TechNovate ‘XIX

A Coordinator’s side to the journey of

The 3rd edition of Central India’s most enthusiastic fest.

3rd October was the day when we were given the responsibility of the three-day college fest to
be held in March. Four coordinators viz the then UG representatives Vishal Pallagani and Ankita
Jha, and the other two coordinators Vedant Khandelwal and Arpit Singh were supposed to lead
the fest.

After a rigorous discussion amongst us four, we decided that the preparation of the fest will be
delivered by three teams working in collaboration and hierarchy as mentioned in the order ​The
Core Team (which had all the coordinators like technical, cultural, sponsorship, outlook, social
media, design, hospitality, curation, F&B, website, etc.), ​The Event Heads​(of all the technical
and cultural events) and ​The Volunteers ​(the ones assisting and looking behind the ground
level implementation). Each member of any team will have to report to the member in the upper
hierarchy. After the hierarchy maintained what came up to be a great problem was the selection
of the core team, as there are a lot who aspire to be in the core team of the college’s only fest.
And the situation rose up to another level when we received an enormous 53 applications. After
a long tiring and 2 nights post-dinner interviews for scrutinizing the applicants, we listed a core
team in the following month on November 2nd. The core team was given the responsibility to
figure out their event heads but the volunteers were assigned only later in the month of January
to all the event heads.

In the months of November and December a very gradual progress was made towards the fest
involving mostly the work of poster/brochure and the website designing. The days were mostly
invested in to notifying the potential sponsors and collecting data for the potential celebs that
were to be invited. Works like deciding the budget, promotion strategy, event’s flow, etc. were
being carried out by the event heads. Our state was also under an unstable politics as the
Legislative Assembly elections had recently ended and there had been a govt. Change, a
consequence to which weren’t foreseen by any of us.

January- 2 months to go...

Came the month of January and the pressure rose up magnanimously, as a sudden realisation
that only about 70 days were left for the D-day dawned upon us. The whole team was
constantly being called for meetings and reports and updates. The work was being carried out
at a large scale and was demanding a lot of time and dedication. It was during this month that
after observing the need and involvement of sponsorship in almost every region of the fest and
to reduce the information drop while reporting the Faculty Coordinators(SAC President Asst
Prof. Venkanna and Asst. Prof. Debanjan Das), Himanshu Singh - the sponsorship coordinator
was brought on board.
The sudden govt. change in the state resulted in most of the sponsors who had promised to
sponsor the fest, withdrew. This was creating a lot of pressure on the complete technovate
team, as both the upper hierarchies were being pushed upon a lot of pressure to revise their
budgets then and again. The situation went to an ​all time low when the most expected govt.
agencies like CHIPS, ANVP(former NRDA), CG Tourism, etc. who had sponsored in the
previous two editions of the fest declined their support due to the controversial dates of the fest
i.e. 8​th​-10​th March due to the Code Of Conduct imposed by the Election Commission. On one
hand, where the situations were turning worse for the fest, on the other we needed dates for
campaign for the fest promotions as the preparation for promotions like flash-mob, college
promotions, social media campaign, etc. had begun.

February- the month of ups and downs, chaos, disputes, EXAMS….

As the first month had ended and there were only a few weeks left for the fest, things started
getting not fast but definitely furious (pun intended). Work pressure was high as the budget had
recently been made stable, we were yet chasing sponsors, flash-mobs were scheduled, college
promotions had started, social media campaigns were yet to begin, and the biggest of all the
mid-sem exams were soon approaching. These were also the time when the core team was
having a lot of discussions and arguments and it was taking longer than usual to agree at a
point.
Amongst this chaos a promising and the biggest deal ever(worth lacs) with the sponsor Radio
Mirchi 98.3 FM was finalised where it was decided with the mutual consent that they will be
hosting their franchise marathon- The Neon Run, in our college on 9​th March and also took the
responsibility for hosting a star DJ night. The news spread like wildfire and the team now started
working with a vigor never seen before.
The first scheduled flash-mob had to be cancelled as the deal came up to no conclusion, but the
second scheduled flash-mob happened on the day planned and prepared for i.e. 14​th February
and recorded a spectator crowd of more than 500 in Magneto - The Mall. An overwhelming
response in the flash-mob motivated all, from coordinators to volunteers, we all were ready to
rock the fest. The first half of the month had ended on a good note, and we all settled down
peacefully to address the mid-sem exams. Little were we aware of the events that were about to
turn up in the near future.

March - The final 7 days….

We were called upon by the Station Head, Radio Mirchi - Raipur. It was 1​st March and was only
a week left to the fest, we knew and were mentally prepared for any amount of work pressure,
we already had it clear in our mind to drop everything aside and just work. The team was
gearing up for the final promotions, arrangements, outlooks, etc. We were attending the meeting
with the station head with a mindset that we would be receiving some instructions for the Neon
Run day, but instead it turned out that they were cancelling the deal because of a law suite that
had been filed against the company at the national level against the marathon - BOOM..!!!

Everything shattered…... all the plans, the promotions, the sponsors, the major attraction of the
fest, all. We were back to level zero, the most promising deal that we were relying upon had
backfired and we just had 7 days left. The promotions were already done, posters/pamphlets
were out, we all were expecting the marathon to be the biggest show, registrations were pouring
in and only the team knew that it had all went down. It was a do or die situation for all of us.

And we decided to put all what we could in all what we had….

A great work spirit was shown by each and every member of the team. From attending lectures
in the morning to working till late 3:00am in the night, no one ever complained. Each and every
member worked beyond boundaries, they came out of their personal and assigned roles to help
in whatever they could, be it in promotions, decorations, sponsors, registrations, calling anything
we all were working, and were working together just for one name, for one cause…
TECHNOVATE’ XIX should not fail.

The plans which were earlier made for backup and were less considered, like the need for a
comedy star show, the need for a band now came into main action plan. The last minute
strategies like setting up a special team for calling and promotions, involving professionals
decorators like KraftsMania for decorations, setting up the stage completely in Amphi
Theatre(saved us around 80k), etc. were something which were being done for the first time and
proved to be beneficial. Shutterbug- the official photography club, came into picture and I still
adore the way they had covered the complete fest. Involvement of out of the team members like
Rohit and Aanshi who handled the registrations amazingly well.

We did all what we could, and created a fest like never seen before recording the highest ever
footfall in all the three editions. This was a fest which had faced a lot of ups and downs, a heavy
experimentation, a high level of uncertainty, many things that happened for the first time and yet
it succeeded. Something for which the complete credit goes to the…

Unbreakable Highly Supportive... Team TechNovate ‘XIX .....

Arpit Singh (Student Coordinator, TechNovate ’XIX)