A dent in event management

Lunminthang Haokip *

Imaginary Sponsors: NE India is a predominantly Christian region. Through out the year, meetings are a dime a dozen. Anniversaries, Foundation Day, Jubilee celebration, Annual Conferences, Spiritual Camps, Weddings, Bridal send-off bashes, Seminars, Youth Day observance etc punctuate the months and years, besides regular Church services. Solemn gatherings apart, in most of the social functions, nothing or nobody is permitted to make a move before the 'grand' arrival of the Chief Guest.

Organizers of a meeting worth its invitees suffer from this incorrigible penchant to add a 'guest of honour', a 'function president' and a host of 'special invitees' for reasons best known to them. That's okay from their weird point of view, but there is conflict of time and 'the secret urge to speak' when all guests nurse a common desire to hold the mike. At this rate, the days are not far when we will also have 'additional and assistant chief guests' if events continue to be hosted with an eye on fringe benefits. Organizers will find it tough to get a donor for the next bash if the status of the 'Chief Guest' is cheapened in this manner.

Need-Based Planning: The rest of the world makes it a point to have a celeb or a dignitary grace an auspicious occasion to add honour and dignity to a celebration or observance. Travel and stay expenses of the invited CG are well taken care of and the celeb visit is appreciated with a befitting gift. The mere presence of the VIP is considered a favour. If the CG happens to be a renowned intellectual, all ears are lent on him to grasp the finer contents of his message. But in the hills of our state, in most cases, the reverse is true.

VLPBs (village-level power brokers) calculatingly assess the need of a village or an area. More often than not, a man-in-power is chosen to be the CG of a formal do with a view to get him redress, with public promise, the grievances they have had enough of. To put it bluntly, event managers smile from ear to ear as long as the 'hon'ble VIP' doles out a fat bundle of cash and delivers a short speech. No speech is regarded too succinct here.One who is known to give little, after a long-winding boring speech, is seldom repeated as a CG.

The Hunt for Bureaucrats: Men in power are classily choosy. They for sure know which side of their bread is buttered. They are more inclined to honour requests of their own faithful workers or of places where their visit will create a ripple-effect impact and gain brownie points elsewhere. So, when they cannot convince the big people to tread upon their native soil, organizers who are hell-bent on holding a bash, fawn hook, line and sinker before bureaucrats (read District Administrators and key DLOs), never forgetting to lie that the latter are the first choices. Mogambo nearly khush hua.

Such invites offer a platform for hitherto protocol-silenced DLOs to openly express their views on a hundred administrative matters bouncing about in their fertile minds. Yet, when the poor official functionary, with his cup of woe already full with bubbles winking at the brim, is hassled with applications for too many favours he is in no position to grant, he has to either turn teflon-coated or quote official jargon stuff to excuse his way out.

ComeBig Day: Be it our backblock villages or urban and sub-urban settlements, event management is simply thrust upon the naïve shoulders of local youth. The youngsters who are not currently engaged in academic pursuit, or who have completed or given up their courses mid-way, take the responsibility of physical arrangements on behalf of any family within their Church-fold. They exhibit age-old altruistic spirit in lending their service without a thought about their sweat-charge.

Even so, if the host takes them for granted with no attitude of gratitude, reluctant sacrifice gives way to border in compelled-fortitude dipped in hisses in solitude. Secret malice aside, once guests from near and far throng in, every member of the venue of celebration, makes it a point to flaunt 100 watt smiles to put up a make-belief show of solidarity. Engaged in petty one-upmanship, up-beat mood of small village bashes, due to big ego clashes, often end up in mismanaged affairs to lament over, for long.

Single Meal Fixation: It goes without saying that most of the participants making it to an event, due to distance factor, start early before or after breakfast, to be on time. By the time they sit in the meeting hall, hunger gnaws at their vitals rendering them reluctant hearers of the great speeches delivered from the stage. Nothing registers in the mind when the belly is on strike mode.

