'Power of 2': How 2 youths created Arunachal's most successful event management firm

Itanagar: “It all started with a simple plan, a plan to bring in a popular band, organise a gig and be done with it. We never knew then, that the one above, had other plans in store for us,” said Nending Lazeey.

Lazeey, along with his childhood friend Chama Hano, runs ‘Unicorn’, one of the most prominent event management companies of Arunachal Pradesh.

Right from taking full care of the ground production work for Orange Festival of Adventure & Music (OFAM), India’s first and biggest adventure and music festival, to making Arunachal’s statehood celebrations a memorable one year after year, Unicorn has a proven track record when it comes to organising creative and successful events for premier brands and organisations.

Lazeey said that event management was not something that he and Chama always wanted to do as during the time when they got into the business, the entire concept was quite unexplored for them as well as other for others in the state.

“We were actually on the hunt for a rock band to organize our long-awaited gig and out of the blue were given an opportunity to organize a fashion show titled ‘Hills Will Fill’ in 2013. Though we had none or very less experience of organizing events, we, however, had the zeal and creativity as we were quite young. The event was a big opportunity for us to showcase the same,” he said.

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Not letting go of the opportunity provided, we pulled in two more people to help us organize the fashion show, and luckily it went well, he said.

Lazeey’s partner Chama said it was during the same event that ‘Unicorn’ came into proper existence.

“Though the fashion show went well, Unicorn was on the verge of being non-existent soon after as we had no plans until then to make career in event management,” Chama said.

“However, Lazzey and I did have a vision; a vision to work together on whatever projects that may come across. Accordingly, we had set certain targets for the coming years and we grabbed whatever came into our way. This made our relationship strong and all the projects that followed made us focus more on event management, he said.

We carried on accepting all opportunities, may that be big or small, that came across and the event management thing eventually started to work for us, he added.

The duo got their big break after they got the opportunity to manage the ground production of OFAM.

Being a part of OFAM for the past 4 years has given Unicorn the opportunity to host the highest number of international artists than any other in the state.

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The festival, which is held in Dambuk in Lower Dibang Valley every year, features acclaimed national and international artists. Also adding to that list are several Bollywood celebrities.

“Few years before Unicorn was born, no one thought of giving a good notation to stage designing. It was so raw and basic then. However, we are one of the proud ‘trendsetters’ when it comes to stage designing in the state,” Lazzey says.

From Panyor River Festival to Statehood Day to Arunachal Idol, we have always tried to create eye-catchy designs and the people have loved it, he adds.

During events, Unicorn provides employment to anywhere between 70-80 people, especially local youths.

It has also been playing a significant role in promoting Arunachal’s tourism and hospitality to the world.