An emcee is the face and voice of an event. An event may be loaded with numerous engaging and interactive elements but if moderated by a bad emcee, fails to create any impact among the audience. Whereas a good and efficient emcee can even make a dull event worth being cherished for a lifetime. Depending on the situation, the emcee often wears many hats: stagehand, sound and lighting consultant, intro/outro writer, community builder, energy gatherer, care taker, nerve calmer, cheer leader and is the responsibility of the emcee that he/she must wear each hat with grace and charm.



A good emcee converts the event into a storytelling process, making the entire experience for the audience and the producer much more comfortable and similarly a bad emcee can throw an event off the track and become an event organizers worst nightmare.



EE asks event industry experts the things they consider before hiring an emcee for their event.



1-      Nature of event



The basic nature of the event is the foremost consideration that one needs to keep in mind before zeroing down on an emcee for event execution. Just like the events differ in nature ranging from corporate meetings and seminars to weddings and informal get-togethers, similarly different kind of emcee are fit for different shades and moods of events.



Siddhartha Chaturvedi, CEO, Eventcrafter says-“Considering the event background and backdrop is the most important parameter for hiring en emcee.” You cannot hire someone who specializes in entertainment for formal corporate events and a monotonous serious speaker for an audience engaging event is complete mismatch. “A good emcee is an integral part of an event and choosing one on the basis of the nature of the event is the first step”-he adds.



2-      Budget



Budget of an event is the center point around which the various decisions about it revolve. Ankur Kalra, CEO, Vibgyor Brand Services Pvt. Ltd says- “It goes without saying budget is an important consideration before we think about an emcee for the event.”



Sunil Kutty of Brand Promotions India Pvt Ltd comments- “the budget of the event has a crucial role to play. Based on budget given to us by the clients we decide to incorporate an emcee with a good voice, someone who is presentable and can engage the audience accordingly keeping alive the mood of the event.”



3-      Presentation and Communication



The crux of the duty of an emcee is to communicate efficiently and effectively with the audience. A good emcee has a command over the language, is presentable, attractive and keeps the mood of the audience alive. Siddhartha Chaturvedi on this says- “An emcee should have an impeccable diction and pronunciation. He/she should know how to speak extempore and can communicate in the best possible way to the audience. A problem with emcees today is they work in a defined way and are unwilling to review themselves, a good emcee is pleasing, charming and juggles an event completely on their shoulders.”



4-      Client Requirements



“Many times it is the client that briefs us about who or what do they expect from an emcee and then we proceed on the selection accordingly”- saysKeyur Patel of Prasang Multiservice Providers. The client hands in the specifications wherein he wants the inputs of the emcee and it also helps the event organizers to carefully scrutinize the abilities that will be required in an emcee to pull off the event. “In the social events that we do sometimes the client requests for an emcee who knows the regional language of the area too, such inputs help us to finalize on an emcee better”- he completes.



Sunil Kutty on this says- “The clients require the emcee to be well prepared and aware of the industry every time they on the stage. As in for a corporate gig an emcee should have a clear knowledge of who is he addressing and what he is addressing them on. We cannot depend on an emcee who is not aware or prepared to carry out an event.”



5-      Calculating the cost



Emcees and anchors in the events industry are available at all ranges across all diverse genres of events and hence calculating the cost of an emcee has become a growing concern for the industry.



Siddhartha Chaturvedi on this issues says- “Actually there is no real way to calculate the cost of emcees today. We pay approximately 40-45 thousand to emcees and around 1.5 lakh to various media personalities depending upon the requirement of the event. EEMA, is perhaps trying to rank the emcees to help us decide better on the website but for now emcees have set prices like artists and we depend upon their past works for cost calculation.”



Ankur Kalra responds by saying- “There is no such thing as a fair price to be paid, it all depends on the contribution an emcee is required to make to the event. Today while you have people willing to emcee for as little as 5 thousand to biggies like Mandira Bedi and Roshan Abbas charging 5-7 Lakhs respectively.”



Keyur Patel completes his stance by saying- “We just have to focus on the market experience held by the emcee and cost is devised accordingly if their previous experiences have been good they are welcomed at what they demand.”