Rajkumar Kamat, president, Vibrant Goa Foundation, organisers of the forthcoming, Vibrant Goa-Global Expo and Summit 2019 (VG-GES 2019) arguably Goa’s biggest business convention ever, in the following in-depth interview gives Business Goa an insight into what could inevitably be the biggest business game changer the state of Goa has seen…
How did the idea of holding a Vibrant Goa-Global Expo and Summit originate? What was the thought process? Why did you plan to collaborate with Jagat Shah of Vibrant Markets?
Closure of mining and stagnant tourism has brought in a sense of despondency in the Goan business fraternity. It was necessary to look at business beyond our borders.
The journey of Vibrant Goa-Global Expo and Summit 2019 (VG-GES 2019)began on 9th February 2018 when the Late Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was attending the Goa Biz Fest. He spoke on the topic of ‘Vision for Goa 2022’. In an informal discussion that followed, I mentioned to him how events such as these, needed to go beyond Goa if they had to make a bigger impact. Manohar bhayee immediately seconded this thought and said that we should organise a global business event in Goa. This is how the seed for the Vibrant Goa summit was planted in my head by him, just a week before he was diagnosed with a life threatening disease.
Couple of months later, Dr Jagat Shah, CEO of Vibrant Markets spoke on the topic of International Trade in one of our BNI meetings. When I mentioned my conversation with Chief Minister Parrikar, Jagat Bhai said a Vibrant Goa event was the logical way forward. He explained how his company had helped in organising a series of Vibrant business events like Vibrant Gujarat, Vibrant Saurashtra, Vibrant Kutch, among others.
In fact, on Jagat Bhai’s invitation, my colleagues and I visited the Vibrant Tamil Nadu event in July-August 2018 to get a first-hand feel of the dynamics involved. After interacting with the organizers, stall owners and delegates at the event, we realised that the Vibrant model was an ideal platform to work on business beyond borders for local entrepreneurs.
“In the course of our first conversation with him, we could clearly see the immense affinity Dr Mashelkar had for Goa and his keenness to ensure that Goa moved forward in the right direction”
Why did you form a public trust to drive this initiative and how was the core team formed?
Considering the size of Vibrant Goa, we felt it was extremely important to have all the industry organizations on board. This would help us reach out to thousands of businessmen and entrepreneurs in Goa.
And though the idea was initiated by the BNI Goa leaders, we thought the formation of a public trust to run the show would help us have representation from different industry organizations. After due discussions, we decided to start the Vibrant Goa Foundation, an irrevocable public trust where we could opt for trustees both permanent as well as temporary; and appealed to various industry organizations to come on board.
The senior directors of BNI under whose leadership the Goa Biz Fest was being conducted became the founder trustees. Besides myself, we have Rasik Naik, promoter of Finishing Touch; Vinay Verma, proprietor of Powertrac Corporation; Arman Bankley, promoter, AR Mines and executive member of Goa State Industries Association; Manoj Patil, owner of Armour Automation and council member of CII; and Dinesh Dhulapkar, senior director for events at BNI. All of us were convinced that this is something that we should do for the sake of Goa. The idea was to boost business in Goa by catalyzing markets beyond Goa.
In what specific manner has the BNI training and experience shaped the Vibrant Goa philosophy?
BNI’s philosophy is ‘Giver’s Gain’. The idea is to give without expectation and it is a universal rule that you would gain something at some point of time.
It has also helped that my own personal mission of “Employment Generation Through Entrepreneurial Growth” has seen me take up responsibilities which are in alignment with this mission. As promoter of BNI, which is helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses; as former president of GSIA, where we worked with the government to create an environment for facilitating and supporting entrepreneurship; as managing trustee of GEMS, which works on developing budding entrepreneurs; and as member of the Investment Promotion Board to facilitate new investments.
Vibrant Goa initiative too, is a step in alignment with this mission.
How does the Vibrant Goa Foundation benefit from the advice and guidance of people like Padma Vibhushan Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, who is chairman of the Vibrant Goa advisory board?
While many people in the industry appreciated the idea of Vibrant Goa, there were several naysayers too, who were unsure about the ultimate success of the project.
However, two people reposed immense faith in us. Nitin Kunkolienkar, who willingly took up the responsibility as chairman of Vibrant Goa Foundation and Dr Pramod Sawant, who was then Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly. He assured us complete government support, as he believed that an event of this scale would open up business opportunities and create employment opportunities in Goa.
It was Kunkolienkar who suggested that we approach somebody like Padma Vibhushan, Dr Raghunath Mashelkar, the eminent scientist of Goan origin, to head our board of advisors.
Coincidentally, Dr Mashelkar had headed the committee which had prepared the Goa Vision 2035 document in the year 2011.
When Nitin and I met Dr Mashelkar in Pune, he readily agreed to chair our board of advisors.
In the course of our first conversation with him, we could clearly see the immense affinity Dr Mashelkar had for Goa and his keenness to ensure that Goa moved forward in the right direction.
