Coffee with SIBM 2009 - Memories for Life!!!

2 weekends of action...

More than 2 months of intense back end planning...

18 Cities...

5500 plus aspirants...

Memories for life...

There was discussion, there was ambition and there was.... Coffee with SIBM....

The event was the biggest event I have ever handled in my entire life. Big in terms of the objective of the event, big in terms of the magnitude of expected turnout. Big in terms of the budget involved and big in terms of the details in planning.

I would rather call CWS as a project rather than just an event, because it in essence had all the ingredients of a project. It involved conceiving the ideas, planning various aspects, designing the entire process, working out to the minutest details and over all, the actual execution and implementation of the project.

It all started in mid October when 6 members of the Junior Aspirant Relations Team met one evening to chalk out the strategies for the same. Planning needed to be solid and strong in each and every aspect to ensure that we did not falter anywhere. 6 people with diverse backgrounds, varied talents, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, each a genius in his or her own way, joined hands together for this and made it possible.

It is impossible to forget the numerous late nights spent in the team room for discussing strategies, evaluating alternatives and options, freezing on one or two final options and sometimes going half the distance only to realize that we are walking in the wrong direction. There have loads of moments of fun and equally good number of tense moments. There have been as many moments of madness as those of seriousness. There have been moments when the decibel levels due to celebrations of each minor milestone in the project reached the sky. On the other extreme, there have also been moments when the silence has paralleled that of a graveyard.

Planning and designing the process was the most important aspect that decided the success of the entire CWS. Drilling down to the minutest details was the necessity and all of us managed to do that quite efficiently. Our team dynamics were especially tested rigorously, when each of us handling different aspects of the event had to sit and work with the others to ensure that there was enough smoothness in the process. Most of the aspects in CWS required a lot of co-ordination between the different people. The one handling logistics needed to work closely with the one handling publicity. The one responsible for finances was required to be in great sync with the one who was actually spending. In order to ensure that there was no clash of anything, we met every day and discussed the progress. Above all, we had a wonderful Senior team, which at each and every step, critically evaluated our plans and gave us the necessary feedback. This was an icing on the cake, because getting inputs from the people who have already been there and done that, actually gave us a readymade platform to work on.

There were instances where we have had to change or drastically modify our plans for some reasons beyond our control. There were instances where we saw some danger on the actual occurrence of the event. But what was important was that we were quick to realize the impending trouble and flexible enough to change our plans. Changing one aspect of the plan automatically meant that a lot of other aspects that were related to the same also needed to be changed. But then, we managed to pull it all off.

The small ego clashes, the big fights. The great arguments and the humble confessions. The moments of lending a helping hand to others, the pranks in and outside the team room. The memories of these two months will remain etched in my hearts for the rest of my life.

There have been glitches in the event in spite of the meticulous planning. Most of these have been because of our over reliance on people and parties outside the team. But this taught us the importance of follow ups and continuously monitoring the situations. There have been hiccups in the event, but that taught us the importance of having an equally solid Plan B in place. There have been times when things were going exactly the opposite way we had expected them to, but perseverance and patience showed us the way out.

Having done all the ground work, it was important to execute the entire plan effectively. What was important here was to have the right people at the right place doing the right things. With the amount of constraints we had on the time, the resources & the manpower and keeping the objective of CWS in mind, it was imperative that we leave no stone unturned. We gave our best shots at publicity using multiple channels for publicizing the event. We tried our best to have the right people accompanying us. We all travelled that extra distance and took that extra effort, because we all realized that after taking the responsibility of an event of this magnitude, we could not afford to fail. Having taken all the pains so far, it was all the more important to make sure that the event did not fail just because we did not bother putting that additional bit of an effort.

The real action, which took place over two weekends, actually was a test of the entire planning and execution process. I am glad to say that we did a great job. I personally felt that we exceeded our own expectations. We did a wonderful job with whatever we had at our disposal. With the support of loads of friends and wishes of batch mates, CWS 2009 was a phenomenal success. We managed to visit 18 cities, a never before achievement. We managed to contact 5500 odd aspirants, a first timer again. CWS had never got this big!

On a closing note as I said earlier, all these would never have been possible without the continuous support given to us. The main players behind this are the Senior team members and also the faculty and admin. We were entrusted with responsibility and were given total freedom in making decisions. And with this type of an exposure, we all enjoyed working together.

At the end of it all, when graffiti sheets carry your names, when lots of unknown people add you on Facebook and Orkut, when you exceed your own benchmarks and when people look up to you as someone really great, there is reason to cheer. The sense of gratification is simply so fulfilling.