IIFA: Day 1 (June 3rd, 2010)

The first day of events (June 3rd) comprised of a fashion show and a media briefing of a movie called Laamha. I was still trapped in the God forsaken ticketing office with loads of tickets still to be sorted through. A majority of the celebrities had started to come in on the 3rd. So the invitations that we had prepared the day before, we had our wonderful volunteers running around the delivering them personally and if the person was not there, then we had them escort a hotel staff with a master key to open the door and place the invites in their rooms. Not the best way to do it, but when you gotta get things done, you need to make use of every available options.

Things were running pretty smooth with the deliveries of invites of people who came in on the 2nd. But things went haywire as soon as people started arriving on the 3rd. I was soon assigned to take charge of the deliveries of invitations as soon as the celebrities came in. We did this because they were coming in pretty late and were scheduled to leave for the fashion show as soon as they came. It might not be a good idea to go to their rooms right after they arrive. One doesnt know how they might react. Again, I am not making judgements, but any person needs rest after taking a flight. So, as I mentioned people started flowing in. One after the other, they came in bunches. I was saved because of the one of the issues we had at the hotel. We had a shortage of transport vehicles and that problem for the operations people made my job a little easier. Because the cars came less frequently, I was running around less to deliver invites. Even then I had 3 celebrities coming together, and I was running back and forth getting invitations. I was doing this alone because either my volunteers did not recognize the celebrity or were busy delivering invites from the previous day. I myself had a difficult time recognizing people, so I had to ask the hospitality people for assistance as well.

Just when I thought that things are going smooth, I had a bunch of celebrities that came in unscheduled. They were either not scheduled to arrive that day or we had no record of them coming. I am thankful to my colleague (Mehjabeen) who answered all my calls from the front desk and prepared an invitation as soon as I informed her of it and I sent a volunteer immidiately to deliver the invites before they enter their rooms.

The night came and I thought I would get a nice break and I would have a chance to go witness the fashion show. But I was going to be proved wrong. My colleague (Natasha) who had left me incharge of the inviations for the day was still not back as she was still stuck at the fashion show, although I do appreciate her concern to know if I was still alive! Since she was not back, Mehez and myself were left responsible to create the invites for the next day. Both of us, with out wonderful volunteer Indika worked smoothly. And even though Indika left by 10, Mehez and I worked till late to finish preparing the invites for the 4th. I had also found out from the hospitality team (Amulya and Malvika) about the arrivals on the 4th and 5th so we can sort the invitations properly. I must have bothered them so many times to know and confirm who all are coming. It is really difficult when 3 different people are telling 3 different things about who is coming and who is not. Thats corporate communication for you, inter department communication. Even with this problem, I could work very well with Amulya and Malvika to get the job done for the 3rd of June.

The events of the next day, I will describe in the next blog but right now I can describe about the little break I got and I took to my usual photography. I got a little chance to explore a little around the hotel and take pictures of the magnificient decor. They had these very unusual hangings from the rooftop to an atrium where we were served our meals. At my first glace in the morning I came, I found them a little weird. They looked like long alien ships to me. But when it was the evening and those hangings lit up, they made the ambience just so peaceful and gorgeous. The atrium was also surrounded by these huge pots, which again during the day time I found them tacky, but in the evening they perfectly added to the ambiance.





Other than this, there was a very pretty water fountain at the enterance of the hotel. This, I am told, was built only after the hotel got to know that they will be hosting all the celebrities. I am not sure about it, but I saw a picture somewhere of the lobby without the fountain. I must say, the fountain made the hotel look even prettier. Other than this, my room was pretty good as well. I was teased with a premire room for one night (thanks to my hospitality person, Malvika) and was then moved to a deluxe room the next day. I am not saying that the room was so bad, but once I was used to that premire room, I was a little hesitant to move to the new room. I can't complain though, I was just so psyched to be at the IIFA event in the first place!