DreamTrips Vacation Club Named “World’s Leading Travel Club” at 2013 World Travel Awards Grand Final

Industry Elite Recognizes DreamTrips for Excellence, Service and Diverse Offerings

PLANO, TX, DEC 9, 2013 – DreamTrips™ Vacation Club, one of the world’s leading travel and vacation club membership organizations, was named “World’s Leading Travel Club” at the 2013 World Travel Awards Grand Final, the highest honor awarded in the global travel industry. The awards ceremony, which recognizes the elite in the travel and hospitality industry, took place at La Cigale Hotel in Doha, Qatar, on November 30, 2013.

“It is a great honor to be recognized by our global industry as the world’s best travel and vacation club,” said Jim Menge, Vice President, DreamTrips Product Marketing. “The award reflects the high standards we strive to maintain in the quality of our travel experiences, the caliber of our travel provider, Rovia, hospitality partners, and the energy and commitment of our worldwide staff.”

Since 1993, World Travel Awards (WTA) has acknowledged and celebrated excellence across all sectors of the global tourism industry. DreamTrips received top honors in the travel club category in recognition of its outstanding service and product offering as voted by travel agents and consumers around the world. Winners in other travel categories include Virgin Atlantic Airways, Ritz-Carlton, One World Alliance, Beaches Resorts and American Cruise Lines.

The Grand Tour of WTA gala ceremonies are regarded as milestone events in the industry calendar, attended by the industry’s key decision makers, chief figure heads and the leading trade and consumer media.

“The Grand Final is a very competitive evening for our World Travel Awards nominees from all over the world, and these particular winners continue to serve as an example of the most luxurious and innovative brands with unique hospitality products and services,” said Graham E. Cooke, President and Founder, World Travel Awards. “This year’s recipients, like DreamTrips, strive to set the highest possible bar to raise the standards of excellence in travel and tourism and they carry these accolades into 2014 with pride and passion.”

About DreamTrips

DreamTrips delivers high-quality, one-of-a-kind curated travel and vacation experiences to its vacation club members.  More information can be found at https://www.dreamtrips.com/experience-more.

About World Travel Awards

The World Travel Awards was launched in 1993 to acknowledge and recognize excellence in the global travel and tourism industry. Now celebrating its 20th anniversary, it is regarded as the highest achievement that a travel product or service could hope to receive. More information can be found at http://www.worldtravelawards.com.

Lodha Group Enters UK with Acquisition of London’s Most Prime Real Estate Asset

-         Aims to create world class development at 1 Grosvenor Square in Prime Central London

Mumbai, Nov 30, 2013: Lodha Group, India’s largest real estate developer has exchanged contracts to acquire the landmark MacDonald House in Prime Central London from the Canadian Government for a consideration of over GBP 300 million. Located on Grosvenor Square, this prominent building bears the address of 1 Grosvenor Square and is touted as the most prestigious address in the world.

Commenting on the closure of the deal, Abhinandan Lodha, Deputy Managing Director of Lodha Group said “London and the United Kingdom offer significant opportunities for a high quality developer focussed on creating a large scale housing development business there. We plan to focus on Mumbai and London as our two main markets and serve London in the same manner that we serve Mumbai – with world class products intended to serve all key market segments. Historically, Indian companies have contributed in a wholesome way to the UK economy and we hope to continue in those footsteps by creating a significant number of jobs and providing excellent quality housing there. It is a very proud moment for our country that an Indian company has been chosen as the purchaser by the Canadian Government after a highly competitive bidding process involving top global developers and sovereign wealth funds.”

Further added Abhishek Lodha, Managing Director of Lodha Group “The acquisition of this marquee asset overlooking London’s most renowned garden square, in the heart of Mayfairand in close proximity to Bond Street & Mount Street is a great opportunity for our company.1 Grosvenor Square is the best address in the world and we will create a world class development which befits the status of this address. We thank everyone associated with us in completing this transaction.”

Located on the corner of Grosvenor Square, the property is in the heart of London’s West End and is one of Mayfair’s most prominent buildings. The building first served as the High Commission for the United States of America and subsequently, as the High Commission for Canada.

Lodha was advised by the London office of Knight Frank on this acquisition.

