By MARTIN DA COSTA
CEO, 70EMG
Back in 1995, when I arrived fresh out of the London School of Economics and was straight off the boat, it was an instinctive, immediate reaction to go out and buy an already venerable, somewhat rusted 350cc Enfield. I still have it - customized to the nines 16 years ago by Sanjay Sami of Zoo Grips fame. I spent the first three years in India on it, schlepping from meeting to meeting selling the 70 EMG event management way to mostly reluctant, if not incredulous, late 1990’s marketing directors. And although the old girl is over 50 years old, she runs just as well as she ever did. Especially since I had the genius idea of lending it to whichever mid-20-something employee at 70 EMG who looked like he (and sometimes she) was going through their own obsessional bike phase. They use and maintain it - and if you’ve ever owned an old Enfield, you’ll know what a time-consuming job that can be - whilst I borrow it from time to time to whip down to Goa. As I say, genius.
It’s one of the reason why I’m so looking forward to India Bike Week – the country’s first and certainly largest ever bikes, biker and music festival. We’re hoping to get over 8,000 bikers and fans down to Goa in the first weekend of February 2013. And we’re throwing everything and the kitchen sink at it: - three major music stages, a vintage bikes concourse, superbike & build-off stages, stunt arena, MMA fight stage, cigar & whiskey club, biker flea market, speakers corner, biker journey cinema, pimp my bike & the fixer zone, exhibitor zone, Men of Steel parade & Ride of the Heavies (650cc-plus bike parade through the center of IBW). It’ll be a ton of fun and televised across Asia – an excellent and all too rare combination.
Of course, the biker profile today is wildly different from that of the late ’90s. Harley Davidson has put a new generation of 30-something men and women on the road – and boy, are they passionate about their new wheels! The superbikers, the Ducati dudes, the Japanese speed fans, and the vintage bike collectors are growing at an incredible rate. When you add in the 80-odd bike clubs that we’ve contacted so far, together with the astonishing fact that there’s over 30 bikes on the road per 1,000 Indians, then I think you can agree that we’ve got something of a winner on our hands here. Move over Sturges Rally with your 5,00,000 bikes. Here comes India.
So when I look back at 17 years in India, a wonderful Bengali wife, two great kids, and a flourishing 70 EMG festival & events business, there’s still a special place for that original old girl and the thousands of kilometers she drove – from meeting to meeting, and event to event. She laid the germ of a great idea, only now coming to spectacular fruition. She’ll be in Goa for India Bike Week – and I hope you will be there too.
Feedback: martindacosta@seventyemg.com
