All’s not well but ends well

Ideally it would be better to start this blog with the note “I’m back” but I’m not David Billa to go for such emphatic words. Anyway, hi again to all readers of my blog. Its been a long time but let me not go into the reasons for the delay. Coming to this blog, I wish to share with you all, my experience as an organizer in the recently concluded National level Technical Symposium – “Resilience 08”, in my college. Recently is not the right word to use for its almost 2 months since the event got over.

Preparation

It all started on February 20^th when our HOD had a meeting with our Office Bearers and confirmed that our Mechanical Department which is only 3 years old, and which has no final year, will have a symposium of its own. Soon a committee was formed and planning for the event began. Though I am neither an office bearer nor in the committee that took part in the initial stages of discussion, I’m recounting the experiences from my perspective, i.e. what I saw and heard and also only that part of organizing in which I was involved. So read on and enjoy. I also hope this blog would serve as a guide on what to do and what not to do while organizing such events.

The initial part of the discussion was to plan the events. Paper Presentation, Quiz & CAD Modeling were initially decided events. Being the most experienced quizzer in the department, I was given full incharge of the Quiz, which was advertised and printed in the posters as a Mechanical Quiz as suggested by our HOD. But apart from that, nobody interfered as to what types of questions are to be framed and so on, though they gave suggestions from time to time. After much debate, it was decided that Best Manager will be the fourth and the final event. My friend Arun Menon was made incharge of this event but it was decided that we would work together as a team for this event as we both had been to the same event at KCT a few months ago, where I managed to qualify for the finals out of sheer luck (the person who originally qualified was unwell and being the next best scorer in the prelims, I took his place in the finals).

I wanted the quiz to be like the quizzes that I had attended and admired at the most happening places for quizzes in the city – CIT, PSG & the numerous quizzes hosted by the renowned quiz master Rangarajan and also VV Ramanan. Since I had the experience of attending many such quizzes, I knew what it took to host such a quiz. Though it was virtually impossible for us to conduct a quiz of such magnitude and quality, we thought that we should replicate atleast the way of presentation of these quizzes. These quizzes are not like the normal quizzes that one gets to see on TV, wherein there are the often repeated rounds like rapid fire, buzzer, etc., but these are quizzes with an innovation in the form of new, interesting rounds and exciting questions that are completely different from the conventional quizzes. Keeping all this in mind, the initial images of how the presentation of the quiz should look like began to take shape. The question selection process was left to me and I too preferred it that way, for if I were to host the show, I’d be at ease with my own questions. So I initially framed a few questions in my mind and wrote them down as hints so as to give them a proper shape later (for eg. There was a question on Barack Obama, for which I wrote down as Barack Obama and later framed a question in such a way that the answer for that question would be Barack Obama). This way I framed over 90% of the questions in my mind itself. If I read about something and felt that a question was necessary on it, I wrote down the subject and later used it to frame a question. The same approach was used to frame the rounds in the finals and the format of each round. This way I had almost 95% of the questions ready in my hand and the format and rules of the finals, a week before the event. I thought that a week was enough time to give final shape to these questions and put them in a presentable format. But the fate, as they say, interfered.

That was also the last week of our academic classes for the semester and the obligation to finish the records and get them signed, hampered our progress significantly. Suddenly we felt that the time wouldn’t be enough. There was still a lot of work to be done, the most important being the preparation of PowerPoint slides for the questions. Though initially we had a lot of softwares in our minds for the presentation of questions, later we decided to go for the simple and best MS PowerPoint. At this point I should mention the great help rendered by my friend Arun Nair, if not for whom the quiz would not have happened in the exciting way that it happened. I entrusted the entire job of preparing the PowerPoint slides to him and he did it with great professionalism. I initially typed out the prelims questions in the proper text format and got the required pictures, audios and videos and handed it over to him. He prepared the slides for the prelims and that was one work done. In the same way, I framed the questions for the Best Manager prelims. Here since there were aptitude questions that needed some working, we decided it was best to distribute question paper for these prelims. So we typed the questions, got one printout and photocopied it 60 times. At that time we felt it was more than enough as we honestly didn’t expect more than 60 participants for Best Manager. Then we suddenly woke up to the reality that there were only 2 days left for the event and we still needed to finish the slides for the finals. So we took some bold decisions as to suspend our record works for the time being and concentrate solely on the event.

The 2 days prior to the event we skipped all the classes and set about working in a friend’s laptop in the college itself. Though both Arun Nair & I hated missing the classes especially for Analytical subjects, we had no other choice and we could not have more persons in our inner network to help us do the work as we feared for the safety of the questions and it was our responsibility to protect it from being leaked. This way we slogged about two hard days with virtually no sleep (especially Arun) and finished the work. The day prior to the event, I stayed till 1am at Arun Nair’s house to finish my part of the work, though I still had 4 questions left to frame in a particular round in the finals. Arun Nair stayed up till 4 am.

