Pune, March 29, 2009: The Cyber Media Conclave, which was held at ‘Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication’ in Pune was the first of it’s kind in India and was organized by a 5 member team from SIMC’s Post Graduate programme. The conclave focused on Cyber Media and its use as a tool for networking, knowledge sharing, marketing as well as a tool for social cause.
The conclave was inaugurated by Prof. Ujjwal Kumar Chaudhury, the Director of SIMC and the session was inaugurated by Mr. Kiruba Shankar, Founder and CEO, The Knowledge Foundation from Chennai. This interactive session with the audience was followed by Mr. Shivam Vij, an indi-blog award winner and a Tehelka journalist who spoke about the relationship between mainstream media and social media with respect to the cyber media. Mr. Shiv Bhaskar, CEO, The viewspaper stressed on the media being the ultimate fourth estate while Ms. Jasmeen, the founder of the blanknoise project which is all about street sexual harassment felt that the cyber media is one of the best tools for social change and has helped the blank noise project grow and reach out to women and men from all over the country.
The second session began with Mr. Rajesh Lalwani, Founder & Director at Scenario Consulting Private Limited, pitchh.com and blogworks, emphasized on the internet as a tool for marketing. This was followed by Mr. Atul Chitnis, Senior Vice- President of Geodesic Solutions who spoke about the business of open source system which according to him is the key source of the cyber media’s existence.
The scope of online video & the power of the business of video was covered by Mr. Namit Bimbhat, CEO, Switch technologies. He also said that online video is a tool to interact with customers. The Vice- President – Products of Bharatmatrimony.com, Mr. J Mahadevan stressed on the importance of brand building of an innovative cyber product. The cyber medium was one of the reasons for the success of the ‘Bell Bajao’ campaign. The whole process and the strategy used on the cyber medium was explained by Ms. Rashmi, the marketing manager of the campaign which is an initiative of Breakthrough.
The first cyber media conclave came to an end with a workshop for the SIMC students, by Mr. Rajesh Lalwani and Mr. Kiruba Shankar.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Best Chennai footprints ever!
The Ruhi Jhunjunwala-led Footprints 2008 team of the Chennai Chapter has every reason to celebrate. Namma Chennai hadn’t seen torrential rains in a week that entailed intense preparations by the team. Everyone had just returned from the final farewell team Chennai dinner (paid for by Miss Ruhi) and yes, everyone now knows that Footprints 2008, the Chennai Chapter has been declared the highest scoring team as yet. (now sharing it with Kol)
Muhahahahahhaha!!!!! Yes, that about summarises the way we feel about it right now. To explain further let’s give you an account of what happened on D-Day.
Did we start late? Yes. Pulled in a fairly decent crowd (read packed auditorium, atleast for the first session)? Yes again. How were the speakers? Okay, considering Aishwarya Subramanian managed to pull in the Editor-in-Chief of the Hindu (Mr. N. Ram, who was in too much of a hurry to listen to Arindam and Aishwarya Sridharan’s beautifully written introduction), Mr Vincent D’Souza(Editor of the Neighbourhood Times) and Mr. Kiruba Shankar (‘Oh Shit!!!!’, because that’s exactly what Arindam said over the mike when he, in a momentary lapse of memory, forgot Mr. Shankar’s name, and had to be reminded of the same by Mr. Shankar himself). Quickly recovered from the initial shock of such blunders, The team confidently faced the audience as the Director introduced them .
When asked whether anything could have been pulled off better, Ms. Jhunjunwala, coolness personified, replied that it would have been nice had she remembered to give the Thank You speech. Of course, we did get Ms. Jhujhunwala’s rather terse comments about people management early on, as we struggled to get the show back on track after the unforeseen delay and the strange disappearance of the Sound Guy (who incidentally was in charge of the lights as well). The 5 minute long confusion that resulted due to the cancellation of a candlelight vigil for the victims of terror due to shortage of time, was reflected in the stage and audience lights randomly going off, and coming back again at the wrong times(when the videos were being played), attended to swiftly by Renuka, Srinivas, Shilpa and Arindam. While the rather excited and typically Indian crowd (precisely 34 mins late for the start of a session) was managed with extreme restraint by Archana & Akanksha, Hamsini, Deepika and Nishant mingled with the audience, handing the mikes around to students who once outside the classrooms, discovered that they could ask a lot of intelligent questions which the speakers were more than happy to answer. Sneha, Siddharth handled the photography exhibition which was subsequently judged by Mr.Sunder who unfortunately couldn’t make it for the prize distribution.
