voice of young leaders to come onto the stage, and that's very critical, from an industry perspective. That will stand out, as we will have a lot of people sharing their views, being part of the sessions, and younger leaders from the industry. I think there's going to be a lot more experts coming in, we have marketers coming in and sharing their views, taking some sessions. There will be experts from global markets and experts from different bodies like ASCI and IAA. So it's so all in all, it is going to be a collective gathering, a collective fest, where there can be more exchange of views, time for learning, or unlearning, and as well, some of the conversations around innovative ideas, celebrating awards, and a lot of experimentation also.”
This year there are more sponsors on board for Goafest, Gandhi said,” The funnel has been wider, and it is widening every year. This year we are seeing more participation across all the sectors, be it print, radio compliance is also a part of the sponsorship.”
Joshi added to that saying, “This year I think there's an overall excitement in the industry and Goafest is a very important event for the whole industry. An attempt has been made to widen the funnel, get everybody together, and get new sponsors, and they have shown a lot of interest. There were two years when we didn’t do Goafest due to COVID. Everybody wants to come to learn and get inspired during these three days at Goafest. The attempts have been made by the team here to ensure, by our President himself, that clients are also invited to panels. Overall, the level of interest has been significantly higher.”
On the sessions and the number of international speakers this year at Goafest, Gandhi said,” The speaker portfolio will be released shortly. But yes, Goafest is all about the scale. We have more than 50 speakers and 15 sessions happening in the ballroom. There is a variety of content. It starts from the future of creativity to data marketing, and data-driven marketing, to influencer sessions, and the future of the economy and startups. Of course, we've also partnered with ASCI and IAA and there would be 4 sessions between the two. There are going to be 11 Master Classes this year as compared to Nine last year. So basically, when the content is planned one can choose and we have seen that 75 per cent of the audience is below 35. They're coming to network to see the leaders or meet the leaders and talk to them and get inspired. There are specific knowledge-driven master classes in which somebody wants to learn about the art of storytelling, or video optimization and creating cooler production. The ballroom itself has a variety of debates and the number is higher this year. Coming back to your next question, which is about the international participants. Yes, we have two big international speakers coming this year. I myself am looking forward to one important session.”
Kumar said,” We got more than 50 speakers this year and over double-digit masterclasses going on. These are all larger than what we could do in the past as we want to give more opportunities, and more options for people who are coming there to listen to versatile topics, and also understand how things will be shaping up in the coming few years.”
“So, all of that is going to help now obviously, it's also great to see and we're quite thankful to our sponsors and it is again in double digits and it is very encouraging. They will also be there as they are part of the same industry. We have people from TV, digital, Print, radio and OOH and it is good. These are things which we're seeing. We've also seen some good progress on the delegate’s registration. We feel that it will be an interesting thing to see if the numbers are very similar to last year or even go up. But what is more interesting, is the composition of the delegates. Of course, with all of this, I think a lot of fun and entertainment is also planned,” said Kumar.
On the question of inclusivity, Joshi said, “It is a very important aspect, the gender balance in the industry has improved significantly over the years, and even at work we have been conscious of that. But inclusivity is also from the perspective of having clients, the different industry bodies that Jaideep just spoke about ASCI, IAA etc. all of it coming together, its inclusivity in a much larger form, understanding the aspects of different partners that we have.”
Gandhi added to it saying,” AdAsia 2023 is currently happening in Seoul and we will be having a few Korean delegates from there at Goafest.”
Joshi also mentions that “the Musical show is also about giving our talent an affinity to perform on stage. That's also inclusivity. It's taking into account the talents beyond advertising.”
On what is the expectation of Goafest this year, Joshi goes on to say, “I'm expecting more knowledge, more inspiration and more entertainment. It will be a good balance of all these three, as Jaideep said, knowledge is critical because that's what Goafest is driven by and you cannot compromise on that. A lot of inspiration from the various master classes. But the entertainment portion is really important. And hence, we have a good amount of entertainment during the three days. It's a good mix, and I'm looking forward to it.”
