This startup is 'talking the talk' to strike conversations, share insights, and inspire

Backed by the Delhi Government, Creating Talks conducts online and offline events - from inspirational to knowledge-sharing talks - that can help the youth enrich their information bank with experts' experiences.

At a Glance

Startup: Creating Talks

Founder: Eklovey Verma, Tanmay Kandpal

Year it was founded: 2017

Where it is based: Delhi

Sector: Event planning and management

The problem it solves: Conducts events to share experiences of people

Funding raised: Undisclosed amount from Delhi Government

Google may be everyone’s go-to guide these days, but there’s nothing like information coming from an expert, in person.

Aside from college and office, meetups and get-togethers today form an important part of networking, learning, and even drawing inspiration for both professionals and students. We all seek such events to enrich our repertoire, but the daily humdrum often makes that an unachieved aspiration.

It was to change this that Eklovey Verma started Creating Talks in 2017. As a final year student at Delhi Technological University, Eklovey had led the core team that organised an event at IIT Delhi, where eminent public figures spoke and shared their experiences with the audience.

The event received positive feedback from the audience, and was the inspiration for Creating Talks. Eklovey later roped in his friend IBS Gurugram alum Tanmay Kandpal.

Creating Talks, simply, is a platform that helps people strike conversations. These could be online, or offline, in a small focued group, or one person speaking with a large audience. Conversations revolve around topical issues and help participants find insights that could enrich their lives.

Facilitating conversations

At a time where almost everyone is imposing their opinions on others, Creating Talks wants to enable talking to the right person, at the right time, and in the right way, says Eklovey.

“In many ways, it (that event) gave us the confidence to initiate something of our own. The response from the audience and the support from the speakers was a huge confidence builder. So we went ahead and executed a similar event with a new set of speakers and sponsors at Delhi Technological University in February 2017. That event was another success, boosting our confidence,” says 24-year-old Eklovey.

“It also showed us that while there are talk shows and seminars, those that cater to young minds, especially those at college level, were almost nil.” 

After two pilot projects, he decided on a platform for stories and journeys that can inspire, motivate, and impact lives.

Inspiring people

In its offline mode, Creating Talks conducts various events, e-seminars, conferences, digital meets, and conclaves. These include story-oriented events where speakers share their life journey and experiences. The themes revolve around women's empowerment, bootstrapped ventures, startups etc. For topic-specific events the platform invites speakers with expertise on a particular topic to share their opinions and insights. Some of the recent seminars conducted by the company were on digital marketing, higher education, and Skill India.

In the online mode, the company streams video content through channels like YouTube, and its website.

“We are also working towards making every offline event live on our website, enabling digital interaction for our audiences across the world. They will be able to be part of our events from the comfort of their homes and even actively participate,” Eklovey says.

With a strong belief that there is no better teacher than experience, Eklovey says, “You might have noticed that listening to somebody’s stories of trial and perseverance helps us to view our problems in a different perspective. We want to provide our youth with a treasure of experience without having to put themselves in hot water.” 

Teething troubles

Like every startup, Creating Talks had its own share of troubles – the founder team didn’t know how to start up and from where.

“Even our ages then were a question mark on our credibility in an age where startups are successfully run by 15-year-olds. Our age was a deal breaker for many of the people we approached. While many things can be overcome by a strong belief in your idea, money is another matter altogether. Our initiative had to take a brief halt to create a source of revenue,” he recalls.

The duo has received an undisclosed amount of funding from the incubation centre AIACTR-IRF, an initiative by the Delhi Government.

Creating Talks also plans to start its licensing (franchisee setup) soon; this will let individuals use the brand name and hold independent events across the nation. These individuals will be supported by Creating Talks for smooth execution of events.

“We are also planning to integrate our homepage with advanced technology to provide visitors with enhanced and individual interface experience. This will help each visitor to view and experience our website in line with their area of interest. This tool will provide customised as well as optimised experience to our online audiences,” Eklovey says.

Creating Talks now generates revenue from ticketing, advertisement, and sponsorship and gets Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per event.

Focus on the future

With renowned platforms like Ted Talks and Josh Talks as their competition, Eklovey says, “We think that nowadays the style of content in this domain has to be different. People are not interested solely in motivational content anymore. They need something that can help them learn something as well as motivate them at the same time. I think acknowledging this fact and working towards it makes us stand apart from our competitors.”

Creating Talks is currently planning three-four big events for the coming quarter.

“We are going to revamp our website completely. We plan to integrate viewer interaction and build exclusive content for our online audience,” Eklovey concludes.