The Lodha Group:  www.lodhagroup.com

Privately held Lodha Group is India’s No 1 real estate developer with net sales exceeding INR 8,700 crores in FY 12-13. The Group is currently developing over 35 million sq.ft. of prime real estate, with over 20 projects in Mumbai, Pune & Hyderabad. The company is one of the largest employers in Mumbai with over 3400 direct associates and over 25,000 workmen at its sites. It is constructing the world’s tallest residential tower, World One, in Mumbai and has brought some of the top global names including Armani/Casa, Trump, Philip Starck, Jade Jagger, Greg Norman and Pei Cobb Freed to India. In the last 12 months, the group has acquired two other landmark land parcels - the 17 acres Mumbai Textile Mills parcel for over GBP 250 million from DLF and the landmark Washington House property from the American government on Altamount Road in Mumbai.

For more information, please email corp.comm@lodhagroup.com or call +91 91672 00449.

Tags : Lodha, Abhinandan Lodha, Abhishek Lodha, London, Grosvenor Square, Real Estate, Luxury Property, world-class, property

Intellect Bizware – One of India’s leading SAP Service Provider signs up their 100th Customer

Navi Mumbai: Nov 19^th 2013 :  Intellect Bizware, a leading end-to-end SAP Service Provider in India, today announced signing up with the Anthea Group of companies to implement and support their SAP ERP deployment. Anthea is a leading manufacturer of speciality chemicals for the Flavours & Fragrances industry and are headquartered in Navi Mumbai, India.

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Mathew V Menacherry, Co-Founder & Director, Anthea Group said, “We are extremely delighted to partner with Intellect Bizware for our SAP needs, as a preferred partner.We have selected Intellect after careful vetting of several vendors and are confident in their ability to deliver superior value in this engagement.”

Owing to this development, Anthea becomes the 100^th prestigious customer of Intellect Bizware. As per the project plan, they intend to go live with all processes in Sales, Production, Quality, Purchase, Maintenance, Projects, Finance and Costing on the SAP system from 1^stApril, 2014.

On this milestone Mr. Sabahat Kazi, Co-Founder, Intellect Bizware Services said, “It’s a proud moment for us, to have the opportunity to serve our 100th enterprise client. We are delighted with the interactions with the dynamic management team at Anthea, and this has given us the confidence to jointly target the Best SAP implementation tag for the year 2014’.

About Intellect Bizware

Intellect Bizware Services Pvt. Ltd. specializes in implementing, supporting and enhancing SAP Solutions, building Mobility apps and Portals around core ERP systems. Intellect’s expertise lies in helping customers large and small, extract benefits from the ERP system and gain a competitive edge by innovatively exploiting its huge list of functions and processes.

Intellect was recently recognized as a Top 3  - “Tech Savvy SME”  from among close to 1,50,000 Indian enterprises at the Emerging India Awards 2013 organized by CNBC TV18, ICICI Bank and CRISIL.

Established in 2007,Intellect today has offices Navi Mumbai, Thane, Vadodara, Nagpur and Sharjah. The company has expertise in verticals such as consumer goods, chemicals and pharmaceuticals, metals, engineering and construction and diamond and jewellery.

SAP’s Rajesh Kumar coveted as the Chairperson for the 3rd DMAi 2014 International Marketing Convention

Illustrious advisory board to curate the Mega Opus in Delhi from Jan 22-24, 2014; Convention themed as ‘Be the Change’ adds 20 new features & improvements, aims to unravel what future holds for marketers.

New Delhi : November 18, 2013 : Rajesh Kumar, Marketing Head, SAP, Indian Subcontinent has been announced as the chair for the third edition of the DMAi’s (Association for Data Driven Marketing & Advertising in India) International Marketing Convention scheduled to be held in January 2014 at New Delhi.

