26/10/2015

26/10/2015; 02:00:
IRIS 2015! The event kicked off with the Inauguration Ceremony at 9 a.m., in the Old Auditorium. The Auditorium was packed with a bunch of excited souls, waiting for the actual event to begin after days of excitement.
The event kicked off with an opening speech by Prof. Ganesh who spoke about the large number of events the student community holds on campus. Mr. Parmesh Shahani, Head of Godrej India Culture Lab, Author of Gay Bombay, TED & Yale World Fellow, the keynote speaker for the event spoke emphasised the importance of ‘thinking hatke’, accepting differences, working together, sharing value, to make the best of what we have, the best for everyone involved.
A guest lecture by Dr. Mrs. Janak Palta McGilligan, Padma Shri Awardee, Founder Trustee of Jimmy McGilligan Centre for Sustainable Development followed. She is a well-known name in Indore and around, and runs an educational facility for tribal girls- and the facility is entirely self-sustained- as she said, only 4 things- salt, oil, tea and are sourced from outside the facility!
A short presentation by Mr. Rangarajan Shesardi, the CEO of Neeyamo was up next, followed by a joint press release by him and our IPM Chair, Prof. Ranjeet Nambudri. Neeyamo is an HR Consultancy and the lecture was very interesting- it focused on talent acquisition, the limitless possibilities to recruit talent in an increasingly connected world and the need to build HR leaders.

The events took off soon after- Kalpavriksha- the Social B-Plan competition that had funding from the Dorabji Tata Fund this year began with Dr. Janak Palta as the main judge.
Ashwamedha- our flagship management event began with an ice-breaker session- participants (20 of them) who had been selected after a bunch of online processes were now to spend 3 gruelling days, to find the real leader! Tasks over three days tested them on a whole array of personality traits all of which are touted to be equally important for a leader.

I headed over to watch Kalpavriksha, but after a long speech by the judge, an hour-long lunch break was in order before the actual event would begin. I then bid good-bye to the journalists who didn’t want to eat anything and headed to my room.

Voice of Indore- the Singing event of IRIS was set to begin at 4 p.m. I got help getting dressed since I was to be on stage, hosting the event and headed to the Central Lawn. The judge had gotten delayed on the way and the event began by 4:45 p.m. By this time, Kalpavriksha was nearly over and the details of the winners had to be taken, for the press release to be compiled soon.
The event went well, with me falling into character a few performances in, cracking jokes (oft at my own expense, and at that of my co-host). A large standee of our sponsor, ‘Selfie- the Unisex Salon’ was moved onto stage as we stepped on to introduce the next singer- 18 singers had been selected for the finale after a whole month of city-wide auditions- we decided that the standee was our next performer but it shied away and parked itself next to the stage instead.
Right after Voice of Indore, the group dance event of Lasya was set to happen. I got to host this one too. There were 7 teams, each better than the next. And, they had a bunch of crazy names, from ‘D Injectors’ to ‘The Danciners’ Yard’!