It’s about a month to go for āhvān ’09. 30 days of excitement, and 3 days of fun!! But for the organizing teams and the participants from top B-Schools from all across the country; it is sheer hard work in an intensely competitive environment. Afterall, āhvān ’09, one of the biggest management festivals in the country will provide the biggest platforms for aspiring managers to showcase their talent through various events that would take place during Nov 19-21 at IIM Indore. Year on year, standards have been set and surpassed. Year on year, IIM Indore has raised the bar, put forth new challenges for the participants. This year promises to be no different.

The name might have changed, but the essence remains just the same. So, just like its predecessor IRIS, the grand finale of āhvān ‘09 will be LiveWire, the live musical concert of IIM Indore. LiveWire has historically been the most exciting event of the festival because of all the electricity and passion that a live performance generates in the crowd and on stage. It’s definitely my favorite part of the festival, and also the perfect culmination to the festival, giving everyone involved a chance to enjoy and have a blast. It also gives residents of Indore and other closeby areas a chance interact with the institute and its students. Over the years, LiveWire has played host to some of the most sought after bands. Indian Ocean, Euphoria, Parikrama, Strings and Silk Route have all graced the stage, and each time, the audience was left completely captivated by the performances, crying out for more.

This year, the LiveWire team is more excited than ever, for this would be the first LiveWire under the banner of āhvān!! Team LiveWire has been working frantically for the past four months to try and ensure that the legacy of LiveWire continues. LiveWire is already attracting huge interest from the participants at various B-Schools as well as residents of Indore. “We’re already flooded with enquiries about artist, tickets, event date and timings” says Aamal Mishra, LiveWire Co-coordinator. Kamal Chhabra, also a LiveWire Co-coordinator said “All I can confirm is that LiveWire will be different this time, it will be bigger and better. We have planned a host of activities and so the audience can look for something new and exciting. The details will be out soon”.

November 21, 2009. It will be the same setting, the same venue, but this year, LiveWire promises to be completely different. If the enthusiasm level of Team LiveWire is anything to go by, it will be another addition to the spectacular series of concerts organized at IIM Indore. I, for sure, would not want to miss this one. The countdown has begun; it’s just a month to go now before the festivities begin at IIM Indore.

Keep watching this space for more information.

PS: More details about LiveWire to be revealed in the next post

Klueless, an integral part of IIM-Indore’s annual management fest Ahvan (earlier known as IRIS) has grown from strength to strength over the years. Last year, it saw an astounding 6 million hits. What is this phenomenon that has caught this nation by storm?  That has become an addiction among the young and old alike. That has engaged one and all.

Klueless is primarily an online game wherein a participant has to crack the clue at a given level to move on to the next level. Cracking the clue requires some lateral thinking, some googling and quite often just some presence of mind. This year’s version promises to be even more engaging and enthusing. The Link for this year’s klueless will be put up on the website in the first week of November. It goes without saying that there are lots of prizes to be won.

For more, watch this space.

Klueless over the years

Klueless 1

Klueless 2

Klueless 3

Klueless 4

Caution: It can be addictive.

The phone rang and it jolted me out of my state of fanciful musing. I looked at the name of the caller. “Ohh……my good ol’ pal from yesteryears…”. The conversation started of with the usual ‘wassup’ bit, and then I told him that I was working for Ahvan. “And what is that? I thought your management fest was called IRIS!”, said he. And then I told him how IRIS had transformed to ‘Ahvan – a call to the nation’ this year. “Oh! So you are working for Ashwamedha are you?!” came the question from the other side. “You know Ashwamedha do you?!” was my surprised reply to the question. And then he told me how every Indian MBA worth his salt has dreamt of being ‘the one’ at Ashwamedha for the last seven years of Ashwa’s existence.

For an event enjoying popularity of that magnitude, Ashwa started out as a brand new concept and has become a trendsetter, pioneering a whole new genre of events across B-Schools. Obviously, the event team is not talking about what it plans to do this year since they re-invent themselves every year. All they say about Ashwa is that ‘The event places the participants in a series of simulated real life scenarios where the participants have to use all their wits, knowledge and passion to prove their mettle.’

