A toast to the best from nightlife industry

Kickstart Entertainment in collaboration with National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) is conducting a first-of-its-kind ‘India Nightlife Convention and Awards’ (INCA) in Mumbai on September 25 and 26. The platform is specifically designed to bring together and recognise the stakeholders of one of India’s most vibrant and fastest growing Industries – Nightlife.

At present, India has the youngest population in the world with major metros having numerous bars and nightclubs in each city. However, there is no such platform that brings together bar and nightclub owners from multiple cities under one roof. To bridge this border the concept of INCA was conceived.

Director of Kickstart Entertainment Aman Anand, the brains behind the concept, shared, “INCA is our first property, which does brings everyone from the nightlife space all under one roof, sharing their knowledge and building a community more than just simultaneous businesses.”

“After careful consideration and a whole lot of research with NRAI, we selected an advisory panel encompassing the best in the industry from across India. Our broad criteria require people who have chain establishments over a few years of running and not just in Mumbai.

Hence, the selection came about with requesting veterans of the industry to participate and help us build this community together,” he said. “The idea of this convention and such an open honest forum has been on everyone's mind for so long so the mere mention of it has got everyone excited,” he added.

Speaking about the criteria on which the awards will be given, Aman shared, “We have a panel of jury varying from bar owners, socialites, liquor company representatives, media personnel, Disc Jockeys, promoters and artiste managers pan India, who will finalise the winner according to the categories. Ernst Young - our validation partner - will be tabulating and providing us with the finalists.”

The two-day business convention is for attendees within the bar and the nightlife industry from across India encompassing business and informational workshops with the industry’s most influential entrepreneurs and business specialists.

NRAI is acting as the knowledge partner, contributing its considerable expertise to develop convention programming, workshop content and ensuring the presence of nationally and internationally renowned speakers. Apart from this, NRAI is also a facilitator for brands and categories that need access to the bar and nightclub owners.

About the workshops, Aman said: “We have about 20-panel discussions where we're covering several topics from building your business through marketing, legalities, building nightlife spaces, with speakers from across the globe, expansion, sound systems and what we need to equip ourselves to build a better nightlife space.”

The city connect
About the brands from Hyderabad that are associated with INCA, he said, “We have been lucky enough to partner with global brands like Diageo, Harman and Dine Out, which have been based out of all cities with a buzzing nightlife.”

“The people from Hyderabad who will be involved in this are Dheeran - Area on Premise Manager at West India; DJ Murtohvik- Electronic Musician; Rohit Barker - Disc Jockey, Radio Jockey, VJ and Consultant; Amar Ohris - Executive Director at Ohris Group of Hotels and Restaurants; Arjun Valluri - Chairman of Blaze Automation and Vishwas Raju - Director at Exciga Pvt Ltd,” said Aman.