Sandip Bhandare, then President of GCCI and Manoj Caculo (president elect), Damodar Kochkar of Verna Industry Association, Mangirish Salelkar of GTA, Dr Pravin Khullar of GPMA, Ernest Dias of TTAG too, offered unconditional support.
The Vibrant Goa teams have been engaged in multiple international road shows to different continents of the world. How is this going to help the three day summit in October and in the years to come?
All our international road shows so far have been conducted in collaboration with the Embassies of India; Goan and Indian associations in those countries; and the host country’s chambers of commerce.
This combination has worked well to create the required buzz and get the right type of business and entrepreneurs to attend the road shows. The Goan and Indian diaspora have an emotional attachment – it is easy to bond culturally. During our many road shows, we realised that the business community in these countries mostly viewed Goa only as a tourist destination. We were able to communicate to them that Goa housed several MNCs and business houses which were operating successfully and thereby convince them that Goa is a business destination too, specially for industries needing knowledge workers. Several non-resident Goans were also sceptical about red tape and bureaucratic hurdles in doing business in Goa. We explained to them how the incumbent government was pro-business and was keen to generate employment in the industrial sector.
During the road shows, we invested a lot of time and effort on building trade contacts and collaborations rather than investments alone. We believe that when trade starts between two companies, or entities, it is over period of time that they get into the requisite comfort zones to get onto investments. This concept of ours was also very much appreciated by the participants of the road shows. Several foreign companies we met, looking at India as a market, started to think of catering to Indian market via Goa. This was music to our ears
With less than 60 days to go for the Big Day, how have the preparations panned out. What are the key areas which are being looked into?
I am happy to state that against a target of 250 international delegates, we already have 292 international delegates who have registered. With two more overseas roadshows to Nepal and Israel on the cards, we should easily have 300 to 350 international delegates attending this first, Vibrant Goa summit.
The delegates will arrive from USA, Canada, Israel, UK, Portugal, the Middle East, South-East Asia and neighbouring countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan.The Indian embassies in these countries have supported us fully – thanks to the efforts put in by the Global Network Team led by Dr Jagat Shah.
Nationally, too, we expect more than 1500 delegates attending the event from a total of 20 cities across India. These figures combined with our local Goan delegates will give us a grand total in excess of 2,000 delegates.
I am also happy to share that nearly 70% of our exhibition booths have been sold out and we hope to have a full-house by middle of September. We are also extremely happy that Goan business houses like the Dempo Group are supporting us fully in this endeavour.
We are also very fortunate to have the complete support of industry organizations like the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Goa Pharmaceutical Association, Goa Technology Association, Travel and Tourism Association of Goa, Goa Management Association, Indian Institute of Interior Designers, Indian Institute of Architects, National Institute of Personnel Management and several others.
Besides leadership of above organisations, Milind Anvekar from GTA, Gautam Kharangate and Nirmesh Tyagi from Jaycees, Arch. Rita Mody Joshi from IIID, Caesar Fernandes, Ajay Gramopadhye, Mayuri Bhate, Valerie Fernandes from BNI, Ramakant Kamat of GCCI, Neeru Agnihotri from Rotary, besides many others have been working tirelessly for the success of this event.
Most of the international speakers for the Vibrant Goa Knowledge Series have also been finalized.
How do you plan to measure the success of this first, Vibrant Goa-Global Expo and Summit (VG-GES)?
As this will be the first edition of the Vibrant Goa series, our focus would be to build connections between businesses, between chambers of commerce, as well as B2G connections.
I believe the success of Vibrant Goa will have to be measured based on the MOU sign-offs, in order to facilitate business connections.
The number of inquiries that get generated for the participating businesses.
The actual B2B connections that will happen between the businesses with a potential of future business; and finally the amount of interest generated for investment in Goa.
These will be the broad parameters to measure success.
Of course, I would like to emphasize that the event in October is not an end in itself, but a milestone in the journey of Vibrant Goa.
In fact, Vibrant Goa success stories have already started flowing in with many of the Goan business delegates who accompanied the road shows starting to receive enquiries and orders for their products. Collaborations among businesses within Goa as well as with overseas businesses has also started.
Hence, while the expo and summit in October will be a milestone event, the journey will continue with the Vibrant Goa Foundation having desks established to facilitate business connections with different countries and states on an ongoing basis.
What is your message for young entrepreneurs and business persons in Goa?
With the roadshows and other actions that have been initiated, we have been receiving a plethora of opportunities for businesses in various sectors, both for large projects and products and services of small and medium enterprises.
During national road shows, we are finding that businesses from other states are eager to participate and cash-in on opportunities, but we are not finding the same enthusiasm in Goa, barring a few exceptions.
These opportunities are for Goan entrepreneurs. Are we ready to take them?
It is time to let go of the frog-in-the-well mind set and look beyond to grow and prosper. We do not claim that Goa is Vibrant, but we have embarked upon a journey to involve all stake holders in this process of making Goa Vibrant.
The government under a decisive leadership of CM Dr Pramod Sawant and the dynamism of Industries Minister Vishwajeet Rane is bracing itself for this challenge.
It is time that industry got rid of cynicism and partook of this journey