Meanwhile,Arindam,Renuka,Ruhi,
The JWT workshop on advertising by Shiv Parameswaran and Arjun Kumar was a roaring success with the audience completely engrossed in the advertisements and the videos being screened by them. But the main attraction of the workshop was the Sulekha.com inspired yellow pages tearing session by the members of the audience, leaving Venky and Arindam a substantial mess to clear up.
The lunch break wasn’t exactly a successful one as the crowd thinned out minute by minute, though all this was reason for good cheer to the food stall owners put up right beside the auditorium. One of the main panellists of the Evolution of Tamil cinema session slipped through the welcome party, unnoticed much to the consternation of deepika.Ms.Swarnamalya’s arrival created quite the flutter as more of the boys from loyola rushed to attend this session.Venky and Sneha,anchors for the session, gave a wonderful introduction, which was quickly taken over by Mr.Anupam Siddartha,our Deputy Director.As the ratter progressed with a panel discussion,Mr.Gautham Menon and Ms.Swarnamalya argued over the increasingly important role of women in Tamil Cinema. Whether it was for the sheer popularity of it all or not, the fact that we managed to maintain atleast three fourths of the auditorium was something that we were all proud of. The secrets of doing so shall remain with the team to be passed on to the coming batches of SIMC.
Anita Udeep, Film maker and Naresh Iyer, singer were awarded the Young Communicator awards) though they were initially mentioned as the Young Innovator Awardees by Venky, who corrected his mistake 5 secs later.
Amit Singh and our very own Venky,Partners at ASAP,a theatre group, conducted a theatre workshop involving the whole crowd ensured a sizeable number of people staying back till the final session. The session marked the end of our show as the usual thing started happening; crowds leaving as their filmstars had just left and the general, nonsensical milling around of crowds that often plagues Footprints around the Country.
This was how the Footprints 2008 Chennai Chapter team saw Friday the 5th of December. Sleepless nights, tonnes of worry, justifiably paranoid Ruhi, last minute cancellations and all other such crises that most of us have experienced in the due course of conducting footprints caused much panic. But the interesting thing about FP08 Chennai was that the team always worked together, even under the garb of utter chaos. With randomly dimming lights, breaking mementoes, impatient speakers, emergency creatives et al, we held a show that had the maximum audience recorded in any of the other cities except Kolkata. Our speakers’ composition was the best the City and indeed, Footprints could afford. Our grades are high, our morales upbeat. Because even under the shadow of a super cyclone or the largest global financial crises since the Great Depression, team Chennai pulled it all off.
In short, we created History.
Monday, December 1, 2008
I have arrived...
Madras has always beckoned. With a long delayed arrival, I finally felt the sweat trickling down my forehead. It was a sign of the times that Im sure are to follow- the really tought task of catching up with my team and (damn it0 i have to use a cliche here) leaving my %$^%^print.
Nevermind the fact that I landed up here knowing not where I'd stay, considering the person in obvious reference was amusing himself with the ways of little known tribals near the town of Tirunelveli. Nevermind the fact that I landed up here with 4 days to go for footprints. Nevermind the fact that I had NO CLUE about what was going on. Quite simply, nevermind. I realised that tonnes needed to be done and that all the wacko meetings over the last few months were finally boiling down to these four days.
Footprints is almost here, with all the expectations you can possibly have. Quite honestly, it is the one forum where all they are essentially trying to convey is the need for us to talk. And how.
These four days will be a test. At a time when the country burns, fuelled by its own problems, we will be faced with a barrage of cancelled commitments, delays, agony and at times, desperation. But SIMC, for all its accolades and detractions alike, teaches you two things: set- backs arent what they seem and things will always take a turn for the better. Rather, we'll ensure it happens that way.
