Goafest: Srinivasan K Swamy shares how it all began

As the 16th edition of the celebrated Goafest commences, Srinivasan K Swamy of R K Swamy reminisces. From 'Triple A' Awards being help for the first time in 2006 to the first edition of Goafest on a beach at Goa - here's how it all happened.

The story of Goafest started probably one year before it was held in April 2006 for the first time. The Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) had its Creative Awards called ‘Triple A’ Awards. The Awards ceremony was itself a formal affair in a prestigious 5-star venue in front of about 300 guests from the industry. In 2005 it was held on the lawns of Taj Lands End with Maurice Levy as the Chief Guest. As President, the writer was handing over the awards to the winners. But he felt something was missing with many agencies not participating in the process.

At that time Ad Club’s Abby Awards was considered more prestigious with a lot more agencies participating in the Awards process. That Award event itself was a grand affair held in front of about 1500 people.  

Some of us that night in Taj Lands End decided that the AAAI Awards ought to have more prestige and command better participation. We felt that as an advertising agency body, our members should send in their entries for our Award show and there should be a concerted effort to get more entries and a larger number of participants at the Awards night. As we dwelt deeper into the subject, we felt that unless the rules of the game are changed it would be an impossible task to get better quality participation. As the discussion progressed, we decided to do an advertising festival more along the lines of Cannes where we will have knowledge imparted during the day and Awards given out in the evening. In addition, we wanted the festival to be a fun place and therefore we decided to add many fun elements as well. After some debate, we felt that Goa would be a perfect destination for holding this advertising festival.  

Also Read: Goafest 2023 welcomes over 50 brand associations

The name Goafest itself took some more time to be finalised because there were some members who felt that Goafest did not communicate that it was an advertising festival. Be that as it may, we eventually agreed that we will go with Goafest because we were confident of soon establishing Goafest as the event from the advertising and marketing community.

Once the broad contours of the advertising festival were determined, a meeting with the Creative Directors was held to understand their concerns and take their views on what kind of the Award process would excite them to participate. We had alignment on many of the critical issues, and it was left to the team which comprised of Arvind Sharma as Goafest Chairman, 2 Co-Chairs – V Shantha Kumar and Jagdip Bakshi along with the President of AAAI to make it happen.

Since it was a festival in Goa, we wanted to create all the facilities on the beach itself. We had an Ad Village set up on Utorda Beach with an airconditioned seminar hall set up and facilities for beach sports like water skiing, hot air balloon, beach volleyball, rain dance etc, plus an array of shops that sold beach wear, sandals, sunscreen lotion etc. We also set up tables for ayurvedic massages for delegates.  

Since we wanted a large number of participation particularly from the youngsters, we decided on a delegate fee of Rs.4,500 for delegates under 30 years of age, which fee included return airfare to Goa, their stay expenses as well as all the food and beverages that will be served during Goafest.  

The very first year, we had a participation of 1200 delegates with 2/3^rd of them coming from the “under 30” age band. We had quality creative work submissions and every piece of work that was submitted was put up on display at the Ad Village. We had a TV commercial viewing room as well as kiosks where you could listen to radio commercials. A huge stage was set up for the Awards night which also was the venue for some good entertainment. Thus, the Goafest was born on a strong note in April 2006. The second edition, in April 2007 was in the same location but the quality of execution and style was several times better but we stuck to the winning formula in getting delegates of under 30 and seniors. At the second edition of Goafest, we knew that Goafest was here to stay.  

Year after year thereafter Goafest grew in strength and reputation. Ad Club with their Abbys decided to be part of Goafest from the 3^rd year.  

Happily, when we are celebrating the 16^th edition of Goafest we can proudly say that Goafest has indeed become the destination to be for Marketing, Media and Advertising Professionals.

This article is penned by Srinivasan K Swamy, Chairman, R K SWAMY PVT LTD

Disclaimer: The article features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the stance of the publication.