Prayaag 2006

Today marks the beginning of a 3 day Management Conclave here at the Institute of Management, Nirma University. We've got some big ticket speakers (after a lot of requests, mails, more requests and a series of last-minute schedule changes) who will be visiting this Institute and speaking on areas ranging from retail, manufacturing, services sector, the IT industry, Brand India and loads and loads of other cool sub-themes. Some of the companies which will be gracing the dais are KPMG, AC Nielsen, Blue Dart, Global Consultants Inc. (it's a New Jersey based firm), Mudra Communications, etc.

I've been nominated the co-ordinator of the 'Press & Publicity Committee' and that means that I've been extremely busy co-ordinating with other students who are supposed to prepare the press releases for the major English dailies and also staying in touch with the print and television media who are expected on campus during the three days. (Must admit, there's a vast change in the manner I'm doing things now as compared to how I managed similar conclaves in the first year)

Now, the press releases aren't the ones which require much attention. I have in my committee group members who have work experience as part-time/freelance journalists for major English business dailies...so all seems to be covered on that front.

However, what has set a constant curious feeling of nervousness in my stomach is the 'Press Conference' that we've arranged for today. To begin with, we were extremely excited with the possibility of print AND television media covering the event. Matters got complicated when we tried to adjust the time of the press conference as not only the speakers but also the journalists and the PR agency kept shuffling the time around.

I'm sure I'll be able to pull it off.

It's just that I'm hoping I'm prepared for whatever little hiccups occur that usually happen at the last-minute at such events. Keeping my fingers crossed for the time being...