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30 | FireFlyz
INTERVIEW
In this issue,
Fireflyz’s ReubenMiranda
sits down for a chat with
Tony Nagamaiah
, the
GeneralManagerofMalaysiaMajorEvents (MME). It isadivisionofMalaysiaConvention
&ExhibitionBureau (MyCEB) under theMinistry of TourismandCulture, Malaysia.The
departmentwas formedaspart of theEconomicTransformationProgrammeand they
look at bringingmajor events that will be a huge attraction to foreign tourists.
Let Us Entertain You
T
he
sof t -spoken Tony
Nagamaiah was brought
in for the sole purpose
o f s e t t i n g u p t h e
agency from scratch.
“The agency was the
brainchi ld of Pr ime
Minister Dato Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak
and he gave the empowerment to create a
new tourism product,” said Nagamaiah.
He brought to the table over 15
years of experience, including senior
management positions with PR and
Communications agency Hi l l and
Knowlton, PIKOM (The National ICT
Association of Malaysia) and business
research and consulting firm Frost &
Sullivan (Asia Pacific). This experience
served him well as there were many
challenges that he had to overcome at
the inception of MME.
Challenges
The biggest one that he faced in the first
year of operations was getting approvals
from local authorities to carry out major
events, especially concerts and music
festivals. The challenge was vetting the
artists and bands to ensure that they did
touch on the cultural sensitivities of the
country. He has constant discussions
with PUSPAL, which is the agency that
handles applications for
foreign artists filming or
performing in Malaysia.
These dialogues took
them down different ap-
proaches and the end result
was that some of the re-
quirements under the PUS-
PAL guidelines have been
changed to accommodate
the international standards
and guidelines for having a
foreign artist perform. “We
have streamlined the guide-
lines and made it easier to
bring more acts in.”
Spectacles inMalaysia
“Some of the big wins
for us in the past couple
of years have been the
concerts, which falls under
MME’s arts, lifestyle and
entertainment umbrella.
These include the recent
Metallica Live In Malaysia
2013
and
Jennifer Lopez
Dance Again World Tour
Live in Malaysia,”
said
Nagamaiah.
He added: “We also brought in the
Future Music Asia
concert, which saw
some of the biggest DJ’s in the world
performing. Big musicals are another
segment that we have handled. Some of
the major musicals we supported include
Thriller Live, Saturday Night Fever:The
Musical
and
Mamma Mia! The Musical-
Live
in Malaysia as well as a couple of
Disney musicals.”
The agency recently supported
Ironman and have secured this world
renowned triathlon for three consecu-
tive years. Festival International Sports
Extreme (FISE) was a groundbreaking
event for Langkawi as it was the first time
that this event was held in Asia.
Anil Kapoor at Pavillion mall during IIFA 2015
MME Symposium 2014
Tony Nagamaiah,
General Manager of MME