Pakistan still a 'virgin' territory for entrepreneurs, according to CKO Event Architecture

Chapra Khan Omari Event Architecture is one of the largest innovative design and production firms in Pakistan. CKO has over 15 Years of experience with managing and conceptualizing mega events, including Bollywood tour Shows in USA, Fashion Pakistan Week FPW, Conferences in Dubai, Turkey, Thailand, Malaysia, China and USA, International / local concerts.

BR Research recently met CKO partners; Omar Omari, Sara Chapra, and Aslam Khan. CKO is now in its fourth year of organizing Karachi Eat Food Festival. The discussion revolved around CKO's business plans, country's event management industry, and the expectations from the upcoming food festival. Below are edited excerpts of the conversation.

<B>BR Research: What CKO is all about and how did the journey start?</B>

<B>CKO (Omar):</B> CKO has three partners, with different specialties. Our experience dates back from the US. One of our partners, Aslam was based there for over 20 years. He was involved in large scale production at the level of Bollywood mega stars. When he came to Pakistan, he started a production house, mainly focused on creating events.

Myself and Sara have more to do with creative and conceptualization side of things. In 2008, all three of us joined together to form CKO. People tend to be afraid of coming back to Pakistan, but it is a fertile ground right now. Anything new for entrepreneurs, anyone starting their own business, is virgin territory. People easily tend to forget that, and CKO has taken up those opportunities.

We do events, festivals, furniture, architecture etc. So there are a lot of businesses that we are doing at one time and we are creating and innovating constantly in the market because of our position. We have reached on top over a very short span of time. We are the biggest event management company in Pakistan.

<B>BRR: In terms of event management, what industries do you cater to?</B>

<B>CKO (Omar):</B> It is very broad. We cover private events, such as wedding functions. Then there are parties, conferences, corporate launches, and activations. We also started the fashion week in 2009, and we have been with them ever since. We have done work in Dubai, Thailand, Turkey, Malaysia, and other countries.

<B>BRR: Has your business grown rapidly ever since its inception?</B>

<B>CKO (Omar):</B> It has grown very rapidly. We started from a very small one-room office. Event management is our key business. We have started to do our own events, which brings us to our seat of control. Our core business was doing events for other people, which is still intact. But now, we also do our own events. Karachi Eat was the first one, which was followed by Lahore Eat, Chand Raat Festival and some more.

<B>BRR: Given that you are also into corporate events. Does all the hype around CPEC interest you at all?</B>

<B>CKO (Omar):</B> I think we are yet to see CPEC trickle down to our industry. I do not know how as yet, as we have not seen the direct results. I do not see the direct relation to CPEC at the moment for the event industry. But when the playing field expands and there are more foreign investors, then, of course things will surely grow.

<B>BRR: What is the main growth driver for your business? And does the security situation in general carry a larger role in dictating how your business grows or declines?</B>

<B>CKO (Sara):</B> Weddings will always happen, irrespective of security situation and people will always spend money. We deal with the top tier, looking at one percent of population. We are pretty immune to the general security concerns. But when it comes to our own events, security and logistics do play an important role.

We do live in a volatile city. So we have to go out of the way to ensure things and get the city government on board.

<B>BRR: As your flagship Karachi Eat Festival is fast approaching, tell us something about the whole concept and how has it grown over the years?</B>

<B>CKO (Sara):</B> The good thing with the Karachi Eat Festival from the business point of view is that it has a much larger reach. Earlier, our events were very confined and internal in nature. But the festivals that we are doing are helping us create smaller businesses and help them grow. We have numerous examples of new comers, placing a stall at our festivals, and making it big from that platform. The platform is huge where 75,000 people showed up last year.

We are introducing an online mode of payment for any transaction, for our eat festivals in Karachi and Lahore. We are partnering up with a company, Finjas. We are pushing their company and their modes of payment and introducing a completely new technology in the market.

<B>BRR: How many people are you expecting this time around at the Karachi Eat Festival?</B>

<B>CKO (Sara):</B> Last year, we had 75,000 and 28,000 people attending our Lahore and Karachi events, respectively - and that has grown exponentially over the years. So, we are surely expecting more crowds this time around.

We have never marketed or followed any protocol. Everyone else is calling celebrities and asking for endorsements for such events, TV channels asking us to advertise and be partners, PR companies calling us to go out and market more. We just focus on social media. Also, every restaurant we sign up with, does the marketing for the event.

Unlike a lot of events, the commercialism and constant bombardment, are not things we want to do. This venue (Frere Hall) had hosted no events for nearly 25 years before the first eat festival. Our main objective for the Karachi Eat Festival was to promote and revitalize our public spaces. You just need the right kinds of activation to spur life into such public places.

There never used to be a fee for using Frere Garden, but now there is Rs 500,000 rental on it for any kind of activity. We do not encourage foreign franchises to our festivals, and we have capped the serving price at no more than Rs 300, so that people could come and taste more than one dish, at affordable rates.

We do not encourage VIP culture and protocol at our event. Some of the ministers and celebrities had to wait in the queue or were politely turned down last year, because of the massive crowd. We want it to be labeled and known as a people's event. The ticket price is kept at Rs 200, and we have kept it low consciously, so that more people could come in, from different walks of life. We could have charged higher, as we are now an established entity, but we decided not to.

<B>BRR: How exactly does the business model work?</B>

<B>CKO (Omar):</B> The business model works on sponsorships. As this is not our core business, a lot of proceeds from this event go to charity.

<B>BRR: How do you manage the logistics and do you outsource any of it?</B>

<B>CKO (Omar):</B> It is very difficult, but nothing is outsourced, as we are an event management company. Every thing is in-house, and we are there for the entire duration of the event. Our team is large enough to support an event of such scale. We do outsource security, in addition to the one that we receive from the local government.

<B>BRR: Is Karachi's festival bigger than Lahore's, and how do you see the demand coming up from Lahore in the years to come?</B>

<B>CKO (Omar):</B> Last year, we had Lahore Eat for the first time, and the second one will be held in February this year. It had a huge response, as the government and authorities had a lot more control than the authorities here in Karachi. Lahore is equipped to help us lot better. It was 28,000 last year, which is a big number for a first time. I believe, in our second and third years, Lahore would probably surpass Karachi.

<B>BRR: In terms of the broader horizon of CKO, is Karachi bigger than Lahore for overall events?</B>

<B>CKO (Aslam):</B> Lahore has more money and more venues, but the 10 O'clock business makes it very tough there. So how much money can you spend for a two-hour event is the real question. Karachi is years and years ahead of Lahore, form venue, to class, and luxury, and food. We have our own warehousing, and we take our team wherever we go across Pakistan. Karachi is way ahead of the rest of Pakistan, and it is going to take quite some years to even come close to Karachi.

<B>BRR: Has the cost of doing business generally increased over the years?</B>

<B>CKO (Sara):</B> It has increased manifolds. There are a lot of taxes imposed, and at times we feel sorry for our clients. Thankfully, we charge premium and the market is not as competitive in terms of pricing, as we only deal with one percent of the population. The kind of clientele that we have is willing to spend money, most of the times.

The future for events in general is doing our own stuff. At the end of the day, we will continue doing wedding events, but that is what we call, appetizers. It is more like a consistent stream of revenues. We are trying to come up with new concepts that can get noticed even internationally.