Just a month to go for Ahvan… a lot of excitement can be seen on the campus… Back after Diwali celebrations, the following posts will take you through some of the biggest and challenging events  that  are a part of Ahvan.

Entrepid is a full time stimulation-strategy game, a first of its kind in B-School history.  The interesting part of the event is that it tests the real time holistic-challenges faced by a firm, and in the end, it’s not the team with the sharpest minds in finance, strategy, operations & marketing that wins, but the team that collaborates most effectively who will emerge as the winners. The game is spread across different sectors and the value chain of an industry and where players would fight it out amongst themselves. There would be government regulations, dispute resolution cell, market forces and the concept of ‘GOD’, i.e. participants can expect literally anything from earthquakes, strikes, forest fires to terrorist attack on their companies! The preliminary round will be conducted online and the top 6 teams will be part of the final battle! …So be ready to fight it out!

The Finance League is the biggest finance event @ Planet-I & will take you through the life cycle of Finance. This event will have 3 phases consisting of 7 rounds and the winners will be decided on the cumulative scores, with different weights assigned to each of the rounds. This year the Finance League brings with it lots of media coverage, quizzes, debates, Equity research reports, Portfolio management game , role play of a editor(newspaper), banking stimulation game and a First time entrant – a game inspired from ‘Monopoly’ where teams will move on the board &  trade companies to capture maximum market share! It is going to be a battle field of Finance Gurus, so even if you think you have it in you, it is recommended that you start sharpening your fin skills… cause in the end it’s all about being crowned the Ultimate-Finance League Champion!

The last event that I will talk about will take you back to the nostalgic days of ring trading and the open outcry. It is the largest spot event of Ahvan and is characterized by the excitement and the frenzy of activity that can only be generated by the best minds of the country continuously trying to outwit each other as they react to news and try to master the whims of the market. The event, aptly titled Bulls and Bears, would be one in which you are expected to literally shout to find takers for your trades and promises the participants a journey of their lifetime (for their experience & their throats, as well)!

So, be ready to experience this epic management fest @ IIM Indore, from 19^th-21^st November, 2009!

…Just a Month to Go!

Kalpavriksha – it stands for the wish fulfilling tree. An ancient mythological concept from the ravens of India, it is the symbol of one’s identity and potential. It makes us probe inside our abilities and skills; actions and achievements and asks us a fundamental question- Can you fulfil the wishes of the poorest? It asks us if we have the desire to leave a lasting impact on the society. If so, Kalpavriksha ’09 is the place where you have to be.

First started in 2006, Kalpavriksha is the first of its kind event in India which brings about the amalgation of business principles and efforts. It aims towards societal upliftment and looks at becoming a sustained tool for change. With the best of brains slogging it out for the honours in previous Kalpavrikshas, we have seen some very innovative social B-plans. Now, the sceptical you may say that the talk is all good, but have any of these been put into practise? Well, we’d say that what differentiates Kalpavriksha – The number of projects which have actually been implemented and created an impact. And we promise you, that this is just the beginning.

This year, Kalpavriksha will be bigger and better than even before. We are becoming more inclusive, by including B-schools we did not have earlier, are campaigning more vigorously. We will have the best possible judges. We are having fantastic tie ups. We will give you the best hospitality. All you need to worry about is your Business idea.

Come, join Kalpavriksha ’09!

Kalpavriksha, one of the showcase events of IIM Indore’s annual fest ahvan,
invites budding social entrepreneurs to submit their B-Plans. Kalpavriksha
provides a platform for self-sustainable business plans which have a
measurable social impact.

The winning team and the runner up will receive prizes of Rs. 1, 20, 000 and
Rs. 70,000 respectively. The winner of Kalpavriksha ‘09 also secures a
direct entry into the finals of the ‘Global Social Entrepreneurship
Competition’ (GSEC) organized by the Foster School of Business, University
of Washington, U.S.A to be held in March, 2010!

Send in your entries by 11th October midnight to see your dreams come true.
Participants are required to register themselves online on the ahvan
website: www.ahvan.in . For further details, refer the Kalpavriksha Manual.

Here is a screen-shot of āhvān’s website that was launched yesterday. Please check it out and  feel free to send in your feedback to us.

