Markon, the International Marketing Congress (2014), kicked off on Monday at a local hotel with a massive turn-out from the marketing and business people from both inside and outside Pakistan.
Markon, which made its debut in 1992, is the biggest forum of marketing professionals with its advisory board studded with top functionaries of the corporate sector in the country.
Several delegates from outside Pakistan including India attended the inaugural session of two-day conference with a powerful theme of Marcon–turning the tide. The stalls from sponsors including some international and local brands lent a lot of festivity to the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Punjab’s Governor Ch Sarwar said that Pakistan had great potential with population being its mainstay. He said people of Pakistan left their deep imprints where-ever they went in pursuit of their career.
He said the biggest problem in the way of realising this potential was terrorism. “It is quite surprising that they had lost 50,000 people and still the nation was not united against terrorism. This was quite incompressible” Ch Sarwar said.
Ch Sarwar said he hoped MARCON-2014 would help promote the soft image of the country. He said he would like to see this gathering working out strategies and concepts to benefit from the GSP-plus status awarded to Pakistan most recently by the West.
MARCON Chairman Khaliq-ur-Rehman said the theme of the congress, “turning the tide” was the most apt in the prevailing situation. “The country needs the tide to be turned more than any time in the past,” he asserted.
He said he was confident that this event would be instrumental in bringing about some positive thinking and highlighting steps that would point to right direction for the Pakistan’s journey to growth and progress.
The Marketing Association of Pakistan president which is the host and main organiser of the conference while giving history of MARKON said: “we have come a long way since the first MARKON”.
“Though we had a fair idea of its importance and value, never in our wildest dreams did we imagine the kind of momentum and authority MARCON has gone onto achieve over the years”. He was all praise for all those associated with the organisation of the events both in the past and present.
Secretary General of the association Syed Imran Hasan termed the theme of the congress was quite relevant. “It is quite relevant to the dynamics of Pakistan. The theme turning the tide not only provides hope, determination and positive approach of the business world to deal with the challenges of market place but also extends the flexibility to business leaders from local and international arena to deliberate and provide a positive case studies from their perspectives thereby defining a roadmap to success.
The inaugural session also witnessed distribution of shields among the guests.