His passion for advertising and social causes related communication is matched by his flair for making editorial contributions on - you guessed it right - advertising and marketing! He is also the first Indian to be invited to judge the final round for the EFFIE awards in New York.

He is no slouch with the camera either and has held a photography exhibition in aid of ALERT India. He loves traveling although he claims that he hasn't really taken a long holiday since eight long years. Meet Canco Advertising founder Ramesh Narayan as he celebrates two decades of "non-stop advertising action".

Narayan is the chairman, planning committee of The Asian Advertising Congress (AdAsia 2003) and is actively involved with Ad Club Bombay. In an honorary capacity, Narayan is also involved with the publicity activities of the National Association for the Blind (NAB) and ALERT India (Association for detection and eradication of leprosy). He helped design a poster for NAB that won an international award at Amsterdam in 1994. He also scripted a film for ALERT which was adjudged as the best public service film of 1997.

In a tete-a-tete with indiantelevision.com's Ashwin Kotian, Narayan spoke about the AdAsia 2003, Abbys 2003 and his take on the advertising scene for the year 2002-03.

The biggest Asian ad industry event to be held in India is a major coup for the Ad Club Bombay. What efforts have you (as chairman of the planning committee for AdAsia 2003) made in order to ensure success?
AdASIA is the continent's most prestigious ad event and India is getting a chance to host it after 21 years (the last was in 1982). AdAsia, arguably Asia's largest marketing, media and advertising event, is held every alternate year in the region. It attracts over 1000 top managers from all the three disciplines.

The host nations have to bid for the rights and we made a successful bid four years ago at Pattaya. Recognising India's growing eminence in world advertising, the country has been chosen as the host for AdASIA 2003 - the venue being the picturesque pink city of Jaipur during 10-14 November 2003.

After winning the bid, we constituted an advisory board under the chairmanship of Vindi Banga (Hindustan Lever chairman) to formulate the basic direction and theme for AdAsia 2003. The board had eminent personalities such as Nandan Nilekani, Purush Grant, Anand Mahindra and Rajeev Chandrasekhar amongst others. The theme crystallized was "Break the rules!" and the idea was "Discontinuity may be the way forward".

From 21 March 2003 onwards, a team inclusive of Ad Club Bombay president Pradeep Guha and myself (as chairman of the planning committee) will head to several Asian countries for road shows and promotional efforts. The interest and involvement of the media, advertising and marketing industry across Asia is assured but we still want to make sure that we create the requisite hype and get more delegates interested.

The main sponsor for the event is the Aditya Birla group; Videocon is the co-sponsor and CNBC is the official electronic channel partner. Other individual sponsors will be associated with different segments.

The welcome dinner is on 10 November and there is a rest day on 12 November. All the delegates will be taken on a sight-seeing tour and entitled to participate in a golf tournament. Some of the best speakers from across the globe will conduct the sessions. These eminent speakers will ensure that they address the concerns of the fraternity. We shall announce an impressive list of speakers within a week.

How will the Abbys 2003 (16 March 2003) night be different, bigger and better than ever before?
The Abbys night is the industry's night out! The Abby awards, the Oscars of Indian ad awards, will honour creative excellence in advertising for the previous year. Undoubtedly, the biggest and the most prestigious ad award show in the country attended by more than 3,000 professionals from the marketing, advertising, media, research and PR fraternity. In no other event will you find CEOs rubbing shoulders with rookie account executives or media trainees or creative artists. All of them will be present to view the most endearing spectacle where excellence is acknowledged and recognised.

We are neck deep in organizational work related to the Abby awards as this year's Abbys will be bigger and better than ever before. The judging process is over and this year's jury comprises some of the finest minds in the business. After all, any award is as good as the jury! I must admit that the judges have been liberal in some categories and very strict in certain others.

The INS (Indian Newspaper Society) Thinkprint awards will be presented during the Abbys for the first time. Noted actor-director Aparna Sen will present the awards. The first prize is an all-expenses paid trip to Cannes for a couple. The judges included eminent personalities such as Simone Tata, Elsie Nanjee and Preeti Vyas-Gianneti.

In most of the categories, we have infused the "advertisers" element. After all, the advertisers and the clients are the ones who approve creativity and they should be brought into the mainstream judging process. In addition to the regular Abby awards, we have also constituted three new awards - best director, actor and actress in a TV commercial. These awards will be judged by film personalities such as Mahesh Bhatt and Govind Nihalini amongst others.

We will also present four "most distinguished" recognition awards to personalities chosen from amongst ad professionals, media, models and ad film makers.

For the fourth time in a row, Sony Entertainment Television will sponsor the Abbys. The fact that SET has been associated with this mega event for the so many years is indicative of the positive impact and mega mileage. Needless to say, SET has derived tremendous value from the association. I am happy that SET is committed to sponsoring excellence in the ad world.

This year, the Abbys will be held at Hotel Tulip Star. The show will be kicked off by the musician trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. They will set the pace and tone.

What were the significant trends for the year 2002-03? ?
The interesting part was that the ad industry saw light at the end of a long dark tunnel in 2002. The year ended 31 March 2002 was very bad for the industry. Overall, things are looking good one year later as on 31 March 2003. It is important that the ad industry constituents realise that they cannot expect the kind of incremental growth which they had got accustomed to in the 1990s.

In the post-liberalisation phase, many companies were in the launch phase during the 1990s and the ad industry grew exponentially. This growth has been subdued in the new millennium. What was interesting about the year 2002 was the fact that the industry has moved out of its traditional focus on FMCGs (fast moving consumer goods). Earlier, FMCG advertising was seen as the sole barometer of economic growth.

Now, the ad industry has recognised that the services sector will propel growth. The new emerging sectors such as insurance, telecom and heathcare are new kids on the block. Last year, there was some kind of a boom during the festive season (October to December). As far as the services are concerned, there were ongoing campaigns.