TravTalk India Online Magazine
Harmandeep Singh Anand, Managing Director, Global Panorama Showcase (GPS), has announced that the event will be held virtually for the trade and that they will hold it between July & September this year.
Nisha Verma
Sharing details about GPS 2020, Harmandeep Singh Anand said, “We have been preparing for it during the entire lockdown period and we are planning to hold it between July-September, 2020, as destinations and markets will not open by then. We have prepared our tool and this time, unlike previous GPS events that were restricted to Tier-II and III cities, this will be held not only on a national level, but even on a global scale in times to come, with participants from around the world. We have created a platform through which we can do the event for any industry now. However, our focus will be travel industry to start off with and that is what we have worked on.”
The event will be called GPS Virtual, and Anand is expecting it to be attended by around 10,000 people. “We were already a paperless and e-event. In 2018, when floods happened in Kochi, we were about to do a virtual event at that time and had the tools in place. With 75-80 per cent of the attendees already using the GPS App, for us to go digital was only a matter of time,” he shared.
Anand also added that at least about 200 exhibitors, including global and local suppliers, will be showcasing their products. The event will be competitive in terms of pricing and the purpose of the event will be to get the industry back on its feet.
He insisted that the virtual will become the ‘new normal’ soon. “We may even have it twice a year along with the physical events, which would further be fine-tuned. We will have a new format in 2021. However, it depends on what sort of policies come into place and how receptive the markets are and how we want to take it
forward,” shared Anand.
The USP of the event, according to him, is that one just needs to download the App. “We are opening our 10x membership to all in the travel industry, free of cost. Those in different categories, namely Gold, Silver and Elite, can get validity till March 31, 2022 if they renew it now. Also, we’ll open the base membership for everyone related to the travel industry,” he added.
Format of GPS Virtual
While the physical events will be held 2021 onwards, the virtual event this year will be similar to the former. There may also be one-on-one meetings that participants can take right from their desk and these can be scheduled for anywhere between 15-40 minutes, depending on the requirement. At one go, an exhibitor will be able to address 8-10 buyers. KIT Talks will also be held through one-hour presentations. This will be done on Day 1, and then there will be a B2B event followed by another one-day event, but if need be, this will be extended further.