‘Geth’ of Mech

Being Mechanical engineering students, we always took pride in what we did and it is precisely why we wanted to top all other departments’ symposium in every possible way that we can. Ours was the last symposium in the college for the year and we wanted it to be the best. The main criteria based on which the quality of the symposium is judged in our college is the way the departments show off in the entrance with banners and posters and the display of stylish laptops in the reception desk. Till then no department did a thing which made us sit up and take notice. They all did the same thing – flashy banners for their association as well as for their symposium with some quotes which were not so catchy but took an indirect dig at all other departments and a reception desk with laptops. Apart from all these usual stuffs, we wanted to be unique in some way. On days of such events in our college, it is a protocol that all guys in the department conducting the function should wear white full slack shirts and black pants while the girls should wear sarees. We tried to be unique there too by wearing ties in addition to the protocol. Just wearing ties itself made us stylish and set us apart from other departments. And we wanted to be unique in the entrance too. We were keen to put up an entrance show that would simply show the ‘geth’ of the Mech department. That job was entrusted to the seniors and office bearers and we had no idea what they were up to but we knew they would do something good and unique.

On the day of the event:

We (Arun & I) had decided that we would start by my vehicle for college by about 7.30 AM. I woke up early and got ready. Though I woke up early, I found it impossible to find the time to type the 4 questions that were to be included in the finals in a round called Andromeda Anonymous. So I thought I could type those questions in college itself as it was getting late and moreover the quiz was only in the afternoon. I started in my vehicle keeping in my mind that I had to refuel it as it was nearing dry condition. In my estimation, I thought it had enough fuel to take me to Arun’s house and from there to the petrol pump which is on the way to our college. But it was then that fate intervened and Murphy’s Law started its application. Murphy’s Law states that if anything is to go wrong, it will. It was proved in our case in a series of events.

First my estimation went wrong as the bike stopped mid way to Arun’s house. I cursed my luck and tried to kick start the bike in desperation. It was then that during one of the kicks, the hem of my pant got caught in the footrest and the result? A tear. But luckily though, the tear was along the line where a series of stitches were present and it was small and near the heels, and so it was hardly noticeable and if at all anyone noticed, they would have thought that it was some weird style. I then calmed myself and strolled the bike for about half a kilometer to the petrol pump. The time was already 8:10 and Arun Nair came to the petrol pump itself. Then another trouble… The bike wouldn’t start immediately after the refueling. Normally bikes take some time to restart after refueling from dry condition but mine, which was due for a service then, didn’t budge even 10 minutes after refueling. The time was 8:25. Then I called a friend who was already in college then and informed him of our plight and told him that it would take us some time. He assured us not to worry as the best manager event began only at 11:30 and I had enough time to make it. We then called Arun’s brother and asked him to bring his vehicle to the petrol pump. We fueled that vehicle and handed over my bike to him to stroll it back to his house. At last we left in his vehicle and reached college by 9:00. We missed being there at reception when the college bus arrived bringing many participants and fellow students.

Balloon Arch and Brilliant Decoration

We were keen to know what unique thing had been done at the reception. The banners outside were good. Then it happened… The moment I entered the main door, I stood stunned and speechless. That very moment I knew that we had completely upstaged all other departments. For right behind the reception desk was an arch about 10 ft in height made from hundreds of balloons of different colours. The brilliant dash of colours along with the spectacular decoration left me spell bound. Added to this were the stylish volunteers (my classmates and seniors with their ties on) and the huge number of participants gathered in front of the reception desk. Though a couple of departments boasted of figures greater than us, their show at the entrance was no match to ours. The highlight of our entrance show was without doubt the balloon arch. Though such arches are not entirely new, it certainly was new in a technical symposium. I take this opportunity to say kudos to all my classmates and seniors who worked tirelessly to build this arch. After admiring the reception, I went upstairs to the Edusat hall where Quiz and Best Manager events were to take place. On the way I was greeted by a senior friend from ECE department who exclaimed that our show was the best so far, better than all other departments and he commended me for it. I felt very proud. Being a Mechanical Engineer was the proudest thing in our college that day.

Problems galore

I went to Edusat hall and relaxed. We had everything in order for the Best Manager or atleast we thought so. We had 3 picture questions in the Best Manager prelims and we needed a laptop for that purpose. The laptop in which we initially worked was taken to the reception desk and we got another laptop. That’s when all problems started. In order to project the pictures on the screen, we needed a projector. The projector that we were given worked with this laptop and not with the other laptop. But the problem was that the working laptop had no MS Office and the time was insufficient to find a backup and install MSOffice then. But we still tried, in vain.

