Shillong, July 13: The success of the second edition of the Monolith Festival 2016 has resounded yet again as the festival wins two awards in two of the heaviest categories at the recently concluded Wow Awards Asia 2017 at Aerocity, New Delhi on the 7th and 8th this month.
WOW Awards Asia is the most reputed recognition platform in the world encompassing almost every aspect of the event industry. It is in initiative of EVENTFAQs in collaboration with EEMA(Entertainment and Event Management Association), Bahrain Island Destinations and Dubai Tourism Board. 2016 marked the partnership with KPMG in India as the process advisors and evaluators for this award and the judging process has been further strengthened on top of having top industry professionals from around the world as judges. International Live Events Association (ILEA) – Middle East Chapter has strengthened its association with the WOW Awards and Convention Asia 2017 and has come on board as Supporting Industry Association.
The first award it received was the Bronze award for Intellectual Property-Achievement in Production Management through Rockski Group which was the Event Management agency responsible for the production of the festival in the first two editions. Higher achievers in this category were both based out of Dubai and they were awarded Gold and Silver for their work at the Launch of KEF Infra Park,UAE and the inauguration of the Biltmore Hotels in Tbilisi, Georgia.
It was high honour indeed for a regional Indian event company to be awarded on the same platforms with the giants of the industry. “Awards are great reaffirmation of the effort put in by our team on audience engagement. The wins at WOW are doubly special because of the stiff competition we were up against” commented Jason Manners of Rockski Group. “We were invited for a discussion forum with people of the Dubai Tourism Board and they mentioned that everybody was shocked with the kind of budget the Monolith Festival had and they had expected it to cost a lot more with the kind of work that was done with the local resources available.
It wasn’t event comparable to the multi million dollar projects that the other winners were working with. Lee Charteris, the current President of the ILEA Middle East chapter was one of the Judges in the category was very impressed and expressed his interest of even visiting the Festival because he has never seen an Indigenous Festival of this scale being managed in a very professional manner” he further quoted.
The second award was also bronze and it was for Intellectual Property- Festival of the Year in Art and Culture and Lifestyle. This award was all credits to the Khasi Heritage Conservation Forum, an offshoot forum of the KHADC comprising of Mr Alan West Kharkongor, Prof. Desmond Kharmawphlang, Mr Neil Antonio War, Mr. Kyntiewbor War, Mrs D.M. Lyngwa, Mr Banlumlang Blah, Mr Peter Mawlongwho were all responsible for coming up with and curating the concept and ideas revolving around the Festival.
Other winners of this category were the Comic Con chain of Lifestyle Festivals that happen throughout the country and the Mother of the Nation Pavillion which is a Government event in the UAE which displays the History and Culture of the Arab Legacy. The Member Secretary, Mr Alan West Kharkongor stated that it was indeed an honour to receive this award on such a huge platform where all the organizations involved were of very high calibre and credibility.
This is only testimony of the high intellectual value of the Festival and that it is only going towards the right direction from here on and that is to reach out and spread goodwill across international borders. The organisers attribute the success of the Festival to all those involved in the Festival whom without their rigorous and full hearted effort, the recognition wouldn’t have been possible.
