Star FLOW – The Change Festival ruled the roost with its impressive line-up of speakers and thought leaders over the course of 2 days in Delhi. The one-stop destination for all things marketing, the conclave-cum-festival gave the perfect global outlook as well as the opportunity for CXOs, CMOs, Brand Managers, Marketing professionals, Media/Creative/Advertising/Research experts and marketers to interact, learn, and share ideas and network with brands, international experts and industry leaders of the country who impressed all with their knowledge, ideas and innovations.
Moderated by Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan — Vice President -Strategy & Insights, Coca-Cola India & South West Asia, the panel discussion on ‘Brand building vs Performance Marketing’ witnessed immersive conversations on the topic by Rajeev Karwal — Chairman – Milagrow Robots, Shripad Nadkarni — Founder Chairman – Maverix Platforms, Tapan Singhel — MD & CEO – Bajaj Allianz General Insurance and Hitesh Oberoi —Co-Promoter MD and CEO at Info Edge India Ltd. Benjamin Mathew —Partner, Business Strategy, MART conducted a workshop on ‘Paradigm Shift of Rural Market’ that focused upon the macro-economic analysis of the rural Indian market along with the opportunities and challenges at hand. The day also engaged the audiences with riveting sessions and conversations by though leaders such as Patrick Renvoise
—Co-Founder & Chief Persuasion Officer, SalesBrain, Ajay Aggarwal — Practice Lead – Design Thinking, KPMG India, Tamanna Sharma — Founder – Earthling First, Nitesh Yadav —Founder & CEO – Exam Mitra and Texicon among others.
Day 2 of Star FLOW – The Change Festival kick started on a high note as Marty Neumeier, Author and leading expert on brand innovation, spoke about how power has shifted from companies to customers during his session on the topic ‘The new brand model – are you creating brands or consumers?’ The day excelled further as Patrick Renvoise, Co-Founder & Chief Persuasion Officer, SalesBrain discussed about persuasion in marketing by focusing on the decision-making part of the brain.
In a riveting dialogue on the topic ‘What will it take to succeed in a difficult economic scenario?’ featured industry stakeholders Girish Agarwal, Promoter Director – Dainik Bhaskar Group, Subodh Bhargava, Independent Director Chairman – Tata Communications Ltd and Wartsila India Ltd, Rohit Saran, Managing Editor – The Times of India, and Hemant Malik, ITC Foods. These luminaries discussed and debated issues pertaining to how the new taxes, new slabs, new policies are causing a lot of uncertainty in the market to how each enterprise needs to think differently to succeed in this economic slowdown. Sharing his perspective Girish Agarwaal said, “Slowdown is not going to get over with a couple of orders” while Subodh Bhargava, encouraging a positive outlook towards the slowdown, said, “Anticipate change. Be prepared for change. Celebrate change.” He further added, “True innovation changes consumer behaviour and can protect you in an economic crisis.”
An interesting exchange of ideas between flag bearers of the industry such as Charles Leadbeater – Author and leading authority on innovation and creativity, Sonam Wangchuk —Innovator, Education reformist & Inspiration for the film 3 idiots, Dr. Erich Joachimsthaler — Strategy, innovation and branding expert, gave audiences an opportunity to equip themselves for the next big change in marketing. The conclave-cum-festival also had Anoop Khanna — Social Activist & Founder – Dadi Ki Rasoi and Alakshi Tomar —Co-Founder – TruCup and others sharing their inspiring journey and stories on the path of becoming a true marketers.
Bringing together a melange of interactive sessions and workshops, Star FLOW – The Change Festival concluded on a successful note with a promise to be back with a bigger edition next year while engaging the marketing professionals across the globe deep diving in a gamut of core marketing topics, in all its myriad dimensions.
