Bhubaneswar: The hospitality and tourism industry in Odisha received a big boost with the inception of Event Management Association Of Odisha (EMAO).
A collaboration with Event and Entertainment Management Association (EEMA) India, the EMAO was launched at the Mayfair Convention here on Wednesday evening.
The primary aim of EMAO is to improve the quality of event production and growth of event management agencies in the state.
Arun Bothra, CMD, OSRTC, and Sachin Ramachandra Jadav, Director, Tourism Department of Odisha, took part in two technical sessions, where they shared their experiences on leadership, management, coordination and development.
“During this pandemic, along with other industries, the event management sector has also gone through a very bad phase and it is time we realized that this is the opportunity for all to come together and form an association. We started this, 7 months back, this is the launch event where we are starting the registration of members and we have got 35 more members today,” said EMAO president Satyabrat Sanu Ratho.
“This is not just a forum only for event managers but also for artists, anchors, etc. Because we feel the event industry in Odisha is even bigger than the film industry. So we all need to collaborate to do better in the future. We are planning to create a great comeback,” he added.
Among other dignitaries present at the launch event were EEMA president Roshan Abbas, EEMA executive vice-president Samit Garg, chairman HRAO & IATO JK Mohanty, Padma Shri Sudarshan Pattnaik, Padma Shri Aruna Mohanty, senior journalists Sandeep Mishra and Prasanna Panda, OFDC chairman Kuna Tripathy, additional secretary, Odisha government, Ranjan Kumar Das, CEO Kamat group of hotels Vishal Kamat and president Mayfair Hotel and Resorts Manoj Gouda.