After a successful debut edition last year, The Wedding Excellence Awards (WEA) 2023 was back this time at Taj City Centre Newtown and Taal Kutir Convention Centre. The two-day event saw people from the wedding industry — professionals, experts, and vendors across various sectors come together to network and build business connections and, most importantly, learn from some stalwarts in the industry.
Day One opened with the lighting of the lamp during the inauguration in the presence of Pawan Kumar Patodia (principal owner chairman Calcutta Thunderbolt), veteran singer Usha Uthup, Gianluca Rubagotti (consul general of Italy) Sabbas Joseph (co-founder, director, Wizcraft Group), Indranil Ray (cluster GM Operations - Taj City Centre New Town) and K. Mohanchandran (Senior VP operations, IHCL).
The keynote address of WEA 2023 was given by Sabbas who emphasised the importance and relevance of having such events in the industry. “This event is all about learning and sharing with each other our experiences and be able to stay on the path of success because it matters to India. This event is dedicated to the entire wedding industry, to ensure we pursue the path of excellence, to celebrate the excellence, those who have achieved excellence,” he said.
‘Wedding tourism — a doorway made in heaven’ was the first talking point of the event that had Gitikka Ganju Dhar moderating the chat with K. Mohanchandran, Vicky Tulsiyan (founder director, Mirage Weddings & Gourmet Design Company), Chitvan Jaipuria (director, CJ’s Events & All On Hire) and Nidhi Poddar (director, Emerald Events). It addressed topics like what are the contents of special packages for destination weddings, identifying Top 10 wedding destinations in the country that will bring the world to India to tie the knot, thus also amping up Indian tourism. The session also discussed the Rajbaris of Bengal as wedding destinations, the prep and challenges associated with it.
The final session of the day was on ‘Shaktis of the East’ and had Dipti Sawalka Modi, director of Gourmet Design Company, and fashion designer Rashi Kapoor in conversation with Gitikka. “According to a UN recent report, at the current rate of progress, it will take 286 years for the world to achieve gender equality! I think we as an industry are not a male-dominated industry but we need way more women entrepreneurs. What can be done to up these numbers? Because I truly believe that our business will benefit with more women rowing the boat,” said Gittika. Dipti and Rashi shared their experiences about handling patriarchy, achieving work-life balance, getting support from men in the industry and so on. “I think women all over the world are doing two jobs — handling home and their workplace — and often it is taken for granted that they are going to take care of domestic responsibilities. One also has to experience the guilt associated with not being able to give time to their home or their child if they are working. At several levels women are made to carry this guilt around with them and if you ask me instead of pay equality, we should be paid more,” said Dipti.