Umang Bedi, Managing Director – South Asia, Adobe & member of the DMAi Board of Governors, received the chairperson enthusiastically by saying “We are glad to welcome an experienced industry professional as Rajesh to chair the 3^rd edition of the DMAi International Marketing Convention. I have seen the format of the show grow in the recent years to become a real power packed show that is of immense value to any traditional or digital marketer alike and we look forward to the change that Rajesh ushers in.“

The convention aims to addresses the quest of CMO’s and agency professionals who want to leverage data and ‘Re-define customer understanding’ – due to richer context, stronger behavior insights beyond simple demographic construct. The agenda accent this year remains on harnessing data responsibly to ultra-segment our customers, hyper personalize marketing programs through specific product, pricing & promotion actions resulting to innovation, delightful customer experience and improvement on marketing ROI.

Speaking at his appointment Rajesh Kumar said "The world today is experiencing dramatic shifts in the economy, technology, demographics, and the environment. The collective impact of the big data, social & mobile revolution has given people a new voice – as consumers, as employees, as citizens, and as societies. Organizations like DMAi have the responsibility to orchestrate conversations amongst marketers to champion this change and harness innovation to drive growth. I am happy to be associated with DMAi and look forward to working with peers in the industry to bring together content, best practices and experiences that will drive this agenda and unravel together what future holds for us”.

The theme for the third edition is ‘Be the Change’ and the convention spread over 3 days will host a strategic summit for the C-Suite, keynotes, debates, 15 dynamic conference streams, live certification & workshops, an expo and an awards program. Over 24 Marketing Masterminds have come together to shape the agenda & format of the convention. The convention will have over 100+ finest marketing minds as speakers and over 164 sessions to choose from.

The convention is backed by an illustrious leadership ensuring active participation from leading brand marketers of India and overseas. Participating in curating the mega opus at the 3rd edition of the International DMAi 2014 Convention are leaders from Adobe, SAP, Select Direct, Godfrey Phillips, Komli, IBM, Urja, MRM, AIMIA, Ogilvy One, Kotak Mahindra Group, Aravato, HDFC Life, Harley Davidson, Starwood’s, HCL, Motorola, Oberoi, NIIT, Yatra, Religare, Quikr, IprospectCommunicate2, SVG Media, Percept, HSBC, ICICI,  Synergy, Merck, Dynaflex, HP, Saatchi, Monster, Bacardi, Perfetti, Accenture, Citi, Infiniti Retail, Tata AIG,  UTI, CNH, Borges, Abott, M & C Saatchi, Ad Magnet, Hansa Cequity, Raymond, Tata Trent, Tribal DDB & RAPP India, Star TV, Shoppers Stop, Page Traffic & Octane. International fraternity participation led by global DMA’s & ADMA (Australian DMA), DDV (Germany),  South Africa & GAB Members from DMA USA, Gurus from Denmark, UK & Argentina.

With so much to offer in an action-oriented & practical platter, the 3^rd DMAi International Marketing Convention is the Marketing event to watch out for.  Vatsal Asher, CEO, DMAi, noted “Rajesh has been involved over several weeks on shaping the event. The format & experience of the show has been redesigned from scratch to encompass the needs of our attendees He added, “At this point we are both humbled & overwhelmed with unflinching support from the global DMA’s, the international fraternity and the marketing leadership in India to create India’s most comprehensive & largest marketing convention ever. With this we are confident of the Convention becoming a landmark event for all real time marketers.”

Never before have there been so many channels open to marketers. That’s why the DMAi 2014 Convention has an agenda that covers ten of the most vital issues when it comes to marketing your company in 2014:

1.     A Strategic Summit - Board Room challenges & opportunities

2.     Acquisition & Lead Generation

3.     Social, SEO, Web, Email & Content Marketing

4.     Copy, Data Driven Creative, Production & Application, Branding

5.     CRM, Engagement and Loyalty

6.     Data & Analytics

7.     Cross-Channel-Strategies (Including PR, Print, TV, Radio in a Digital era)

8.     Mobile Marketing

9.     Real-time Automated Marketing

10.  Vertical focus on Retail, E-commerce, BFSI

Attendees that are a mix of client side senior marketers & agency professionals will get industry insight, backed by real case studies, into each one of these topics, to be fully-equipped to draft an integrated marketing plan that will drive their brand and company forward in 2014. To sum it up we advise Be there. Be the change.

