Andaaz 2010

On Saturday November 13, 2010, something epic happened. Andaaz came back.

After a 3 year hiatus, the South Asian Alliance of Quebec hosted the Andaaz 2010 Culture Show at Cegep Jean Grimaldi in Lasalle, Montreal. An almost sold-out show, co-presented by TD Bank, was the talk of the community and has set a new standard for cultural shows to come.

As part of the organizing committee, managing the event coordination and Public Relations, I had an amazing 2 months working with the team. Endless laughs, stresses and encouragement made the event a success for each of us personally and proved to me that teamwork can work in the Real World (let’s not pretend that in school everyone has the same availability and motivations).
After having the Launch party scrapped (dear event planners of the world: It is ESSENTIAL to do a SWOT analysis of other events happening on the same evening… especially if you are in competition with Denis Gagnon, chances are great that you will not win), we were not sure if Andaaz would get the exposure it required. And it didn’t. Next year, we are definitely having a launch party, otherwise our PR efforts are wasted. We need media – end of story. And media need a press launch for such a specific event (full stop).

Lesson Learned. On to Andaaz: A series of behind the scenes mishaps that were ironed out come curtain time. As an event planner, this was a great event to be part of. I saw the good, the bad and the ugly. When a group goes to an unknown location to pick up a prop, gets lost and is late for rehearsal (did we say 12:00 Noon? Because you DO realize it is now 2:00 PM, right?), we learned very quickly that this will not be tolerated again. Then, in a confidential scenario, we learn that our headlining group is… umm… held up. Again, something to note for next time. However, by 7:00 PM, these and a list of other logistical problems were cleared up and we like to think that no one knew.

The event itself went rather flawlessly. The 80 performers were intense, ravishing and breathtaking. Ranging from classical to Bollywood dances, tabla musicians and an acapella group, we had the crowd standing and dancing by the end of the show. Can’t wait for Andaaz 2011: Save the Date Now!!!

Xoxox,

The Bollywood Kiss [my new nickname, thanks to the troupe of Bollywood Blast]

(Video of Penn Masala below, taken from YouTube)