OPULENCE, IT BHU’s management festival was held on the 14th and 15th of January, 2006. In what was a special way to kick off the activity packed semester, OPULENCE lived up to its promise of being bigger and better as compared to its debut venture last year.
Opulence was conceptualized with the intention of canalizing all management and entrepreneurial activities, a must at any technological institute. With that objective in mind, Business Plan contest was introduced which elicited responses from some of the best B-schools in India, the result of which was the still talked about chai shop plan.
BHARAT DABHOLKAR (of AMUL advertisements’ fame) and ANANYA DUTT (model cum theatre artist) graced the inaugural and followed it up with a captivating workshop in which the nuances of advertising were discussed threadbare in keeping with OPULENCE’s motto of unleashing creative extravagance. The ad making competition, which had entries even from the IIM’s gained much relevance in the presence of Mr. Dabholkar with one of the themes being the launch of ‘YUMMUL’ butter in India and Pakistan.
The case studies’ competition saw some of the budding executives racking their brains over an in-house marketing issue while the debate and the quiz (hosted by Rajiv Ranjan, a Mastermind India finalist) was well received as well. Prof. Chandra from IIM-A with his presentations on Amul and the Mumbai Dabbawaalahs illustrated how great stories were invariably built from scratch.
The panel discussion which was on the compatibility of IT and core sector jobs had alumni occupying top managerial posts as the panelists including Dr. Rajesh Tiwari (SVP, UTI BANK), Mr. Paresh Prasad (MD, WIPE INDIA) and Mr. Pramod Joshi (ex MD, SYNCATA). The organizing team led by Abhinav Singhal (student convener) with the able backing of Akshay Rajagopalan (co-convener), Pratyush Tiwari (creative head) and the charismatic Prof. B.B Bansal typified the essence of the event with their great organizational efficiency. OPULENCE was indeed OPULENT.