Website: http://www.dmai.co

About DMAi

About DMAi - http://www.dmai.co/

As an apex, not for profit DMAi, since 1992, brings about collective action for advancing & protecting responsible Data Driven Marketing and Advertising. As the key to making marketing relevant and provide sustained customer engagement DMAi advocates for creating industry standards for ethical conduct and effective self-regulation of the Data driven, Marketing & Advertising community. DMAi is also co-founder of the International Federation of DMA’s.

The DMAi, in recent times, has successfully conducted two annual global conventions drawing participation from over 125 corporations from India & afar. DMAi also sets stage for learning opportunities & intra vertical networking forums like-Day Learning Events called Masterclasses, peer to peer networking forums like the UNWIND, the CxO Roundtable. As a platform for motivation, the DMAi has established a credible Awards & Recognition program with industry participation. The DMAi Awards instituted in alliance with the DMA International ECHO Awards aim at providing global recognition for response driven and result oriented marketing. The Hall of Fame awards felicitates individuals with lifetime awards for their noteworthy contribution.

For more information, please contact –

Rachana Chowdhary |  +91-9619776084 | rachana@mediavalueworks.com

Sudiksha Singhal | +918285603924 | secretary@dmai.co

Tags – DMAi, Rajesh Kumar, SAP, Umang Bedi, Adobe, Vatsal Asher, Marketing, Advertising, Media, Digital, Social Media.

‘Change Management Certification Programme’ being organised by CII and CustomerLab in Mumbai on Nov 20, 2013

To register for the full day session of Leading Change, please visit http://imgyan.com/ns/leading_change/index.php

Mumbai November 14, 2013- Customer Lab, a leading consulting company in association with CII, announces World-class Program me on Managing Change based on the works of  the ultimate leadership guru and Harvard professor John Kotter at The Leela, Mumbai  on November 20, 2013. The program me 8-Step Process of Kotter will highlight how organisations can avoid failure and become adept at change. 

30 years of research by the ultimate leadership and change guru Dr John Kotter (Harvard) has proven that 70% of all major change efforts in organisations fail. However by following

John’s methodology of believing in continuous learning, organisations can bring in immense potential among st the average managers.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. M Muneer, CEO of Customer Lab and author of the book ‘Capitalizing on Customers’ said, “India today is at the cusp of building on a global framework. It’s imperative for the Indian business Leaders to recognize and revisit their value proposition. The time is now for leading the change and driving breakthrough results. It is in this respect that we are bringing the John Kotter’s – Change Management master class to help Indian leaders become change masters.”

Master classes are branded training program mes, which will give you exhilarating tools, plans and insights for proven success in both work and life. Delegates will leave the session with self discovery of their leadership style, how to create a sense of urgency within their organisations or departments, how to mobilize the driving force and coalition and keep doing small things quickly. There are several templates available for the participants to take back and use internally with other members of their teams.

For More Information, please contact-

Nishi –9960672518

nishi@customerlab.biz

‘Change Management Certification Programme’ by Dr. John Kotter (Harvard) being organised by Customer Labs and CII in Mumbai on Nov 20, 2013

To register for the full day session of Leading Change, please visit 

http://imgyan.com/ns/leading_change/index.php

Mumbai November 13, 2013- Customer Lab, a leading consulting company in association with CII, announces unique Certification Programme on Change Management by  the world recognized industry stalwart John Kotter at The Leela, Mumbai  on November 20, 2013. The programme 8-Step Process of Kotter will highlight how organisations can avoid failure and become adept at change. 

30 years of research by the ultimate leadership and change guru Dr John Kotter (Harvard) has proven that 70% of all major change efforts in organisations fail. However by following

John’s methodology of believing in continuous learning, organisations can bring in immense potential amongst the average managers.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. M Muneer, CEO of Customer Lab and author of the book ‘Capitalising on Customers’ said, “India today is at the cusp of building on a global framework. It’s imperative for the Indian business Leaders to recognize and revisit their value proposition. The time is now for leading the change and driving breakthrough results. It is in this respect that we are bringing the John Kotter’s – Change Management master classes to help Indian leaders become change masters.”

Master classes are branded training programmes, which will give you exhilarating tools, plans and insights for proven success in both work and life. Delegates will leave the session with self discovery of their leadership style, how to create a sense of urgency within their organisations or departments, how to mobilise the driving force and coalition and keep doing small things quickly. There are several templates available for the participants to take back and use internally with other members of their teams.

