When you're set back a few steps..
Look up !.....figure your falls.... rework your moves.........give it another shot.......
It usually works out....and if it doesn't....realize this...
.....That you're meant for bigger and better things... ! :-)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Fait Accompli
Made it....still no idea how !
...we look back and wonder what force of nature kept us going.
TECH SUMMIT 2009 was applauded by participants and sceptics alike.
and we still feel we almost screwed it up.
When it started 30 mins past the schedule...(no thanks to the keyboard player),
I had a sinking feeling bout whatever was to come.
700+ in the audience and we were about to look like morons.
Said my own little prayer and we started off.
The inaugural went smoothly without glitches.
HOD was called on stage to flag it off....
and in her thick Guntur accent...TECH SUMMIT was declared VOPEN.
Started the Expert workshops...speakers from Microsoft,Adobe,Cognizant, and Convergys.
The sessions went well....a little too well and too long...we lost two hours and had to hit NOS on the contest prelims.
More than a hundred teams per contest...way more than we were prepared to handle.
Got more rooms and volunteers.....kept moving with fingers crossed.
The evaluation team had to work in overdrive to make sure the results were done right and posted on time.
Took a little longer than planned but didn't get any complaints.
Day One was a storm well wethered....and we set a plan in motion for day two.
But things did take their crazy turns...
One of the speakers of the second day had not recieved his invitation letter and was pretty upset....add to that...the Microsoft speaker left her laptop charger in our college and could not follow up without it.
Printed the invite again and drove 35km to GachiBowli to hand it over.
Luckily, he was quite cool and took his time with me...guess he liked the concept of our meet and agreed to be there. Thank You Sir..
Next stop Microsoft.....handed the charger over and drove back to college.
Made sure everything was set for the next day and fired the keyboard guy.
Day 2 started early....speaker showed up way before time and we had to wait for our HOD to show up before he could start.
Started well.....ended well....Dukaan Bundh....Competitions Shuru.
Poster making...LAN Gaming...Web Designing...Research Presentations...
Sprinted between venues and made sure things were going right.
Last event....QUEST...IT quiz...
Was hosting that myself.
We were seriously running short of time and had to wrap it up...couldn't use the next day...DIWALI.
Wrapped the quiz up in a hurry...and raced to the valedictory.
Thanked every one from VP to the Lab Incharge and closed with a little dance gig.
So that was that...we made it and did so without looking too stupid.
I didn't believe that we did well until I heard the participants' feedback.
VP called us for a little party...he told us that he was amazed by the level of organization and effort we put in and still couldn't believe that we pulled it off without the support of our faculty.
We can't either.
We had a blast till late and it was our very own moment in time.
We owned it and we knew we had earned it...
Now when I think about it..it still feels the same as it did when Fr.StaniSlaus addressed us.
It still brings a silly smile to our faces and will be something we will always cherish.
From sponsorships to Speakers...
from negotiations to wars of words..it was all there.
We wethered a lot and pulled through...I know I did.
There were very few but very strong presences that kept me from throwing the towel in.
Two of them being Fr.StaniSlaus's faith in us ....and a certain someone that I adore.
Bless you...I will always look back and be thankful that I was made aware of you.
By the way...there's goodies and Vouchers worth Lacs still lying in our inventory...
Wondering what do with it...maybe keep it in store for TECH SUMMIT 2010
(dont mean to blow my own trumpet...but I thought up the name.... :-) )
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Nail Biter's Eve
It's 14th of October, the Eve of TECH SUMMIT'2009...
The Tech Festival hosted by the staff and students of my department.
We've put more into these 10 days of preparation than we did in an entire year of college.
And all I wanted to do this semester was to get through it with little burden and make peace (if I could) with certain demons(within and out there).
As it turns out...life has other plans.
My juniors had been pestering me and my pals to put together an IT meet for quite sometime.
Didn't happen last semester cause our HOD was serving her last month in college and didn't want the baggage.
Well she's gone....we have a new HOD who's clueless and treats us like we are too....
There was no way we could pull this together with her in charge...or so I thought.
We have a new Vice-Principal, Rev Fr.Stani Slaus,who's been quite an inspiration to all of us.
An MBA from XLRI, a towering personality and calm as they come.
We knew from the time he took over that if this meet was to happen,only he could make it so.
But we needed a solid concept in place before we could put it on his table.
Spoke to the HOD...and in her usual condescending and get-away-from-me style she shook her head.
So I let it go..I had my own plans to take care of.
But the idea stayed at back of our heads for a few weeks.
So one evening, all of my KAAMCHOR & CO got round to brainstorming this whole idea.
Thought up the name TECH SUMMIT 2009.....didn't know enough Sanskrit (or French or Greek ) to come up with anything aesthetic.
Put up some of the events that it could have......Contests..Workshops...Gigs...the usual.
Broke it down into smaller bits and conceptualized the whole thing.
Hemanth's pretty good with PhotoShop...so we sat and designed what could be our poster.
We loved what we saw and decided that this meet was gonna happen..... come what may !
We put each event on the table and worked it out from scratch.
Took us bout a week...we had a full inter-college festival......on paper.
So what next ?....how do we get the green light ?.
Needed a proper mission statement and draft if we were to convince the management that we had something solid.
Did it overnight...showed it to the guys and they loved it.
Showed it to Little Red Riding HOD and she hated it.
Green Light??? ....Ha!
We needed to jump the signal for this one.
Went to VP's office that evening and he warmed up to it.
But sent us back to the HOD to get her to push it.
It took him a while to see how disinterested she was and how good our meet could be.
After a lot was said and done....we were in his office the next evening and after a few phone calls he told us to get on with it.