Nevermind the fact that I landed up here knowing not where I'd stay, considering the person in obvious reference was amusing himself with the ways of little known tribals near the town of Tirunelveli. Nevermind the fact that I landed up here with 4 days to go for footprints. Nevermind the fact that I had NO CLUE about what was going on. Quite simply, nevermind. I realised that tonnes needed to be done and that all the wacko meetings over the last few months were finally boiling down to these four days.
Footprints is almost here, with all the expectations you can possibly have. Quite honestly, it is the one forum where all they are essentially trying to convey is the need for us to talk. And how.
These four days will be a test. At a time when the country burns, fuelled by its own problems, we will be faced with a barrage of cancelled commitments, delays, agony and at times, desperation. But SIMC, for all its accolades and detractions alike, teaches you two things: set- backs arent what they seem and things will always take a turn for the better. Rather, we'll ensure it happens that way.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Yet another day....
Well.... thanks to the rain goddess 'Dedopani' ( ref: Nishant's post on chennaifootprints2008.ning.com), all the schools and colleges have been closed for a while. Hence, We decided to target the malls and randomly approach people and talk to them about the event. We did get some semi-positive responses.... (yay for that).... but hardly sold a few tickets..... yet again, thanks to the rain goddess :) :) :) :)....( poor thing)!!!!
Anyway, we did end up making fools out of ourselves ( not me actually..... jus a few of them). The team coordinator ....Ruhi decided that she would be different from the rest and run down an escalator which was going up. unfortunately her efforts went down the drain. She HAAADDDD to go with the flow and realised that she isn't Rajnikanth..... Hence she took the stairs and came down after going up.
After these trips to all the malls, we have decided to create a website www.onlygirls-mylowelygirls.com..... no its not a porn site! Its a site about Nishant Shah.... who somehow happens to know all the women of Chennai... Hugss them and says 'didiiiiii....long time'.... ofcourse the girl has to squint her eyes to make eye contact with him coz of his bangs :) :).... The bangs and his CONTACTS do come in handy at times and we're very thankful for that.
Sneha.... if guys fall for u and offer to help us out wid the event, girls fall for nishant's bangs.... beat that! muwuhahaha!
____________________________________________________________________
If any of u saw a guy wid bangs carrying a Giordano bag belonging to Fp: Team Chennai's Driver # 3* (Sneha Ramachandran), jumping across the granite dividers outside Kesar Gift Mart ( Our Gift sponsors- We thank them profusely) on cathedral road, with a beautiful plastic bouquet, that was Nishant Shah carrying the bouquet for his pocketful of sunshine.....
Well, we aren't sure if he bought it or shoplifted it, but he likes telling people he made it!
____________________________________________________________________
Sneha R Menon of the menon lineage....driver # 3 of Team Chennai ( TC) has been rated the second best drivers in the history of Footprints : The Chennai chapter ....( taking all the 8 years into consideration)... the best is the Shah boi! insists that the road rules are meant to be broken, insists that women above the age of 28 shouldn't be given a licence ( chauvenistic bugger yes....but what to do.... he has bangs....it comes in handy....).
While Sneha thinks that her ottai maruti 800 is a sexxxyyy power-steering vehicle, Nishant nsists that he owns all the roads in Chennai.
____________________________________________________________________
Coming back to the promotions at malls, we did walk around carrying the posters facing the public and walking around. It did looks stupid, nobody looked but WE DIDN'T CARE! Anything for footprints. Go Footprints!!!! :D :D :D :D
____________________________________________________________________
We'd like to dedicate 'nenjukkul peidhidum' from Vaaranam Ayiram (1000 Elephants) to Nishant Shah and his Sunshine....
____________________________________________________________________
Congratulations Ruhi Jhunjhunwala for watching your 2nd Tamil film ( The first being Kuselan but i don't think u saw the film thanks to elements from Karnataka.... P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P .... oh... and R R R R .... but not that much!)