About Customer Lab Solutions: - www.customerlab.biz

CustomerLab is a boutique consulting company in partnership with a number of leading management gurus from around the world. It is a sister company of INNOVATIVE MEDIA, the leaders in seminars, workshops and knowledge management.

CUSTOMERLAB provides several patented tools of leading management and marketing gurus on a platter, direct from them. We have presence across the region in Asia Pacific and Middle East.

For More Information, please contact-

Nishikant –9960672518

nishi@customerlab.biz

Chargesheet against Reputed Builder Chandru Raheja

Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police files chargesheet against Reputed Builder Chandru Raheja

The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai police has filed a chargesheet (vide FIR No. MRA Police Thane 33/08 dated 01/02/2008) – refer report link here -

http://www.india-press-release.com/featured/files/Section%20173%20Cr-P-C%20Rahejas.pdf

 Against noted builder Chandru Raheja and his two sons for allegedly cheating industrialist Nusli Wadia for crores of rupees in a property deal.

According to the Report, Joint police commissioner Himanshu Roy confirmed that the chargesheet has been filed.

Senior Police Inspector Dinesh Patil said Mr Wadia filed the complaint on 01/02/2008  claiming that Raheja caused him huge losses.

Accoring to the Final Report No. 01 dated 21/10/2013, in 1995, refer link - http://www.india-press-release.com/featured/files/Section%20173%20Cr-P-C%20Rahejas.pdf

Mr. Wadia, as the administrator of the estate of the late E.F. Dinshaw, entered into an agreement with Rahejas for development of the lands in Malad to construct an eight-floor commercial building called Ivory Towers.

Accordingly, Raheja was given 1,70,656 square feet of land for development. The accused were supposed to construct property called Ivory Towers and sell to “third parties”. Raheja was also to transfer 12% of the sale proceeds to Wadia, PI Joshi said.

In the event of not developing the property, the agreement also stipulated that Raheja was supposed to have paid Rs 3.75 crores to as minimum guarantee amount.

However, Ivory Towers was not built.

Accoring to the report, instead the Rahejas transferred about Rs. 3.89 crore in Mr. Wadia’s bank account, claiming to be the 12% share of Ivory Tower which was never built.

Report also stated, also confirmed by Police Inspector Joshi, that Rahejas have cooked up nine documents called “Release Deeds” to represent that the Wadia relinquished his rights over the land.

Further, instead of constructing Ivory Towers, Rahejas built a mall called ‘Hypercity’ in 2006. Then Rahejas transferred the mall to their own company, Hypercity Retail India Pvt. Ltd., keeping the administrator in the dark. (as stated in the report).

Inspector Joshi explained that the Rahejas indulged in illegal breach of trust and caused loss to Wadia to the tune of several crores of rupees.

Hence, the chargesheet has been filed against Chandru Raheja and his sons Neel and Ravi.

CustomerLab along with CII present Legendary Masterclasses of John Kotter and Daniel Pink in Mumbai

-          To register for the full day session of  Leading Change, please visit http://imgyan.com/dl/index_ns.html

-          To register for the full day session of DRIVE, please visit http://imgyan.com/ns/drive_motivation/

Bangalore, October 26, 2013- CustomerLab,a leading consulting company in association with some of the leading minds of the world, along with CII, today announced organizing two unique master classes of the world recognized industry stalwart John Kotter and Daniel Pink at The Leela, Mumbai  on November 20 and 22 respectively.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. M Muneer, CEO  of CustomerLab and author of Capitalising on Customers said, “India today is at the cusp of building  on a global framework. It’s imperative for the Indian business Leaders to recognize and revisit their value proposition and value chain in view of the constantly changing competitive advantages and volatility in the market. The era of blindly imitating the West and hoping for growth within domestic market is over. The time is now for leading the change and driving breakthrough results. It is in this respect that we are bringing these two masterclasses to help Indian leaders become change masters.”

