Avenues 08

Avenues ’08 was a runaway success with participation from all the eminent B-schools of India and also from some select International B-Schools. The event was successful in attracting the best budding managerial talent in India. The organisation of the event was conducted on a grand scale and professionally managed by the students. Avenues 08 was graced by eminent Speakers of the likes of Rakesh Jhunjanwala and Shivthanu Pillai drawing enthusiastic crowd from inter IIT as well as the local and national level B Schools.

Quadriga: The Championship Game of Avenues 08

The Quadriga event drew participation from over 100 teams of which 8 were carefully shortlisted for the finals. These 8 teams represented teams from the IIMs, IITs, ISB, XLRI and an International B School. The event was spread across 2 days and tested the teams on the concepts of starting a business in the Car manufacturing industry, with innovative ideas these teams demonstrated excellent skills and were judged by eminent jury from academia and industry on various aspects of business like VC pitch, operations simulation game, online Stock market game (developed by Students of SJMSOM) and finally the B plan.

The event had a cumulative prize of 2500 USD.

Navonmesh is the entrepreneurship challenge event of Avenues, specifically created to the budding entrepreneur it provides them a platform to horn their skills and compete with likeminded entrepreneur.

Entrepreneurship networks NEN (National Entrepreneurship Network) and TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), and business incubator SINE (Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) partnered in the event. The sub events in Navonmesh included Anubhav, Baazi and a workshop on 'Venture Capital Funding' for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Anubhav consisted of a panel discussion on “Financial Gap or Leadership Gap - Problems faced by start-ups in India". The panel included the likes of Mr. Sandeep Murthy (Chairman, Cleartrip Travel Private Service Ltd.), Mr. Vipul Mankad (President, SIBDI Ventures), Mr. Nilesh Mehta (Managing Partner, Managing Partner of Aureos South Asia Fund), Mr. R Sriram (Founder, Landmark, Walden and Crosswords, India’s leading bookstore chain) and Mr. Faisal Farooqui (Founder-CEO, Mouthshut.com)

Baazi, the Entrepreneurship Challenge, is unique in its own right. It brought onto the platform two sets of teams - the entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists, who battled it out in our boardrooms to get the best deal through.

Navonmesh workshop on funding of start-up companies was jointly organized by the business incubators of IIT Bombay - SINE (Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) and Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship, an IIM Ahmedabad Endeavour.

Alankar, The Talk Series is aimed at bringing together eminent personalities from different walks of life to enlighten us through their speeches. The likes of Dr. Shivathanu Pillai (MD, BrahMos Aerospace), Rakesh Jhunjhunwala (ACE Investor) took the stage to share their success stories.

Bulls on Parade, A reality show with real start-ups and a live audience of investors created the exuberance and bustle that accompanies the launch of an IPO. Seven companies battled it out to woo investors and real life Venture Capitalists for their money. This IPO launch show, simulating an actual book building process, was the biggest crowd puller of the festival. The investors with the highest sum of the market capitalization of their allotted shares and the remaining cash in hand, collectively took home a prize of Rs. 50000. The show was judged by two renowned Venture Capitalists from the business sphere.

South Sea Bubble, It draws inspiration from busts, booms, cycles, corrections, rallies, stock trends and many such happenings in the world of stock markets tested one’s knowledge and interest in the world of equities. The South Sea Bubble also ran a on the spot quiz competition thereby ensuring all round participation. The calibre of questions prepared and the enthusiasm of the participating finalist held the audience spell bound taking financial quizzing to a higher level.

Imagine it India, A platform to unleash one’s creative genius in building objects of true value from everyday raw materials draw huge participation from youthful and creative minds who believed in creating values, ideas and waves from infinite possibilities out of a moment when seemingly there existed none. This was an on the spot event and was a big hit with the students.

Occam’s razor, A case study competition where the ultimate goal was to seek the best business solution making realistic and verifiable assumptions. The game tested the succinctness and clarity of the competitors through the case of a company which plans to expand in today's dynamic marketplace.

Apart from this, there were quiz events – “Ludus Magnus”, a Marketing Game – “Man who sold the world” and multitude of online games for the participants.

Avenues 08 saw an unprecedented participation and attention from media, corporate and student circles. It has truly established itself as a premium business event.