____________________________________________________________________
I shouldn't forget to add this....We have discovered that Nishant Shah has become one of the girls coz he has nice hair and it helps us.... its kinda better than sneha's charms.... or venky's voice.... It helps us to attract guys from loyola and somehow manages to convince them into buying tickets at 10:14pm at Sangam Cinemas..... bangs do help u know.... funnily enough, bangs on a guy seems to be helping us a lot!!!! Thanks Shah!!!! cool che!
____________________________________________________________________
If u think this post is very discontinuous and it doesn't make sense, too bad.... its the after effects of watching Vaaranam Aayiram!!!! :D :D :D :D
____________________________________________________________________
ps: Watch the movie....Surya is brilliant!!!! :D hott tooo! sigh!
* Driver # 1: Ruhi Jhunjhunwala
Driver # 2: Shilpa Natarajan
Driver # 3: Sneha Ramachandran
Driver # 4 ( Special Appearance...drove once): Renuka Sanji
Funnily enough, all the drivers have been women and no accidents have happened till now.... touch wood....
Bangs are the reason for accidents Nishant.... we know y u've had 3 accidents till now!!!!!
Anyway, we did end up making fools out of ourselves ( not me actually..... jus a few of them). The team coordinator ....Ruhi decided that she would be different from the rest and run down an escalator which was going up. unfortunately her efforts went down the drain. She HAAADDDD to go with the flow and realised that she isn't Rajnikanth..... Hence she took the stairs and came down after going up.
After these trips to all the malls, we have decided to create a website www.onlygirls-mylowelygirls.com..... no its not a porn site! Its a site about Nishant Shah.... who somehow happens to know all the women of Chennai... Hugss them and says 'didiiiiii....long time'.... ofcourse the girl has to squint her eyes to make eye contact with him coz of his bangs :) :).... The bangs and his CONTACTS do come in handy at times and we're very thankful for that.
Sneha.... if guys fall for u and offer to help us out wid the event, girls fall for nishant's bangs.... beat that! muwuhahaha!
____________________________________________________________________
If any of u saw a guy wid bangs carrying a Giordano bag belonging to Fp: Team Chennai's Driver # 3* (Sneha Ramachandran), jumping across the granite dividers outside Kesar Gift Mart ( Our Gift sponsors- We thank them profusely) on cathedral road, with a beautiful plastic bouquet, that was Nishant Shah carrying the bouquet for his pocketful of sunshine.....
Well, we aren't sure if he bought it or shoplifted it, but he likes telling people he made it!
____________________________________________________________________
Sneha R Menon of the menon lineage....driver # 3 of Team Chennai ( TC) has been rated the second best drivers in the history of Footprints : The Chennai chapter ....( taking all the 8 years into consideration)... the best is the Shah boi! insists that the road rules are meant to be broken, insists that women above the age of 28 shouldn't be given a licence ( chauvenistic bugger yes....but what to do.... he has bangs....it comes in handy....).
While Sneha thinks that her ottai maruti 800 is a sexxxyyy power-steering vehicle, Nishant nsists that he owns all the roads in Chennai.
____________________________________________________________________
Coming back to the promotions at malls, we did walk around carrying the posters facing the public and walking around. It did looks stupid, nobody looked but WE DIDN'T CARE! Anything for footprints. Go Footprints!!!! :D :D :D :D
____________________________________________________________________
We'd like to dedicate 'nenjukkul peidhidum' from Vaaranam Ayiram (1000 Elephants) to Nishant Shah and his Sunshine....
____________________________________________________________________
Congratulations Ruhi Jhunjhunwala for watching your 2nd Tamil film ( The first being Kuselan but i don't think u saw the film thanks to elements from Karnataka.... P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P .... oh... and R R R R .... but not that much!)
____________________________________________________________________
I shouldn't forget to add this....We have discovered that Nishant Shah has become one of the girls coz he has nice hair and it helps us.... its kinda better than sneha's charms.... or venky's voice.... It helps us to attract guys from loyola and somehow manages to convince them into buying tickets at 10:14pm at Sangam Cinemas..... bangs do help u know.... funnily enough, bangs on a guy seems to be helping us a lot!!!! Thanks Shah!!!! cool che!