While introverted soft-skinned socialites leave the venue of the event silently to get a quick fill elsewhere, some thick-skinned bullies, scarce able to bear the disguised "all is well" appearance, would gather enough courage to gatecrash into the kitchen of the host with hope to find something to quell the urgent demand of the belly.

The Way Out: A curt answer from the catering attendants that 'food will be served to all after the main function is over', hardly works to pacify the desperate seeker. The crux of the issue lies in the unwritten norm to provide feast for 'invitees' at one go. Town settlers can pull it off somehow; but when the action-station shifts to a far-flung countryside, private pre-occupations compel well-meaning participating folks to arrive at different times of the day. The solution to this nagging unspoken problem is to open the mess, braving messy intruders, from morning to the end of the formal proceeding, in close proximity to the host's premises. The cost incurred is likely to be the same, more or less; but you gain in steering clear from 'never-would-be-revealed grouses'.

Mental Storm In A Tea-cup: In this age when a good chunk of the populace struggle to live longer with diabetes, and when sugar-free tablets and tea-bags are not far to seek, in our otherwise well-taken care of events, many eyebrows are raised when sugared tea-cups are served democratically to all. Old habits seem to die hard. In villages and sub-urban settlements, the native untrained hands boil water in an oversized pot, and as the water heats up, generous doses of sugar and tea-leaf are added, stirred and poured into handled cups placed on a huge circular metallic-lid of the pot-on-the-fire for mass consumption.

Black tea served thus, flavoured by festive 'Lenkhom' –mood in Christmas season may be relished with noisy sips in gay abandon; but when the same is done in formal gatherings in urban environs, there could be a slip between the cup and the lip.

Will Mangge More: The healthy native participant, whose frequent sweating checks his sugar-level, may even ask for 'more sugar' to further sweeten his favourite beverage, but that stuff is not the diabetic lot's cup of tea. Recollecting the traditional way of brewing up a refreshing cup of tea by recklessly throwing in the essential ingredients of the world's fave drink together makes me remember a joke cracked in this regard by a late humourist who never failed to make jaws split when he took digs at errors in human behaviour: "To save time in making tea, we may as well take some sugar, some tea-leaf and milk, put them together inside our mouth and gulp them down with a glass of hot water."

Keeping Chief Guest Guessing: When diligent professionals manage reception and hospitality, the CG's arrival is formally awaited well before the scheduled time. Vehicle doors are opened from outside, as a mark of showing courtesy and respect, and the man of the day is escorted to his designated seat. Polite enquiries are made about his immediate needs, soft-drink preferences etc. There and then, there is reason for the visiting dignitary to think of himself as a 'warmly welcomed dignitary.' But, every bash is not orderly. Disorderliness renders many functions a non-event. At times, arrangements are yet to be completed when the CG arrives.

In others, warm reception is an imaginary perception. With no one to receive, welcome and make him feel wanted, the poor CG, in such a situation, can't help but feel like a cheap guest or at best, console himself as a cheer guest. No repeated profuse apology, later, would remove the mental 'red card' tag silently imposed upon the mismanaged affair. No wonder, certain localities or organizers are blacklisted in the charmed circle.

Call For Professionalism: Unless we, North Easterners, call it a day to hold future events, which we certainly will not, it is high time we get our act together to have our local youth properly trained on the skills of managing a hassle-free event. Dos and don'ts are there. Native intelligence and reliance upon traditional status-quo-ism will take us nowhere.

The world is moving ahead at a fast speed we can't keep pace with. Well-managed dos are appreciated but tongues wag at haphazardly stitched up social bashes. If desire is not to lower our prestige percentage by holding badly-organized meetings after meetings under the outdated impression that level-headed visitors will somehow understand local lacking, and not go vocal about it, we are sadly mistaken. Let's take the theme of EIAA – Eimi International Achievers' Award – "Excel and go global" – seriously and improve management of our events with a touch of professionalism.

Lunminthang Haokip

* Lunminthang Haokip wrote this article for The Sangai Express . This article was webcasted on April 10, 2015.