We have made sure that in spite of all the changes and scaling up going on, āhvān does retain some of the trademark traditions of IRIS. So yes, you will once again see the 3 storey banner and yes it will be larger than last year’s. Other than that we have taken the tradition of in house designing of all our creative requirements a step further. This year even the images used on our brochures were ones taken by our own people except one for which we are highly grateful to Antony’s friend Gopal, who shot some amazing pics while he was on campus. Ah ok…for the benefit of the non-inhabitants of Planet I, Antony or Father as we call him,  is one of the most respected personalities in Planet I and is Joint Head of Operations vertical in āhvān 09. So, coming back to my point, it was indeed a proud moment for me when Vishal Jalan, our senior and one of the best talents to have walked on Planet I, pinged me and told me this -

Very elegant work with the brochure dude….
congrats…
Felt so proud to show the work to my colleagues here telling that it
was done totally inhouse.. literally … even the photos are inhouse
convey my congrats to all those who worked on it…

Our creative and design team truly rocks!! With people like Sudhir, Harish and Sadaf, we are never short of ideas and talent which can turn those ideas into jaw-dropping designs. And thanks of course to Sayani for patiently bearing with us while we shot a zillion pics of her, Neeta for obliging us and allowing us to use her pic on the brochure and Rakesh for being the man behind the lenses. Sayani, please don’t forget to thank us in case you start receiving ‘more’ offers for modeling once people see our corporate brochure.

As for the website, yes we have once again been able to save some money by not outsourcing the work. We are working on it and you’ll soon get to see it at http://ahvan.in

These and a lot more things we are planning will make sure that IRIS lives on in the soul of āhvān.

Very elegant work with the brochure dude….
congrats…
Felt so proud to show the work to my colleagues here telling that it
was done totally inhouse.. literally … even the photos are inhouse

convey my congrats to all those who worked on it…

The past few days have been quite dull for the Ashwa team. The junior team selections that were planned for last week had to put off due to scheduling problems (I was rather looking forward to the chance of ordering people around). Also we had hoped to start the hunting process for the judges of Ashwa ‘09, but even that got delayed. All in all there are not too many updates to write about. I’ll instead use this space to talk about the posters that we’ve put out so far.

Posters have always been an important communication medium for Ashwa. The posters for the event over the years have always communicated a simple message: There is only one winner. This has been the guiding principle for developing all creative content related to the event. This year we started working on the posters quite early. The plan was to have a good pool of posters ready when we have to send them out to other B-Schools and also to generate some buzz within the campus.

This was the very first poster we put up. It was conceived as a teaser poster. With that aim the design was kept as simple as possible, using only the text for effect. The poster was made pretty much in one sitting with Nachiket and Srinath coming up with the excuses and me putting them in as fast as possible.

The poster started off as a very serious poster that was supposed to impress and inspire the audience. However after a few excuses we ran out of things to say that did not sound cliched. So we decided to take the easy way out and make it lighter in tone with some subtle and some not-so-subtle digs at people. In hindsight, it was a great idea to make it lighter because the response to this poster was amazing. The phenomenal number of nominations that we received for the junior team could be attributed in part to the success of this poster. This poster most probably would be sent out to other B-Schools at a later date with some changes to replace the IIM I insider references.

This is the poster that has been taking ages to get printed. This was planned as our recruitment poster for the junior team. We wanted to put it up before starting the selection process. However printing delays and paper shortages at the IT Dept has pushed back the poster’s launch. Hopefully (fingers crossed) we’d be able to get it printed today. The good thing is that since the selection process has also been postponed we might just make it in time.

This one is a purely internal poster. The idea was to represent what qualities are required to be part of the Ashwa team. Again we started out with the aim of making a serious poster and ended up taking liberal potshots at our senior team! (I think we should stop trying for serious posters altogether) We’d however like to place on record that all five of our seniors are Grade-A chappies. It was a wonderful experience working with them on Ashwa ‘08.

The response to this poster has been entirely restricted to the web till now, but even that has been very encouraging. The content writing took a long time with long discussions over mails on which is the best way to convey Raj’s fascination with Zingaro. We are also thinking about a poster that showcases the past winners of Ashwamedha but that’s just a idea at this point.

What do you think about our posters? Good, bad or downright ugly? Let us know by dropping off a comment below!

Continuity gives us roots; change gives us branches, letting us stretch and grow and reach new heights.

IRIS, our annual management festival and one of India’s largest, had served as a platform since 2001 for some of the best minds in our country to exhibit their tremendous potential. Some of our flagship events such as Ashwamedha, Kalpavriksha and Sanjeevani have over the years become cult events with a dedicated following of their own. Klueless has cut across all geographic barriers, becoming a record breaking phenomenon that continues to expand every year, reminding us that the world really is flat. The secret of IRIS’ success was in the constant innovation in the organizing and the content, with a committed openness to embracing change.

This change is now being extended to the name. This year – IRIS becomes āhvān. Sanskrit for a “Call”, āhvān is just that – to the nation at large. A call for awakening, collaborating, commitment and action.  It is an invitation to those with a spirit and vision to come forth and make a mark. This year we present you a fest which promises to make a difference.

While we do acknowledge the many who have been a part of Iris over the years and would feel attached to the name (including ourselves), we believe this change is necessary to be in line with our vision for this fest.

We are delighted to announce that āhvān will be organized on the 19^th, 20^th and 21^st of November  this year, and we promise that it will be better and bigger than ever.