____________________________________________________________________
If u think this post is very discontinuous and it doesn't make sense, too bad.... its the after effects of watching Vaaranam Aayiram!!!! :D :D :D :D
____________________________________________________________________
ps: Watch the movie....Surya is brilliant!!!! :D hott tooo! sigh!
* Driver # 1: Ruhi Jhunjhunwala
Driver # 2: Shilpa Natarajan
Driver # 3: Sneha Ramachandran
Driver # 4 ( Special Appearance...drove once): Renuka Sanji
Funnily enough, all the drivers have been women and no accidents have happened till now.... touch wood....
Bangs are the reason for accidents Nishant.... we know y u've had 3 accidents till now!!!!!
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
THE SUN IS NO LONGER SHINING :(
Well, today was an extremely interesting day for TEAM CHENNAI..... well actually the 8 of us who went coffee shop/ outlet hopping....
Well, I started off my day by going to M.O.P and joined Venky & Ruhi at Ruhi's house..... where Nishant joined us and the sun stopped shining ( sigh! Why Nishant????). Nishant & I went to L V Prasad studios to invite the director and unfortunately he had left.... so we decided to stop at the next academic centre to sell our tickets or stick our posters..... Nishant the shah boi decided to stop at this really shady sidey looking place called DOSHI gardens or something like that in VADAPALANI..... an absolutely sidey looking place.... Well, no luck with the tickets but we did market our event a bit.... Thats when the sun decided to leave and the rains took over!!!!
We met Ruhi & Venky @ BARISTA ( TEAM CHENNAI's official meeting spot).... Well, Archanaa, Sneha & Renu turned up and Nishant decided to showcase his talent of identifying LOYOLITES ( He happens to one and is proud of it! Wayy to go shah boi) and selling tickets to them.... The sweet chap ( The loyolite....sorry dunno his name) kinda felt sorry for nishant ( mayb coz of his fringe/ bangs- nishant's) and bought a ticket! So i decided to test my skills at selling tickets.... unfortunately it didn't work..... sigh!
We did stick a poster though and we decided to walk/ drive across to Ispahani and try our luck there. Walking up to people and talking about the event to them kinda helped as 3 tickets were sold. People are nice i say!
I have learnt a lot of things while marketing Footprints. Recession is just an excuse. When managers of stores & outlets of stores where no customers ever come show some interest in the event, DO NOT FALL FOR IT..... THEY'RE JUST TRYING TO FLIRT WITH THE PERSON WHO HAS COME WITH YOU.... ( R-E-N-U) or put some VETTI SCENE!!!!.... Sit at CCD or BARISTA..... coz u mite bump into someone who would like to help you out ( S-N-E-H-A).... a good spot to stick up posters would be near pillars and corners where people usually make-out .... u need to b a snooty bitch to be able to put up posters @ beauty parlours..... ( Thats when red nailpolish comes in handy Ruhi.....)
After the escapades at Ispahani, we decided to go to Kader Nawaz Khan road to sell tickets ( we were joined by Siddharth who decided to quit bein a workaholic..... Nishant was kinda happy as he thought he was being overshadowed by the women :) :) :) :) ) By the time we reached Mocha, it started pouring right royally.... and we kinda got drenched to the core! We did manage to put up a poster there ( Thanks to the brothers and their friends and ofcourse the friends and their brothers): A-R-C-H-A-N-A-A & S-N-E-H-A.... Thanks to the friends and their brothers, we got a swing side table :D ( my house is gonna b like that)..... After we finally ordered for the sake of ordering ( Am not regretting it).... we decided to sell our tickets when Ruhi realised that Nishant had parked her car in the middle of the road and that was blocking the road + Nishant had forgotten to turn off the headlights..... Cacaphony.....
I do have a picture of Nishant Shah trying to park the car inside as well as a picture of the car blocking the road and creating traffic. I will upload that once i get hold of them :D :D :D :D
____________________________ Wait for it _______________________________
Anyways, when we became absolutely enthu and decided to sell the tickets and gave each other the GO TEAM CHENNAI! U CAN DO IT dialogue, we were told that we couldn't sell any tickets......but Nishant & Renu did manage to sell 2 tickets....! :D :D :D :D
SIGH..... 10 days to go! ! ! ! We will do it! The Rains can't stop us!
