Meghalaya wins silver experiential marketing award for hosting NEFS-2019

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaAugust 15, 2020

The success of the North East Food Show 2019 reverberates yet again as the mega exhibition wins a Silver Experiential Marketing Award for the “Best B2B Programme of the Year” at the recently concluded WOW Awards Asia 2020. 

The Award ceremony took place on August 14, on a digital platform or as the Organisers called it, a “Hybrid Virtual” platform for Live Events which is a completely new trend owing to the Pandemic situation we are currently living through.

Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma termed the award as a landmark event and a potential turning point in the transformational journey of Meghalaya as the ‘Food Innovation Hub’ of the region.

“This is the very first and biggest food show of its kind and scale in the North East, totally designed and executed in-house, in which Government came together with local event organizers, solution providers, designers and entrepreneurs like Rockski EMG, InTown Solutions, Veritas Communications, Blendink, Artful Arts, North East Entrepreneurs Alliance (NEEA) and hospitality partner Indian Institute of Hotel Management Catering and Applied Nutrition (IHMCAN), to create a world class event backed by 50 years of global expertise, network and outreach of exhibition giants Inter Ads, Comexposium and SIAL India to ‘Inspire Food Business’ and which is a harbinger of opportunity, investment and good times for the State’s and the North East food processing industry,” Sangma said.

WOW Awards Asia is the region’s largest and longest running business and recognition platform for the event industry and since 2009, WOW Awards have been the epitome of cultivating and celebrating excellence in the creation of LIVE events. 2020 marks the 12th anniversary of WOW Awards – Asia’s largest business & recognition platform for the Experiential Marketing, MICE, LIVE Entertainment & Wedding Industry. Participation is from all over the Asian Subcontinent and encompasses a huge variety of Categories and Companies / Government Organisations from all over Asia and the Middle East.

As the only government entry to make it to the finals, it is high honour indeed for the Government of Meghalaya and the Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship (MIE) supported by the Directorate of Food Processing (DOFP), to be awarded on the same platform with the giants of the Exhibition and MICE industry. 

“Awards are a great reaffirmation of the effort put in by our teams on product promotion and audience engagement” – Director, MIE said

With close to 24 crores worth of food business having been generated over 3 days for participants, the North East Food Show 2019 is also, in itself, a record setter of sorts as it is the first time in its 50 year history that a global brand like SIAL has ever partnered with a State Government and the first time it has ever done two events in the same country in the same year and at the regional level.