Hyderabad: COVID-19 scare hits event managers hard

Hyderabad: The scare of coronavirus has made a deep hole in the pockets of event managers who had multiple events lined up in the upcoming days and they have also made advance payments to different vendors for their service.

Mansoor Ahmed, an event manager, speaking to The Hans India, noted that though the customers were skeptical of conducting their programmes due to the fear of coronavirus, they were still showing brave face and planning to go ahead with the programmes.

But as soon as there was an announcement from the State government to put off all the programmes, many orders were cancelled in a day.

He added, "The summer season is a season of functions and marriages and if the fear continues to grow, all the event organisers will be suffering financially.

An event is conducted by organising various departments such as decorators, light men, sound systems, caterers, tent houses, landscape technicians, balloon makers, musicians, DJ's etc. As the events are being cancelled now, the event manager has to get back the money from all departments, as managers pay them an advance amount and book the slots. So, it is nearly impossible to get the refund from the stakeholders."

Another event manager Vasu said event management was like a supply chain business; if one department suffers then the entire chain gets damaged.

He explained, "The government's announcement asking people to stay away from crowded places and restricting the number of persons to only 200 for any function till March 31, has given jitters to our customers as they don't want to continue with the booked slots."

"It's understandable that the virus is spreading like wildfire and everyone should take precautions, but from a business point of view, our business will be hit badly because we have to manage each and everyone involved in the making of an event. It becomes a herculean task," added Vasu.