Event managers want govt to ease cap as the industry gears up to restart operations

The events industry, one of the worst hit sectors due to the pandemic, has asked the central government to reconsider the cap of 100 persons even as the government recently announced that political, religious, corporate and other events will be allowed from September 2.In the wake of opening up of the industry, the Events and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) representatives have shared a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) with the government, highlighting their readiness for conducting events as well as the importance of the sector in kick-starting the economic engine.EEMA formed a task force with experts of various domains and came up with detailed SOPs, said Lalit Gattani, chairman of EEMA Government Interaction Committee and CEO, Showcraft Productions.“We have already presented the SOPs to the minister of state for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai and have urged him to present it to the government task force. We have also requested meeting with the task force to present our points,” he added.On the cap of 100 people, Gattani said that EEMA requests the government to keep it open based on the size of the venue on a 4 square metres per person formula. “Instead of putting a ceiling, we suggest let’s make it as per area available for the venue. We will still adhere to all the protocols,” said Gattani.The events industry, which had come to a standstill due to the Covid-19 related restrictions has already lost around 40,000 crore as per various estimates.“We have already presented the SOPs to the minister of state for Home Affairs, Nityanand Rai and have urged him to present it to the government task force. We have also requested meeting with the task force to present our points,” he added.“We were generating 5 lakh crore, out of which 1.7 lakh crore was from the organised sector and remaining 3.3 lakh crore was from the unorganised sector. But more than that, we are probably the only industry which is adding to the happiness index of the country. What value will you assign to it?,” asked Lalit Gattani, chairman of EEMA Government Interaction Committee and CEO, Showcraft Productions.The events industry, which had come to a standstill due to the Covid-19 related restrictions has already lost around 40,000 crore as per various estimates. In all over 10 million people have been directly affected due to the crisis and are losing jobs and livelihood.

from Economic Times https://bit.ly/2DzNKnG
via IFTTT