Digital start for Eximius 2020, an entrepreneurship fest, at IIM Bangalore with fireside chats, workshops, and a host of contests
Bangalore: Eximius 2020, an entrepreneurship fest organized by the students of Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, got off to a digital start, today, with the theme, ‘Get Set Disrupt’. The two-day national fest has case competitions, workshops, and speaker sessions in entrepreneurship, finance, marketing, healthcare, analytics, and more.
It was inaugurated by Suresh Prabhu, Member of Rajya Sabha, and India’s Sherpa to G7 and G20, Karan Bajaj, IIMB alumnus and founder of White Hat Jr., Prof. Rishikesha T. Krishnan, Director of IIM Bangalore, and Prof. Padmini Srinivasan, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Management at IIM Bangalore.
While Suresh Prabhu shared his thoughts on entrepreneurship in the times of COVID-19, Karan Bajaj recounted his journey of building WhiteHat Jr. In a joint speaker session on ‘Wisdom for Startups from Grown-ups’, R. Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director, Tata Sons, and R. Narayanan, angel investor and mentor, StartUpGrind, advised budding entrepreneurs on how to grow in uncertain environments. Maitreyee Kalaskar, Founder of ‘The Creative Talks’, conducted a session on designing and branding. Dharam Mehta, Head of Business Operations, WeWork India, shared his experiences of building a business from ground-up. ‘The Mad Talk’ focused on the three pillars of marketing – attention, perception and communication.
Samina Bano, Founder of the Rightwalk Foundation, spoke about social change through public policy entrepreneurship. Satya Narayanan, Co-Founder, Career Launcher, shared five secrets of his entrepreneurial journey and dwelt on converting an idea into an IPO. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Founder, MD & CEO, Bandhan Bank, focused his talk on the grit and hard work involved in taking a start-up from 0 to 1. Aakrit Vaish, Co-Founder and CEO of Haptik, spoke about how AI can disrupt customer experience.
Sessions on entrepreneurship were led by Malavika Harita, Former CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi Focus Network India, and Mukesh Bansal, Founder, Myntra. The founder of Humans of Bombay, Karishma Mehta, engaged with her listeners on social media journalism. Priyanka Madnani conducted a session on creating a pitch deck.
A panel comprising Ankur Puri, Partner, McKinsey & Company, Dhiraj Rajaram, CEO, Mu Sigma, and Prof. U. Dinesh Kumar, Chairperson, Post Graduate Programme in Business Analytics, IIM Bangalore, focused on analytics and had an engaging discussion on entrepreneurs vs managers.
A case competition on iD Fresh Food, a contest called PolicyMarketeers, another called Techminator, a treasure hunt in DecipHER, a live auction in Investverse, a poster-making competition in Demystify, and an event called Social Pact had the partiicpants hooked. The day drew to a close with a stand-up act by comedian Kenny Sebastian.