The epitome of business education is peer learning. Modern business students in the country have the potential to drastically impact the corporate, political and social scenes tomorrow. Students today create a platform for themselves to showcase their ideas and learn from others ideas. Avenues 2011, the annual business festival of Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay conducted between 14th and 16th of October, was one such platform. The festival saw participation from over 200 colleges.
Chanakya, a strategic event conducted by Coolage AOL, the title sponsors of Avenues 2011 was one of the buzz creating events of the festival.
Avenues had a multitude of events ranging from leadership lectures to business and fun events. Alankar was one of the flagship events of the festival. Mr.Niranjan Hiranandani – Founder of Hirco and co-founder of the Hiranandani Groupspeaking at IIT Bombay shared his experiences. He shared his perspectives on the challenges, opportunities and the future of the infrastructure industry in India.
Mr. Rajat Sharma, Chairman and Editor-in Chief of India TV,who was among the distinguished speakers in Alankar delivered a light hearted and humble speech about his journey as the founder of India TV and the challenges he faced. The event had witnessed popular journalist Mr. Pritish Nandy, Chairman of Pritish Nandy Communications, Dr. Pawan Girdharilal Agarwal, CEO of the Mumbai Dabbawala Education Centre and Mr. Khurshed Batliwala and Mr Dinesh Ghodke, the directors of WAYE.
There were many student events which saw participation from the top business school students all over the country. There were events in all the management domains like finance, marketing, operations, consulting and systems. Navonmesh, a one of its kind b-plan competition was among the popular events of Avenues. Navonmesh helps innovators, whose innovations are incubated by TePP, develop a business plan for their innovations with the help of the top b-school students. Some of the interesting innovations that featured in the event were India specific sugarcane harvester, a novel internal combustion engine with magnetic flywheel, anti-vibration mechanism for front loaded washing machine, multimodal interaction systems for urban children for playing computer and a ready to install biogas plant. Navonmesh also had a one of its kind VC challenge.
One of the participants, Aravinthan of IIM Lucknow said, “Interesting Events like Navonmesh reinforces SJMSOM’s focus on Entrepreneurship and budding entrepreneurs like me had a great time participating in such events”.
Pragyaan, a business quiz conducted by VV Ramanan, the resident quizmaster at “The Hindu” was a crowd puller which saw both corporate and student participation. Nirvikriti was another unique event which focused on devising innovative solutions to promote the Tourism industry. This edition of the event was based on creating a marketing strategy for Chattisgarh Tourism.
As a part of Avenues there was a panel discussion based on the theme ‘Evolving art of Entertainment’. The panellists included popular actor and comedian Mr. Javed Jaffrey, Mr. Sonal Dabral, Managing Partner, India and Head of Creative for Asia, Bates 141 and Mr. Cyrus Dastur, Founder, Shamiana.
Manthan, another flagship event of the festival, was a model G-20 submit, aimed at haressing the power of ideas of the youth of this country in finding solutions to some of the most pressing global problems of today. Tapasya Raut from the team that won the second prize in Manthan said, “We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to coming back next year. Congratulations to the organizers for coming up with such a concept and successfully executing it”.
The event had its fun elements too. International music band, Prem Joshua and Band performed in the festival. It was a celebration of Indian music and its fusion with the world music. The audience lost themselves in the music and danced to the tune. Siddharth, a student from a Chennai college said, “ the event was a mix of fun and learning for me. Probably this is one of the few events in India which gives a mix of fun events and serious management events as a package”
The festival closed with a stand-up comedy session with Nitin Gupta (Rivaldo) who is the founder and Chief Entertainment Officer of Entertainment Engineers. The session was hilarious at the same time thought provoking.