Live Spotlight: Managing weddings, events and corporate Events

All of life’s vagaries can be simplified into a set of personal and professional events.

From one’s first or eighteenth birthday or celebrating a spectacular quarterly financial result to a destination wedding seeded with surprises, the events industry is as dynamic as it gets, owing to a business that lies at the intersection of media, entertainment and technology, depending on the type of clients or projects, an event company chooses to target or conceptualize.

In a market full of companies selling similar services encompassing event management, marketing services and other allied services, Prajna, of Sandalwood fame, has had the wherewithal to not only venture into this crowded space, but also differentiate herself and her brand by bringing in innovation and top-notch professionalism.

There are many good events to go to. There are also many great events and not-so-great events.

Quantity has never been a problem for the events industry. The quality is what leaves more to be desired. While difficult to measure market share, a few names do stand out in the events industry. From the likes of DNA Entertainment Networks who dominate sports events management in India to Encompass and Wizcraft Entertainment, two of the largest event management companies in the country, with projects running into hundreds of crores.

Live Spotlight Events caters to the premium end of the market. The excerpts of our interview with Prajna, the founder, is as below.

Give a brief info about your startup?

Live Spotlight events is an event management and production company catering to high end weddings and corporate market.

What made you start your startup and what problem does it solve?

I got an opportunity to manage our industry’s artists for Yuva Dasara. We assembled a small team to go through the event and it worked great. That is when I realised I had the potential and decided to turn my skills into a proper business.

As I said my company serves high end clients for their weddings and corporate events. The industry is filled with event management firms promising A-Z services but are usually a partnership of local vendors. Our company has all the aspects of production in-house so that our clients experience an event that is worth every penny they spend.

Tell us about yourself, your previous jobs/ventures? What were you doing before this startup?

Before this business, I was an actress in the Kannada Movie industry. I do modelling as well for selective brands across various categories.

Where is your startup based out of? Why do you think that is the best place for you?

My startups is based out of Bangalore. I personally think Bengaluru is the best city in the country. The thriving and evolving culture in various aspects makes the city and the people dynamic. It’s a city that has a taste for everything. Its modern, lively and is never boring. The people are welcoming. Everyone is willing to experiment and are not shy to voice out and be themselves. This feels like home to me.

As a startup founder, what are you paranoid about? What keeps you awake at night?

I am paranoid by the fact that there are still tons of people who think businesses led by women are bound to fail or that there is usually a male figure supporting them from behind. This has to stop and the only way to generalise women running successful startups is to work hard and actually being successful.

Who are your competitions and how are you better than them?

I would not like to name my competitions. I would say that my company is great at what it does and exuberates top level professionalism. My competitors are huge establishments servicing all over the country. So, there’s a long way to go for me in terms of establishing myself in the market.

How hard is it to have a work-life balance as a startup founder and how do you manage it?

It’s as they say, you can sail two ships. As a woman in a big city and the style of upbringing I had, its extremely important for me to have the perfect work-life balance. To maintain it is really hard, but my key is to being extremely efficient during my day and get things done on time!

Have you raised funding? If yes, then we would like to know the details. If no then please tell us if you are looking to raise.

No. I started the company with my own capital. I would be interested to raise funding if it favours positive growth of my company.

What’s the biggest misconception people have about you? Why do they have that? What’s the reality?

The biggest misconception people have about me is that I am a very hard to approach and talk to. I guess they get that because of my body language and mannerisms around people. The truth is that I am extremely affable and I am a person who values conversations a lot.

What gets you excited about this company?

It’s a company where the line of work is extremely dynamic. There are new things and challenges thrown at me everyday and there is something therapeutic about problem solving. Plus the market gives me so many opportunities to travel and meet new people. Sounds like a dream job to me.

Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.

I like kickstarts so I am up and running by 6.30. I have a variety of workouts planned and spread across several weeks so I do whatever is on schedule. I am in my office or sat at the desk at my home office by 10.

Tell us about your team and how did you meet each other?

As I said previously I was able to assemble a small team for the Yuva Dasara job before the inception of my company. This mainly comprised of my best friend and my brother. We still have the same core team but we have gone onto recruit more coordinators now.

 

 

Know a great startup story or want to share your own? Write to us at bhumikka.yaadav@gmail.com and we will get back to you. For more updates follow Bangalore Insider on Facebook.