John Kotter (professor emeritus at Havard Business School) identifies eight steps for leading change successfully. He believes in continuous learning thereby emphasising numerous examples of the business managers and their corresponding implications in the age bracket of thirties, forties, fifties. Kotter recognizes immense potential amongst the average managers, who add on accumulating knowledge over the years. Leaders are not always born but trained.

Daniel Pink is a motivational coach, author of various bestsellers books. Pink’s master class will emphasise on the changing environment at the workplace, a whole new mind and the power of highly motivated resource in an organisation.Bringing in change in the culture helps build on organizational capabilities and competencies in the individual who forms the basis of family and organisations.

Masterclasses are branded training programmes, which position and broadcast the learning from the legendary personalities. Masterclasses are unique interactive sessions that are instrumental in helping bridge a strong bonding between the participant and the leadership. For the first time such master classes are being brought to Asia by CII and CustomerLab.

About CustomerLab Solutions:- www.customerlab.biz

CustomerLab is a boutique consulting company in partnership with a number of leading management gurus from around the world. It is a sister company of INNOVATIVE MEDIA, the leaders in seminars, workshops and knowledge management.

CUSTOMERLAB provides several patented tools of leading management and marketing gurus on a platter, direct from them. No other company in the world has such an offering! We have presence across the region in Asia Pacific and Middle East.

For More Information, please contact-

Nishikant –9960672518

nishi@customerlab.biz

Citec India Hosts Energy Ambassador 'Pentti Itkonen' To Promote Green Technologies in India

EnergyVaasa, the largest energy cluster in the Nordic countries, chose the 25 year old, engineering student Pentti Itkonen as the Energy Ambassador.

In a press conference held on 18^th October at Citec’s premises at Navi Mumbai, Pentti Itkonen spoke about his interesting global journey from Kittilä in Northern Finland to Norway, USA, Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, Thailand and India. Pentii is spending a week at each of the chosen countries thereby meeting and influencing the key stakeholders of renewable and green technologies.

India was selected of all the locations Citec had on offer for the Energy Ambassador’s visit. This was a natural choice, as Citec started up operations in India almost 10 years ago and currently employs almost 400 in India, with offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Chennai. This makes India the second largest Citec company in terms of amount of employees.

In this journey, Pentii Itkonen could experience a project where experts from many countries work together to come up with the best solutions to the customer’s needs. Thus, Itkonen became specifically more acquainted with one of Waste-to-Energy power plant projects designed by Citec. In this project, the customer is from Switzerland and the plant is built in the UK.

Pentti Itkonen comments: “It’s amazing to be in Incredible India, I have to admit that this has probably been the destination I’ve been looking forward to the most. The people at Mumbai office have welcomed me with fascinating Hindu ceremonies and I was honoured to start off my week like that. It was interesting to discover how Citec is working globally and specially the Indian operations. We also discussed over a certain waste-to-energy project.”

One of the highlights of Itkonen’s visit was on October 16th, when Mr. Alexander Stubb, Finland’s Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade met with Citec’s senior management – Mr. Martin Strand, CEO, Mr, Nasir Mulani, Managing Director India, Mr Arun Tyagarajan, Director Citec India and the Energy Ambassador in Mumbai. 

The same day, a business delegation organised by Finpro visited Citec at Mumbai, which included top level company representatives from Indo-Finnish companies. Citec presented the company’s competence, its global offering as well as its top-class industry references.

“In an agro-based country like India, Bio-power has a growing demand. Nevertheless, solar and wind power are also areas where the future is heading towards. Citec is also working on such projects.  Aiming for a cleaner environment, we are proud to support the Energy Ambassador campaign”, says Mr. Nasir Mulani.

About Citec-

Citec was founded by two students in 1984, and has since grown into employing approximately 1100 experts globally today.  Citec currently leads the Finnish export statistics for technology consulting firms (SKOL, The Finnish Association of Consulting Firms, 2012).  Citec provides multi-discipline engineering and information management services to the Energy and Power industry, and other technology-dependent industries. The number of employees of the Citec companies currently amounts to approximately 1100 and the turnover for 2012 was about 66 million euros. Citec is headquartered in Vaasa, Finland, and has offices in Finland, India, Sweden, Norway, the UK, France, Germany, Russia and Singapore. 

