Apparel August 2019 Apparel August 2019 issue | Page 50

69TH NGF SPECIAL
LOOKING AHEAD
As the end of the Four-day 69th NGF drew near, Mili Doshi spoke to Mr Rahul Mehta,
President, CMAI, about the innovations introduced in this Fair, job creation for Micro, Small,
and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), ways and means to achieve sustainability in the Industry,
and much more. Photographs: Subhabrata Das
HOW DO YOU THINK HAVE THE
EXHIBITORS PERFORMED THIS TIME
AROUND?
This is, in fact, the encouraging thing—even
though the total number of visitors may have
come down, the participants are extremely busy
and happy with the response that they have been
receiving. So obviously, those who have come to
the Fair are serious Buyers; and whenever I am
taking a round through the halls, I can see that
every participant is engrossed in writing down
orders, and talking to Buyers. So I think that
aspect has played out quite successfully.
WITH THE SCALE OF THE FAIR
GROWING EVERY YEAR, HOW DO
YOU ENSURE THAT YOU ARE WELL
EQUIPPED TO PLAN AND EXECUTE IT
SEAMLESSLY?
I think the secret lies in the amazing participation
and involvement of our Committee Members.
Without their efforts, I do not think we would
have been able to manage it so efficiently. But
going forward, we will be outsourcing some of the
activities; the process has already started. As we
keep growing in size, we will be delegating some
of the work to professional agencies, keeping the
overall control in the hands of our Secretariat and
Committee Members. Unfortunately, there is no
other venue (as expansive as NSE Complex) in
Mumbai, where we can hold this Fair; we have
reached the absolute capacity of NSE Complex
so it is going to be difficult to envisage increasing
the scale of the Fair, unless we change its format.
HOW HAVE THE PAST DAYS OF THE
69TH NGF BEEN, ACCORDING TO YOU?
I think that they have been fairly good. I would
say, much better than expected because of
the current sluggish situation in the market. We
were expecting a drop in the overall attendance
but at least the first two days saw footfalls that
were absolutely on par with the previous year.
Yesterday, there was a bit of a drop—of about 5
per cent. But I think that at the end of the show,
the overall footfall will more or less be the same
as the July Fair of last year.
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I APPAREL I
August 2019
WERE THERE ANY CHALLENGES THAT
FOLLOWED?
Well, nothing specific to this edition of the Fair
but we are always faced with the challenge of
planning the layout of the Fair in a way that the
maximum number of participants get equal
limelight, opportunities, and face time with the
visitors. We try to ensure that there are no nooks
and corners where some participants stay
hidden from the general view, areas that visitors
are unlikely to visit. We try to make sure that
there are no spaces where facilities—such as