Here's the catch...The meet could only be scheduled for the 15th and 16th....
it was on the 1st of Oct that we got the GO.
So we worked......and worked some more.
Split up into committees.
Overlapped duties and pulled the sponsors together.
Traveled far and wide to get the IT bosses to take up the workshops.
Finished the Prelim Preparations.Made all the PPTs.
Shot a music video....(file's huge...will encode and put it up sometime.)
Pulled a dance gig together.Organized a Hardware Expo.
Catering,schedules,trophies,dresses,sound stage,Lab Installations.......aaaahhh!
All this .....and a still indifferent staff.
Hope they don't mess it up....if don't want to support it.
Had a total showdown with HOD yesterday.....it was bad....let's just say I'm glad that this semester is over.
I'm glad that we have Fr.Stanislaus guiding us and pray that we move things as planned.
I've grown in this fortnight and find myself adoring and appreciating our team more than anything in the world right now.
As General Co-Coordinator of the Festival, I'm skating on pretty thin ice and have to watch my moves.
24hrs and we'll be moving...
What do we do till then ?
Might I suggest chewing our nails???!!!
Deepthi,Jesse,Rene,Hemanth,Varun,Mahesh,Soumya,
Prashanth,Jonathan,Venu,Emmy,Chris,Joel,
Kranthi,Chandu,Shrikanth,Ashwitha.
Elizabeth,Grace,Juelle,Ragavi,DTP Boys.
and the other TECH SUMMIT guys I've missed out...
YOU ARE AN INCREDIBLE BUNCH...WOULDN'T COME THIS FAR WITHOUT YOU !!!!!
BLESS YOU ALL...!
and Sneha...you've done a lot for me without even knowing it...this one's for you.
The Tech Festival hosted by the staff and students of my department.
We've put more into these 10 days of preparation than we did in an entire year of college.
And all I wanted to do this semester was to get through it with little burden and make peace (if I could) with certain demons(within and out there).
As it turns out...life has other plans.
My juniors had been pestering me and my pals to put together an IT meet for quite sometime.
Didn't happen last semester cause our HOD was serving her last month in college and didn't want the baggage.
Well she's gone....we have a new HOD who's clueless and treats us like we are too....
There was no way we could pull this together with her in charge...or so I thought.
We have a new Vice-Principal, Rev Fr.Stani Slaus,who's been quite an inspiration to all of us.
An MBA from XLRI, a towering personality and calm as they come.
We knew from the time he took over that if this meet was to happen,only he could make it so.
But we needed a solid concept in place before we could put it on his table.
Spoke to the HOD...and in her usual condescending and get-away-from-me style she shook her head.
So I let it go..I had my own plans to take care of.
But the idea stayed at back of our heads for a few weeks.
So one evening, all of my KAAMCHOR & CO got round to brainstorming this whole idea.
Thought up the name TECH SUMMIT 2009.....didn't know enough Sanskrit (or French or Greek ) to come up with anything aesthetic.
Put up some of the events that it could have......Contests..Workshops...Gigs...the usual.
Broke it down into smaller bits and conceptualized the whole thing.
Hemanth's pretty good with PhotoShop...so we sat and designed what could be our poster.
We loved what we saw and decided that this meet was gonna happen..... come what may !
We put each event on the table and worked it out from scratch.
Took us bout a week...we had a full inter-college festival......on paper.
So what next ?....how do we get the green light ?.
Needed a proper mission statement and draft if we were to convince the management that we had something solid.
Did it overnight...showed it to the guys and they loved it.
Showed it to Little Red Riding HOD and she hated it.
Green Light??? ....Ha!
We needed to jump the signal for this one.
Went to VP's office that evening and he warmed up to it.
But sent us back to the HOD to get her to push it.
It took him a while to see how disinterested she was and how good our meet could be.
After a lot was said and done....we were in his office the next evening and after a few phone calls he told us to get on with it.
Here's the catch...The meet could only be scheduled for the 15th and 16th....
it was on the 1st of Oct that we got the GO.
So we worked......and worked some more.
Split up into committees.
Overlapped duties and pulled the sponsors together.
Traveled far and wide to get the IT bosses to take up the workshops.
Finished the Prelim Preparations.Made all the PPTs.
Shot a music video....(file's huge...will encode and put it up sometime.)
Pulled a dance gig together.Organized a Hardware Expo.
Catering,schedules,trophies,dresses,sound stage,Lab Installations.......aaaahhh!
All this .....and a still indifferent staff.
Hope they don't mess it up....if don't want to support it.
Had a total showdown with HOD yesterday.....it was bad....let's just say I'm glad that this semester is over.
I'm glad that we have Fr.Stanislaus guiding us and pray that we move things as planned.
I've grown in this fortnight and find myself adoring and appreciating our team more than anything in the world right now.
As General Co-Coordinator of the Festival, I'm skating on pretty thin ice and have to watch my moves.
24hrs and we'll be moving...
What do we do till then ?
Might I suggest chewing our nails???!!!
Deepthi,Jesse,Rene,Hemanth,Varun,Mahesh,Soumya,
Prashanth,Jonathan,Venu,Emmy,Chris,Joel,
Kranthi,Chandu,Shrikanth,Ashwitha.
Elizabeth,Grace,Juelle,Ragavi,DTP Boys.
and the other TECH SUMMIT guys I've missed out...
YOU ARE AN INCREDIBLE BUNCH...WOULDN'T COME THIS FAR WITHOUT YOU !!!!!
BLESS YOU ALL...!
and Sneha...you've done a lot for me without even knowing it...this one's for you.
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