DMAi’s CxO RT Series commences Amid Much Applause

DMAi’s CxO RT Series commences Amid Much Applause

Actionable insights to spell business success ; Industry seeks common metrics for social media measurement

New Delhi, 25^th September: Recently New Delhi witnessed a roundtable conference of over a dozen marketing czars & their intense conversations on applications of Social Media Analytics. The purpose of this Round Table conference was to highlight the tools of scientifically learning and interpreting the business impact from actionable insights derived out of Big Data & Social Media.  The session was aimed at the front runners of marketing to immerse themselves in a stimulating roundtable discussion with peers on the need of marketing conversations that drives business today.

Speaking on the occasion, Shelly Singh, CEO DMAi said “We are proud to have hosted such an eminent group. The crux from the conversation was how database of intentions (Search) could correlate with database of actions (Social) using intuitive, real time dashboards and help brands be relevant to consumers to spell business success. The leaders echoed the need for common measurement metrics. As a next step DMAi will constitute an action group for creating findings and recommendations in the interest of the industry. With the grand success of the first one the DMAi will conduct encore of the same in Delhi & Mumbai”

Commenting on the overpowering turnaround for the conference, Mr. Rajesh Kumar, Head Marketing  SAP for Indian Subcontinent stated, “It’s been a pleasure to have associated with DMAi who facilitated to evangelize the increasing importance of digital measurement. We found the roundtable a relevant platform to showcase our advanced intuitive model of social media analytics & feel empowered to have addressed such an evolved audience.”

The conference was attended by several leading professionals who found discussions extremely valuable & thought provoking. Mr. Vivek Bhargava - iprospectcommunicate2 was the moderator for the session. Mr. Sandeep Pandey- Mindshare was the SME[a1]  and Mr. Sandeep Nagpal from SAP was the session evangelist.

Speaking on the impact of the Roundtable, Mr. Shubrangshu Neogi of Religare said “Gatherings such as these are very healthy and useful to discuss and debate topical issues such as social media. I believe social media is here to stay because the consumer and the world at large has already moved in that direction and brands don’t have an option but to embrace this as a critical platform to engage with their customers . That said, I think the one issue that marketers are grappling with and should be worrying about is developing a unified view around the measurement of this media so that we can successfully make the shift from viewing social as not just good to have but a must have for business growth”  

Prasanjeet Dutta Baruah of The Oberoi Group added “It was a useful discussion with peers on understanding how different industries approach Social Media. An evolved form of the traditional 'word-of-mouth' marketing, social media helps brands engage through interactive and meaningful conversations with their consumers. What was interesting to note was the varied measures of success that different industries have derived. The need of the hour therefore is to put all these together and look at evolving a unified yet dynamic measurement of social media."

Some of the Dignitories who attended the forum were:-

Ø  Mr. Sandeep Arora- The Times Of India Group,

Ø  Mr. Salil Kumar- India Today Group,

Ø  Mr. Deepak Shetty-Moserbaer,

Ø  Mr. Prasanjeet Dutta Baruah - The Oberoi Group,

Ø   Mr. Vikas Swarnakar Case-Mate India,

Ø  Mr.Samarth Saxena -Octane.in,

Ø  Mr.Sunil Kumar- Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp.,

Ø  Mr. Sudeep Narayan - Volvo Auto India,

Ø   Mr. Subhrangshu Neogi Religare Enterprise,

Ø   Mr. Abhishek Sinha - Appllo Munich Health Insurance,

Ø  Mr. Sanjay Signal- Dabur,

Ø   Mr. Anupam Dixit - MTS Sistema Shyam Teleservices Limited,

Ø  Mr. Sanjeev Kotnala-  Dainik Bhaskar Group,

Ø   Mr. Amit Nanda- Citibank  

Ø  Mr. Akash Batra - Nestle.

