I was always
waiting for a kick ass event to happen by that way I can pen my thoughts and
here comes IBCN 2015 which according to me will go in the annals of Nagarathar
events. First what does ‘IBCN’ stand for? It stands for ‘International business
conference for Nagarathars”; What is the objective of the meet? It is to
promote entrepreneurship. It started in Singapore in 2013 and group of
individuals from Coimbatore who attended the conference in Singapore got enthused
and wanted to take it over to Coimbatore for the next two years. Group of
Coimbatore Nagarathars have something called as NEU which stands for
Nagarathars Entrepreneurs Union and they are the one who took over IBCN 2014-15 term under the eminent leadership of PL.K Palaniappan annan. Ok that’s some basic background information. Now being a person passionate about Cinema let me bring one example …All of us must have seen the move Minnalae directed by Gowtham vasudev menon …it was a nice movie and Vivek’s comedy was one of the major highlights..now the director’s second directorial venture everyone in the cine industry as well as audience must have expected a nice meaty role for actor Vivek ..but the director did not even cast Vivek and did an action movie ‘Kaaka Kaaka’ which was a runaway hit….I just want to bring this small example to elucidate when people expect something from you but you change gears and bring something extraordinary it will just mesmerize everyone. When IBCN 2013 was a roaring success the Coimbatore team took over IBCN and produced cracker of an event on July 25th and 26th 2015 which is going to be remembered for a very long time. These days when so much of importance are given to Culturals and some petty things arise out of those performances this event is a trendsetter in how people can envision and look beyond.
Every time we grumble about Technology …I have even written couple of blogs highlighting negative side of excess use of technology but now I would like to thank technology for being able to see the live telecast of the IBCN 2015 event sitting at my house ….Though I did not attend the event in person I cherished the following which caught my attention from speeches as well as my reflections on the two days conference:
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Organizers juggled delegates in the seating
arrangement by that way people get to network as much as possible
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Youth were given front row seating - beautiful sight to see them writing notes
when delegates speak; They were also given 2 hours workshop session by
Murugappa group
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Topics – the range of topics like TED X talks,
panel discussions, resolving conflicts in family business, how to take care of
sweetheart, follow your passion, plunge into business, beyond the borders,
Career choice in 21st century, Funding your business etc., were
truly inspiring
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Personalities – we saw people from religious
front like Jaggi vasudev, politicians like Nirmala Sethuraman, K.Shanmugam,
Pal.Karupaiah, Industrialists like Karumuttu Kannan, Murugappan, Entreprenurs
like Dato Palan, K.Pandia rajan, Manikam Ramasami etc., Since all these people
are very well established they were crystal clear in what they had to offer to
delegates
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Selfie time – No pictures but selfie time to
digest information and pen your thoughts in a notebook for the audience
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CD with all contact information – Everyone
attended were given CD with all contact details of speakers to ask questions
about the session
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No Ponnaadai, sandana maalai – welcome relief
!!! Absolutely no waste of time on these stuff to please guests ..rather they
were given memontos after they came down the dias which saves time
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MCs – Hats off for picking two wonderful M.Cs
…these days in many events MCs get carried away by grabbing so much
attention but here were two people who
talked in pure tamil as well as English. Their intro about the guests as well
as announcements were short and sweet
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Time management – Everyone should take a leaf
out of their book …whole 2 days is driven by speakers and hence time management
is of paramount importance and the way time was managed was exemplary ..they
made feel every minute count …
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PPT presentation – This was in alignment with
every speaker and set the mood for the discussion; The detailing was evident on
this front as technical glitches is one thing which spoils the momentum in many
meetings
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Entertainment – Thank god there were no overdose
of entertainment …it was just there to relax the environment during awards
distribution ….it was planned in such a way that there were one standup comedy,
one dance and one singing performance …
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Live Telecast – Oh boy ..the company who did
live telecast deserve over payment …..it was very professional and made people like me enjoy the coverage …
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Awards function – This definitely was one of the
major highlights of the event. The way the whole awards selection process
worked is so meticulously planned to every inch of detail. There was a protocol
in place, open application to public, selection panel to interview folks, video
footage of respective shops and announcing the awards during the function. Any
organization who wants to present awards can do a case study now on how IBCN
team went about the process. Also icing on the cake was one of the awards
‘Women entrepreneur’ award was given to my Mother in law
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BPC – Nagarathar event hosting business plan
competition on a public event …just to hear this makes me feel proud ..well
executed show by the three finalists
Whomsoever I had a conversation who attended the event had one thing to
say in common –it was very professionally organized; Many speakers who spoke
also had high praise about the organizers for the amount of detailing that went
into the making of the 2 days event. Basically value of time was honored
considering the fact people flew from as many as 9 countries on top of everyone
taking time off from their busy schedules. Also the team introduced lots of new
initiatives in their term and one amongst them is the EOTW (Entrepreneur of the
week) award presented every week ..This is very well received from people
across the globe since it made everyone realize that Nagarathars are into all
walks of life and not just struck with one industry sector …
The NEU team did some great marketing ….many promotional events by
touring many cities, inauguration event and also made full use of social media
…when content is average and marketing is good it is like simple interest
calculation..but when content is great backed with great marketing then that is
like compound interest calculation which is exactly where IBCN 2015 falls under
…
When so much is talked about the event we
definitely have to talk about the Team …Any good organization will function
well based on the visionary of its leader ..and PL.K Palaniappan who is a jewel
among our Nagarathar community showcased an outstanding event with his
dedicated and passionate team who have worked tirelessly. The team deserve big
round of applause for coming up with an event that is one of its kind as it was
promised during the promotional events.
Now after all this what is the motto of the conference – it is “Inspire
to succeed”; Without any doubt whoever attended the conference or even catched
glimpse of the event must have got inspired. So the team did what was expected
from them and that alone deserves a standing ovation. Verdict of 'Blockbuster' was already out even before the event concluded ... Well done NEU team …you
have set the standards very high now for the UAE team who are already promising
…..
