9th Indian Magazine Congress to put the spotlight on 'Magazines: 2X'

This is the first time that the annual conference is being held in Chennai to ensure more participation from South based publishers

BestMediaInfo Bureau | Delhi | February 20, 2015

The 9th Indian Magazine Congress, scheduled to be held at Hyatt Regency, Chennai on February 23 and 24, 2015 will focus on the theme of 'Magazines: 2X' – Engage. Connect. Work. The annual conference is organised by the Association of Indian Magazines (AIM) and supported by the Federation of International Periodical Press (FIPP).

This is the first time that the Congress is being held in Chennai to ensure more participation from South based publishers. The previous eight editions of the Magazine Congress had been alternated between Mumbai and New Delhi.

The Congress brings together the entire magazine publishing fraternity, including magazine publishers, policy makers, media owners, marketers, media planners and buyers, along with researchers and industry analysts under one roof. Spread over two days, the Congress is divided into various sessions and has an impressive panel of international and national speakers to offer value to its delegates.

This year's line-up of speakers includes, Siva Vaidhyanathan, Robertson Professor of Media Studies and Law, University of Virginia and Author of 'The Googlization of Everything'; Juan Senor, Partner, Innovation Media Consulting Group ,London and Visiting Fellow Oxford University; Jim Bilton, Managing Director, Wessenden Marketing, London; Chris Llewellyn, President & CEO, FIPP; D Shivakumar, Chairman & CEO, Pepsico India; Girish Ramdas, CEO and  Co-Founder Magzter; Vikas Agnihotri, Industry Director, Google India; Jessica Butcher, CMO, Blippar; N Ram, Chairman, Kasturi & Sons and Publisher of The Hindu Group; CK Ranganathan, Chairman & Managing Director, Cavinkare; Sathyamurthy NP, Executive Director, DDB Mudra & President DDB Mudra Max Media; KS Rao, Head - Investor Education & Distribution Development, Birla Sunlife Asset Management; Nupur Sharma, Head - Marketing, Cisco; and Preeti Rao, Segment Marketing Lead, Dell India, to name a few.

AIM had commissioned IMRB to arrive at an Engagement Index, which also will be unveiled during this IMC. This Index demonstrates in quantitative terms the superiority of magazines over other media on levels of engagement.

Mitrajit Bhattacharya

Commenting on the Congress, Mitrajit Bhattacharya, President, Association of Indian Magazines and President & Publisher, Chitralekha Group, said, “The purpose of AIM is to spread the cause of magazine medium, and we feel holding the IMC in Chennai for the very first time is a big step in that direction. We are proud to present the first ever Engagement Index at the IMC, which clearly demonstrates the efficacy of magazines vis-a-vis other media.”

B Srinivasan, Chairman, 9th Indian Magazine Congress and Managing Director, Vikatan Group, added here, “We are very excited that the IMC is being held in Chennai for the very first time. We plan a lot of firsts this time. We have student delegates from premier institutions like the ACJ, MCC, MOP and Stella Maris, who will attend, tweet and produce a magazine of the two-day event.”

He further said, “The South always posts robust growth in the magazine industry. New publishers and new titles year on year. This year, we have bolstered AIM's South Indian dialogue with at least 10 new entrants – a promise to promote divergence within. Magazines are all about engagement, so we propose to have live delegate engagement and question answer sessions via mobile during the IMC sessions itself. We want positive learnings to be dissipated and networking to be maximised through this IMC and hope Chennai will show the way forward.”

With a modest beginning as the Indian Magazine Summit 2005, the conference evolved into a much larger Indian Magazine Congress in 2006. IMC has been growing in quality, stature and proportions, year after year since then.

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