Indian GP Formula 1 Race To Provide Networking Opportunity Is Inaugurated
Online, October 19, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The first ever edition of Indian Grand Prix Formula One race is going to be held in just a few days time and already the event which attracts a lot of corporate sponsors abroad has drawn some big names to the event. It was reported in The Economic Times that the upcoming Formula One race might offer the best corporate platform the country has ever seen.
The report quoted Indranil Das Blah, chief operating officer at Kwan, a sports and talent management firm as saying "Only a few sports - golf and the tennis grand slams - give a business networking opportunity to companies at this scale." Others say that the very nature of the sport - a heady cocktail of speed, technology and human skill spread over three days - makes it best suited for networking.
It was mentioned that executives at the Swiss luxury watch brand TAG Heuer have booked corporate boxes to host top clients and to showcase their best ware. Top global banks and a raft of companies, including Mercedes Benz, Gulf Oil, NIIT, UB Group, Airtel, JK Group, Venky's, Essar and Punj Lloyd, are some of the others to have booked boxes, each of which can seat 30 people, to host their top executives and business guests. Ravi Chawla, president-lubes at Gulf Oil was quoted as saying "We have been associated with motor sports for a long time globally. Now that it is coming to India, we have booked corporate boxes to entertain our customers and associates from India and abroad as part of our brand building as well as relationship building exercise."
It stated that Jaypee Sports International, the company behind the Indian circuit taking place at Greater Noida from October 28-30, says all the 55 corporate boxes, each with a price tag ranging between 75 lakh and 1 crore, have been sold. The corporate boxes come with the choicest hospitality, catered by the country's top five-star hotels. While for corporates, there are these special boxes, for the wealthy and the cognoscenti, there's the luxury Formula One Paddock Club, which has been described as the "inner sanctum" of the F1, patronised by some of the world's top businessmen, bankers and celebrities, indulging in the best gourmet food, wine and luxury money can buy. Entry into Paddock Club does not come cheap. At $5,460 ( 2.68 lakh) per person, it's easily the heftiest price tag for watching a sport, at least in India. Pitched as a super premium experience, Paddock Club patrons will get a real close view of the race pits, walk into the pit lanes and be privy to the strategy meetings of the teams and engage in conversation with the teams' drivers and management.
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