My 1st Blog

Hey all !

Whoa so finally I am getting an opportunity to write my 1^st BLOG.

Oh! BTW Let me introduce myself: Hi! I am Nidhi Pandey working in capacity of a Web 2.0 Expert with iBranch.in (a product of Citywala Infotech Pvt.Ltd) iBranch.in specialises in providing intra-college portals. And on 25^th Oct ’09 iBranch.in partnered with IIM Indore for Entrepreneurship Workshop titled: ‘Business Ideas and Opportunities Evaluation’.

So it goes like this, we [Me and the CEO- Raghu Pandey] reached Indore one day before the workshop, with our bags packed with almost everything that we might/might not/just in case need there J

So the morning of 25^th we got ready and left for the venue. Now the problem was that our driver was very Slow + New (which means just like us he also was unaware of the route to be taken) so, we had to stop not less than some 15-16 times...first to ask the route to RAU and then towards IIM Indore.

A little Blunder! Why! Oh don’t ask...in the due course of asking the route we had taken fifteen minutes more than the scheduled time for the workshop (Hey but that wasn’t our fault...our margins completely exhausted during the inquiry of the route...BTW. . .IIM students please don’t mind if I suggest you something, For Heaven’s sake Please get a good signboard in English..that tattered Hindi signboard Doesnt go well with the Reputation of An IIM.

On reaching the premises we were escorted by another organiser to the Venue.. It was a great feeling as this was the 1^st time I was visiting any IIM, and I was attending a workshop long after my college days i.e.: Apr 09

When we reached the Hall... The Director, Prof. Ravichandran was giving his “3 min” speech.We were just settling down in our chairs and then came that heavy feeling of Nostalgia when The Director Sir, got angry over some student because He/She wasn’t paying attention to his words... I remember how we loathed these few minute speeches when we were in our college..and now we can’t help smiling @ our reaction during those small-small incidents (M sure Ravi Sir & Jimmy Sir You Are Reading That :P ) ...but nevertheless this incident made me feel at ease immediately :)

As soon as The Director Sir finished his speech he came and sat in our row..I don’t know what occurred to him.. He suddenly got up and said give that another bouquet to this lady...and I got up..(totally blank...coz i dint know how to react) and then he said..Bring the camera take a snap..(this made me elated) and then Sir told me..” Arre Smile karo..Smile for the snap” J

Wow!Good experience it was!

Then Prof.Vasanti started off with her session. The startoff for the session was definitely a monotony breaker for the entire crowd out there..coz She asked us to check our chairs as there were gift boxes beneath every chair.....her motive was to know what all had we expected to gain out of this workshop and take back home as our gift boxes... Now isn’t that a fabulous way to start off... by the time you look out for the gift below your chair and all you realise that you are Totally Fresh for the session..:)

Prof.Vasanti started off with some basic quizzes related to attitude and approach...then came Idea generation using newspaper articles... one thing she constantly emphasised on was - the importance of New Ideas and various avenues available to assist with the same.. So, Basically I would categorise the entire Workshop as a Brain storming Session wherein everyone was constantly involved..

We had 3 breaks during the workshop..2 Tea breaks and 1 lunch break...in which we (me and Raghu) enjoyed the discussions that we had with Prof Vasanti, Prof Sundar and the students-Bhumika, Harshil, Kumar & Raghav. The interesting thing about going for the Lunch sessions was that we had to cross a wide stretch of garden and the building before we reached the dining hall...and then the same way back (No chance of weight gain :D No wonder I found no student on the Bulky side)

In the post-lunch sessions all students were asked to present their business idea to their peers (a group of 8-10 students), the group was asked to finalise one business Idea and prepare a Sales pitch of 2 minutes regarding the same.

And guess what! Raghu held the responsibility of judging them..(Prof.Vasanti’s only instruction was don’t judge them very harsh..keep it on a lighter note)

Some of them which I remember are:

1) Get your office (outsourced export office)

2) Online Animation studio

3) Grah Seva ( office that sends Housemaid as per requirements)

4) Robotics (Sorry but m not a techie person..the only thing I got from this was: It Was Related To Robotics)’

Raghu gave 1^st rank to the idea of “Grah Seva” and who else must have been the driving force other than yours truly :P

After the Lunch session discussions, Prof.Vasanti was so happy to have a struggling entrepreneur from a Startup to be there in the workshop..that she asked Raghu to explain the Mullins 7 Domain Framework in relevance to his business i.e.: iBranch.in; once she was done with the theory part. And this to her and everybody’s satisfaction was a thorough practically oriented session!

After that session we had a session with the non-IIM students...and I don’t know how but Raghu again lead almost half of the session...(by that time I was already figuring out how am I going to spend the rest of the evening) It was evident from the attitude of students that they enjoyed the session thoroughly and they, just like us were, looking for a long term association J

Finally we left the IIM Indore Premises and headed towards home...(which was slower than the morning one ..(Why! Haaah! Because the headlights of our car somehow dint start only) I felt as if I was driving back on a paddle rickshaw.

And.....how can I forget to mention that we hadn’t taken our camera...And so the only way we could capture the beauty of the vast & lush IIM premises was to store it in our memory... till we go back to Indore or to other IIMs