GO TEAM CHENNAI!
Well, I started off my day by going to M.O.P and joined Venky & Ruhi at Ruhi's house..... where Nishant joined us and the sun stopped shining ( sigh! Why Nishant????). Nishant & I went to L V Prasad studios to invite the director and unfortunately he had left.... so we decided to stop at the next academic centre to sell our tickets or stick our posters..... Nishant the shah boi decided to stop at this really shady sidey looking place called DOSHI gardens or something like that in VADAPALANI..... an absolutely sidey looking place.... Well, no luck with the tickets but we did market our event a bit.... Thats when the sun decided to leave and the rains took over!!!!
We met Ruhi & Venky @ BARISTA ( TEAM CHENNAI's official meeting spot).... Well, Archanaa, Sneha & Renu turned up and Nishant decided to showcase his talent of identifying LOYOLITES ( He happens to one and is proud of it! Wayy to go shah boi) and selling tickets to them.... The sweet chap ( The loyolite....sorry dunno his name) kinda felt sorry for nishant ( mayb coz of his fringe/ bangs- nishant's) and bought a ticket! So i decided to test my skills at selling tickets.... unfortunately it didn't work..... sigh!
We did stick a poster though and we decided to walk/ drive across to Ispahani and try our luck there. Walking up to people and talking about the event to them kinda helped as 3 tickets were sold. People are nice i say!
I have learnt a lot of things while marketing Footprints. Recession is just an excuse. When managers of stores & outlets of stores where no customers ever come show some interest in the event, DO NOT FALL FOR IT..... THEY'RE JUST TRYING TO FLIRT WITH THE PERSON WHO HAS COME WITH YOU.... ( R-E-N-U) or put some VETTI SCENE!!!!.... Sit at CCD or BARISTA..... coz u mite bump into someone who would like to help you out ( S-N-E-H-A).... a good spot to stick up posters would be near pillars and corners where people usually make-out .... u need to b a snooty bitch to be able to put up posters @ beauty parlours..... ( Thats when red nailpolish comes in handy Ruhi.....)
After the escapades at Ispahani, we decided to go to Kader Nawaz Khan road to sell tickets ( we were joined by Siddharth who decided to quit bein a workaholic..... Nishant was kinda happy as he thought he was being overshadowed by the women :) :) :) :) ) By the time we reached Mocha, it started pouring right royally.... and we kinda got drenched to the core! We did manage to put up a poster there ( Thanks to the brothers and their friends and ofcourse the friends and their brothers): A-R-C-H-A-N-A-A & S-N-E-H-A.... Thanks to the friends and their brothers, we got a swing side table :D ( my house is gonna b like that)..... After we finally ordered for the sake of ordering ( Am not regretting it).... we decided to sell our tickets when Ruhi realised that Nishant had parked her car in the middle of the road and that was blocking the road + Nishant had forgotten to turn off the headlights..... Cacaphony.....
I do have a picture of Nishant Shah trying to park the car inside as well as a picture of the car blocking the road and creating traffic. I will upload that once i get hold of them :D :D :D :D
____________________________ Wait for it _______________________________
Anyways, when we became absolutely enthu and decided to sell the tickets and gave each other the GO TEAM CHENNAI! U CAN DO IT dialogue, we were told that we couldn't sell any tickets......but Nishant & Renu did manage to sell 2 tickets....! :D :D :D :D
SIGH..... 10 days to go! ! ! ! We will do it! The Rains can't stop us!
GO TEAM CHENNAI!
Thursday, November 20, 2008
details...
date- 5th dec.
time- 9.30 am onwards
venue- chinmaya heritage centre, harrington road.
workshops n contests happening....
for details....pls write to chennaifootprints@gmail.com
time- 9.30 am onwards
venue- chinmaya heritage centre, harrington road.
workshops n contests happening....
for details....pls write to chennaifootprints@gmail.com
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