Manasa is a seasoned events and offline branding leader at PayU with 8+ years of hands-on experience designing live and hybrid experiences for startups, developers, merchants, and enterprise audiences. A former business-development professional turned event strategist, she blends commercial instincts with creative execution to build events that scale brand impact and drive measurable stakeholder value. Manasa is known for her deep focus on sponsorship ROI, audience-first programming, and the seamless integration of technology to amplify offline experiences.
Manasa’s journey started in BD roles — from managing vending-machine partnerships at Coffee Day to building contextual commerce at Citrus. Weekends volunteering at meetups and local events became her classroom: she learned event logistics, speaker curation, audience engagement, and on-ground delivery by doing. A product sunset early in her career became a pivot moment — she stepped into events full-time and never looked back. Over the years she evolved her playbook from intimate city meetups to large-scale sponsorships and hybrid productions, leveraging tools from early webinar platforms to modern multi-channel streaming to expand reach without losing the intimacy of live interaction. Her work is driven by a simple thesis: technology should amplify — not replace — the human magic of in-person moments.
Key highlights from the Koffee Conversation with Manasa
- Origin story: Started as BD weekend-volunteer → discovered event craft by doing. That serendipitous pivot led to a career in building brand-first experiences.
- Tech + Offline thesis: Hybrid is non-negotiable — tech scales reach and keeps communities connected, but offline moments create lasting emotional bonds.
- Sponsorship playbook: Sponsorships are evaluated by deliverables and alignment — brand visibility, audience fit, measurable outcomes. Spend follows strategy, not vice-versa.
- Stakeholder management: Clear objectives + honest briefs + trusted agency partners = events that deliver. She prioritizes doing right by internal stakeholders as much as external audiences.
- Memorable milestone: An Indore event that packed 250 attendees despite expecting 100 — a proof moment that smaller-city ecosystems are rich and hungry for meaningful, local engagement.
- Practical operator POV: Always build Plan A, B (and sometimes C). Anticipate tech failures, AV mishaps, and human contingencies — but focus on what’s controllable.
- Mentorship & growth: Manasa learned on the job — volunteering, partnering with associations, and shadowing senior event pros. Her advice: be action-oriented, keep learning, and cultivate resilience.
- Human side: Mangalore roots, family-first, a cat parent, fiction-reader, DSLR enthusiast — she brings warmth and groundedness to a high-energy role.
If you want practical playbooks for sponsorship ROI, hybrid event strategy, and stakeholder-first event design — plus a warm, operator’s view on the highs and lows of live production — Manasa’s episode is a must-listen.
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