Lack of skill and talent has always been a pressing issue for the events and entertainment industry and a discussion targeted at addressing this concernrecently took place at EEMAGINE 2015- the national convention of the event and experiential industry held annually which brings together thought leaders and industry experts to speak about trends and to share their perspectives on the way forward. With the topic “Emerging Trends in Talent Management” in discussion, the panel was chaired by Mohamed Morani, Director, Cineyug, Vijay Subramanium of CAA-Kwan, Tarsame Mittal of TM Talent Management, Rahul Gomes, Director Oaks Management, Vijay Nair of Only Much Louder and was moderated by Roshan Abbas, Patron – EEMA.

The session began with opening remarks by Mohamed Morani who highlighted someprimary concerns withtalent management in India. He said, “From an event agency’s view one of the biggest disadvantage that they face is with artists charging differently from different agencies.”

Rahul Gomes, Director Oaks Management raised the issue of last minute cancellationsby Artists with neither them nor the artist management agencies taking any liabilities. To this Vijay Subramanium responded by essaying the current situation and said, ” By collaborating and working together as a team, both artist managers and event agencies can solve issues of differential pricing.” Gomes further said that things were changing and the artist management function in India was getting more and more organized, which would take care of such concerns in due course of time.

Suggesting his inputs on the issue Tarsame Mittal outlined six essentials in an artist and artist managers relationship, “Trust and transparency; Accessibility; Loyalty, Being genuinely talented; not being Egoistic; and being a team player.”

Vijay Nair while presenting his views on the subject said, “We have taken up an international practice of dealing with artists. As a regularexercise in OLM, contracts are digitally signed first and the artist’s fee is determined for the time after they arrive at the event.” He mentioned that artists were receptive to this and so long as they kept to their end of the contract so did the artists. Nair also mentioned that when there is a breech of contract, it is important to pick that fight to not face the same problems in the future.

Taking the discussion forward Mohamed Morani admitted that,for many, relationships with Bollywood stars mattered more than paper work and hence when performers break their contract there is not enough paper work for compliance of legal action. To this Subramanium responded by speaking on the importance of collaboratively working to find a solution and said, “As EEMA we should sit together with all the talent management companies in India and determine a cap for each artists such that no unrealistic numbers become the standard just because one client is willing to pay that amount. Also artist costs should be dependent on their ability to generate ticket sales.”