Blog: Himanshu Arora recounts his experience at Goafest 2022 | Advertisement
We had the three-day Goafest from May 6-8, 2022, which I attended from day two. I landed late Thursday evening, via a “red-eye” flight.
The physical event was happening after about two years and there was a different kind of excitement in meeting industry friends. The vibes said it all. Also, it was my first event after a while (I don’t attend many industry events as I get bored very easily).
On Friday, my first meeting started at 10:30 a.m. with a global leader from LinkedIn. Me being me, I arrived on site 30 minutes early and felt like I was part of the organizing team for the event. Preparations were still going on and I was getting these looks of ‘why did you come so early’ and ‘advertisers don’t come so early’. But it was a good start to the day with a productive meeting.
After having breakfast, I was confused between attending the Sharechat team masterclass or the OTT knowledge seminars of Vikrant Massey, Ali Fazal, etc. I ended up at the masterclass and felt like I was back in school. After attending millions of webinars and virtual events, returning to a physical event has left me feeling relieved and liberated.
That hug, those greetings and that smile of meeting so many of your industry friends, bumping into them over lunch/coffee and chatting about what’s going on in the ad space, made me feel at home PEACE.
I think human interaction is a bit of oxygen for our souls and sometimes we take a lot of obvious things for granted.
After lunch, I ended up attending Kapil Dev’s lecture. Considering the post 83 hype, it was a fun conversation. After that, I snuck in for an interesting chat with friends speculating on who will win what and having challenges for each prize, which led to binge drinking later on.
Moving on to the second day (third day of the festival). I had a good night’s sleep and made it on time, which was 12 noon. I attended a good friend Amaresh’s masterclass on web 3.0. I was happy to see something like this at Goafest.
One of the best sessions for me was Aiyyo Shraddha. I had a real good time. She did a set, specific to the advertising fraternity, it was relatable and heartwarming to see. Lunch followed by a few more master class sessions on Meta, movies on OTT, YouTube shorts and Madhuri Dixit sessions on the influencer/content creator space. The day ended with the Abby Awards.
In conclusion, I managed to do everything I wanted and intended to do. Sharing knowledge, meeting friends and also earning metal for one of our campaigns (Social Panga).
I took another flight late at night so I could be back in Bengaluru and spend some time with the wife so that we maintain overall harmony.
The author is co-founder, Social Panga