Best Manager

People started coming in for the best manager and I went to take care of them, leaving Arun Nair and others to deal with this problem. Then the next problem started. The number of participants pouring in started giving us shivers as we only had 60 question papers in hand. Then we sent a volunteer to the library with a copy to Xerox it. Thankfully the Xerox machine was in working condition that day. So we steered clear of that problem. Then for the picture questions, I decided to do away with them and gave them different questions instead. Thus one problem was managed and we had a smooth run of the Best Manager event- both prelims and finals, and the deserving person won. The standard of the participants was good and it gave me a big relief as I was circumspect at the beginning. I should also commend the judge whose excellent judging and inspiring speech and suggestions not only encouraged the finalists but was also a treat to the audience. The finalists congratulated me for my compeering. Finally something went well despite many hiccups initially.

I went for lunch hoping that every problem related to computer and projector would be sorted out soon. But lay ahead was nobody’s guess.

Lunch and Problems thereafter

The lunch was good and I returned only to find that the problem wasn’t sorted out still. So we put the laptop aside and took a PC that the room staff offered us and tried our luck in it. But it turned out to be worse. Even a move of the mouse took 20 secs to respond. We asked the participants to be in the hall for the quiz prelims by 2:15 but they were so punctual that by 2PM itself the hall was full. Again it was my cue to take stage and I informed them that it would take some time for the prelims to start as the technical problem was being attended to. As the excitement was building up, many seniors tried to sort out the problem but in vain. Some even asked me if it was possible to conduct the quiz without the projector and the system. Impossible for all questions were in the slides and the quiz would not be a quiz if it was presented without the PowerPoint document and I was stubborn. Finally some of my friends went and brought the PC from our HOD room. Though even this PC troubled us initially, it responded well later. The projector too responded well with this PC. There was a wild cheer from the participants once the slide “Prelims” was flashed on the screen. They cheered me as well when I took stage and I apologized to them for the delay and thanked them for their patience. They were all in good spirits and did not complain even though we started the prelims only by 3:15, a one hour delay. We still had two problems. One was that the 4 questions intended for the Andromeda Anonymous round were still to be typed and so we decided to do away with that round as it would help us save time. We also decided to skip certain questions intended for the audience in order to save time. The other problem was that the audio and video embedded in the PowerPoint slides did not play. I thought of some other questions momentarily on the spot and included them instead of the audio and video questions.

Quiz

Prelims began and it was smooth sailing through the 25 questions. The participants were excited as the questions were set in such a way that not only were they interesting, but also quite easy. There was high excitement as we announced the names of the finalists. Remarkably the scores of the teams that made it to the finals were all high and those who didn’t make the cut also stayed back to watch the finals.

The final was formatted in such a way as to enthrall the audience and the participants alike and enthralled they were. It was an exciting final for both the finalists and the audience, who too got quite a few questions to answer and won some milkybars and 5 stars for answering them. After 5 exciting rounds, we had a clear winner and a runner up.

I thanked them all for turning up at Resilience’08 and asked them to turn up for Resilience’09 as well. I then asked them how the quiz was. A wild cheer and applause was what I got as reply. I immediately realized that it was a success and many participants came up to me and congratulated me for both the quiz and my role as a quiz master. They seemed to have loved it and I was satisfied that I had done a good job.

Valedictory function and the celebration beyond

Then we all went for the valedictory function where a participant (Best Manager winner) was asked to speak a few words on what he thought about the symposium and suggestions if any. He told us that had also come for the symposium of ECE department in our college and the thing that set us apart from them was our professionalism- how we looked dignified with our ties on, how we managed crisis situation and how we dealt with the participants during such situations by apologizing to them and so on. He also named me and commended me for my anchoring of the Best Manager and Quiz events. I rised in my seat, took a bow and thanked everyone who was applauding profusely. I felt elated and once the function got over, I got more plaudits. I thanked them all and felt happy for it was my first quiz as quiz master and I was fully incharge and the event turned out to be a huge success.

Later we posed for numerous photos in front of the balloon arch and then we also took the arch outside. Fortunately for us the buses hadn’t left and all the students were still there in the buses. We took the arch to a banner which was near the buses and we posed for more photos and cheered wildly, much to our delight and to the envy of other department students in the buses. Once the celebrations were over, we capped it all by bursting the balloons. Soon the buses left and we all left as a happy lot. Despite so many things going wrong, it all ended well.

Hope you all enjoyed reading my experience at Resilience. I hope I have not bored you. This is probably the longest blog I had written but to describe every event in detail, it needed to be this long. There may be instances of self praise in this blog but it is only done to describe my feelings then. Also this blog is not meant to undermine the work done by other departments for their respective symposiums but it just elaborates what we did with a sense of pride. I cannot be a Mechanical engineer if I did not have that little pride for me and my department.

I could not name everyone involved but on the whole the credit goes to the entire team at Azpomerz (our Association) headed by my senior Tarun Tharyan and ably supported by my classmate Sarvesh.

I sincerely hope this blog has taught you some lessons atleast on what to do and what not to do while organizing an event like Resilience.

A really interesting blog awaits you in a few weeks time...

Until then its me (Ashwin) signing off…

Bye…