The event will be launched on the 24^th of October with prize money of Rs.150000 (tentatively). The initial elimination process of online rounds will bring down the numbers from 1000+ applicants to ‘30 potential winners’. From then on, each one watches the others’ moves and out of this stiff competition, emerges the winner. Meanwhile, sponsors are vying for Ashwamedha, jostling for the eyeballs that Ashwa grabs. The buzz on the campus is that Ashwa in its new avatar is going to be one of Ahvan’s biggest successes. The personal interview round which promises to be nothing short of dramatic will decide ‘the real leader’. The focus is primarily going to be Ahvan’s theme ‘Imagining India’, where we look for leadership that is not restricted to corporate houses but makes a meaningful difference to this nation.

Cerebrate: The objective of this event is to identify the best management talents in India in the fields of Finance, Marketing, Operations and HR through soliciting solutions to live case studies. This gives the students an opportunity to prove their ability to perform in the corporate world (since case studies are live). The theme of the event is “Be the next Management Guru.”

Cerebrate Marketing:

Cerebrate Marketing is a live case study competition. It has 2 stages: first being the online round and the final held at IIM Indore campus. Participants from top 30 B-schools present their solutions to the industry experts and get a chance to interact with them and fine tune their marketing strategy skills with their help.

The tentative launch date of the events first and second round is  2^nd November 2009 and 19^th /20^th November 2009 respectively.

Cerebrate Finance:

Cerebrate Finance is a live case study competition based on finance. It has two phases. In phase 1 an online quiz of 40 minutes based on knowledge of the field of finance will be conducted. Based on their performance in phase 1 six teams will be shortlisted for phase 2. In phase 2 A live case study will be provided to all shortlisted teams and they will be invited to present their cases to the judges on 19^th November in IIM Indore campus.

The online quiz of phase 1 will be launched on 7^th November 2009 and its results will be declared on 9^th November 2009. Phase 2 will start on 10^th November 2009 with the distribution of the case study to the selected teams and it will end on 19^th November 2009 with the final presentation by the groups.

Cerebrate Operations:

This event is being held for the first time looking at the growing importance of operations these days. It is a case study contest in operations field. Objective of the event is “To identify best talents in India in operations management area through soliciting solutions for live issues faced by corporate”.

The registration for this event has started. The case study will be available on the website from 29^th October 2009 and the final presentations by the groups will be made on 19^th November 2009.

Kalpavriksha has begun with a BANG. The Kalpa team is ecstatic about the overwhelming response that it has received this year! The gruelling task of selecting the top 20 teams from the 131 Social Business plans has been accomplished and the results have been declared on the website on 18^th October. Visit http://ahvan.in/ahvan09/index.html to know your whether your team has been one of the fortunate ones or not.

With international tie-up with Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC) of Foster School of Business and association with FINO as ‘Knowledge Partner’ and Cognizant as Sponsor, Kalpavriksha’09 promises to be bigger and better this year. Kalpavriksha moves a step ahead in assessing the social impact brought about by the business plans by introducing a new factor of “Social Impact Assessment”. Concurring with Ahvan’s theme of “Imagining India”, Kalpavriksha continues to be the torch-bearer of self-sustainable social entrepreneurship.

Testimonials from last year’s finalists speak tons about the success of Kalpavriksha.

“Kalpavriksha happens to be one of the most gruelling and testing B-plan competitions in India. Unlike other B-plan competitions whereby you can impress the judges with a 10 minute presentation to walk away with a prize, Kalpavriksha is almost a month long journey which ensures that only the best and genuine entrepreneurial minds manage to make the cut …”

“We have won many competitions, but the Kalpavriksha experience has been one of the most rewarding, even though we did not win anything! It tested our mettle in strategy, our team cohesiveness, the practicality of the plan among other things … Finally, we would like to say that if you want to rub shoulders with the likes of London School of Economics, Princeton University etc., Kalpavriksha is the shortest way to do it for an Indian team. So go for it!”

Team Kalpavriksha is looking forward to provide a platform to the path-breaking ideas of the nation’s young entrepreneurs and leave a lasting impact.

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!