Srinivasan, Founder and CEO, Paytm Insider, discusses the company’s new focus on e-events, post-lockdown plans and more “The focus for the events sector in the world is now on further developing the ability to deliver a great experience for fans in new and interactive digital formats”, said Shreyas Srinivasan, Founder and CEO, Paytm Insider. He was in a conversation with e4m, speaking about the changes in the core business strategy for the events industry in a post-COVID world, and how the ticketing platform plans to go big on e-events.

“This sector provides spaces for passionate fans to connect with their favourite creators, artists and sportspeople. In a post lockdown world, keeping this connection alive now is especially needed. Paytm Insider’s platform capabilities are enabling this for organisers and fans by helping events go online”, he said. It’s a common knowledge that it will be a while before the events experience goes back to what it was, and Srinivasan believes this period is for industry leaders to re-imagine what the future could look like. He said, “We’ve always believed that transformational experience of going to an event can be experienced online." He explained that Paytm Insider will be focusing on what events could look like now, rather than going back to what events used to be. He cited the example of OML's Circuit #SitDown Comedy successfully adopted on a digital platform. “The fact that festivals such as #SitDown Comedy are being held online is a positive indicator of this,” he added. The Paytm Insider founder said that digital events have a wider reach and Paytm Insider is promoting the e-events, and people are willing to pay for them. He said, “We’re seeing an encouraging trend, where consumers paying for tickets to digital events, is on the rise. Events that are able to effectively communicate the value of the experience they offer and deliver on it are a paying fan’s favourite. Other monetisation opportunities will evolve and open for digital events over time.” Srinivasan added, “Digital events allow a greater number of people to interact with artists and ideas simply by removing the limitation of reaching a set location. This is an opportunity to grow attending audiences.” The Paytm Insider's top boss informed us that audience is actively inquiring about the digital events. “We’re in the process of improving the customer’s understanding of events now being online. Most customer-related questions are to that effect; the where, what, how, when of digital events.” He further added that they have moved quickly to introduce a seamless integration for digital events that enables organisers to publish, ticket and host their digital events on Paytm Insider. “We intend to continue adding to our product features now and in the future, providing ease of use to organisers and creators as event formats evolve”, he concluded.