Speaking at the post event networking session Salil Kumar, CEO, Bag it Today said “It was a great event.  Social Media Analytics as a topic seemed to be most apt for the gathering. It’s incredibly important for all kinds of businesses, and people need to be learning about the importance of Social media, its impact on business, how they can leverage it. The integration of “SAP netbase” solution brought in a great perspective on how the data could be collated and used wisely”

About DMAi

As an apex, non-profitable body, DMAi aims to bring about collective action for advancing & protecting Data Driven Marketing and Advertising. As an active Member of the International Federation of DMA's (IFDMA), DMAi has successfully conducted two annual global convention drawing participation from over 100 companies from India & afar. DMAi also sets stage for learning opportunities & intra vertical networking forums like-Day Learning Events called Masterclasses, peer to peer networking forums like the UNWIND, the CxO power brunch after golf.

As a platform for motivation the DMAi has established a credible Awards & Recognition program with industry participation. The DMAi Awards in alliance with the DMA International ECHO Awards aim at providing global recognition for response driven and result oriented marketing. The Hall of fame awards felicitates individuals with lifetime awards for their noteworthy contribution.

As the key to making marketing relevant and provide sustained customer engagement DMAi advocates for creating industry standards for ethical conduct and effective self-regulation of the Data driven, Marketing & Advertising community.

For more information, please contact –

Rachana Chowdhary |  +91-9619776084 | rachana@mediavalueworks.com

Sudiksha Singhal |  +918285603924 | secretary@dmai.co

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 [a1]SME what representative; something is missing.

Rwanda on Path to Self-Reliance, Districts Make Great Strides

Rwanda on Path to Self-Reliance, Districts Make Great Strides: 

Kigali – The average performance of all Districts across Rwanda under the contracts signed with the President of the country to meet the targets set in the areas of economic and social development, governance and justice has improved tremendously.
The Office of the President in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government released the outcome of the 2012-2013 fiscal year performance contracts evaluation on Friday. It also signed the performance contracts with District Mayors for the fiscal year 2013-2014.
Revealing the results of the evaluation of the districts performance contracts, Minister of Local Government James Musoni said here on Thursday that he appreciated the level of achievements that all Districts showcased and stressed the need to maintain the momentum in this journey of self-reliance.
“The average performance is tremendously increasing while the margin between the first and the last districts has been narrowing every successive year,” he said. 
Minister Musoni’s observations followed a three-week-long performance evaluation that was carried out in all districts countrywide from 16 July to 10 August 2013, conducted by a National Team comprising senior officials and experts from different sectorial ministries, public agencies, the civil society platform and the private sector.
Nonetheless, this year’s evaluation had a supervisory team consisting of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Senior Officials from the offices of the President and Prime Minister who were monitoring and ensuring efficiency of the ‘imihigo’ evaluation exercise.
“The Imihigo program and its annual evaluations findings have promoted the spirit of competitiveness in Local Economic Development; identifying challenges that impede implementation of government priorities and contributes to identifying solutions for fast-tracking socio-economic development whereas identifying best practices”, Minister Musoni said.
Outlining the way forward for local governments to keep the development path towards self-reliance, he said: “District leaders should maintain the course in improving their planning, coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation and support to lower entities. As we are signing Imihigo for the new fiscal year, local governments understand that, all institutions concerned (both at central and local level) shall consider the challenges observed and address them in the forthcoming planning and budgeting processes.”
“Central Government’s support to Districts remains vital, especially on some challenges where districts capacities are too low compared to the need. Now that Imihigo have been institutionalized in central and local governments, we should all join our efforts and have them institutionalized at village and household levels”, Minister Musoni asserted.
The just concluded districts performance contracts established the following key highlights;
Increased access to both electricity and clean water; increased kilometers of public street lights; more efforts put in constructing feeder and tarmac roads; construction of classrooms and teachers’ hostels with citizens’ contribution, 1,739 classrooms and 416 teachers’ hostels were constructed in all districts.
Besides set imihigo, evaluators assessed how other cross cutting national priorities are performing e.g. reinstating properties for genocide survivors, use of alternative energy sources among the few and key development challenges encountered by Local Governments.
The total number of activities evaluated was 1846, clustered in pillars of economic development (927); Social Development (381); Governance and Justice (538). The general performance was very impressive in all pillars. The Ministry of Local Government will soon get an opportunity to elaborate further in the course of the next week and thereafter.
For More Information
 Ministry of Local Government, Rwanda
Emmanuel Mugisha
emma2rw@gmail.com
Or
Rachana Chowdhary
rachana@mediavalueworks.com