Organizing IIT 2013 Global Conference – from inception to execution

Organizing IIT 2013 Global Conference – from inception to execution

-          Partha Sarathi Chatterjee

IITAGH and the IIT 2013 Global Conference team are basking in an afterglow of a dazzling conference. Three cold wintry days in December have changed the perception of Houston as a venue and IITAGH as the organizing host for a global IIT conference. 

Legacy has been left; reluctant PanIIT conference attendees cannot wait for the next IIT event; there is electricity in the air. If it was Muhammad Ali, we would have said “We shocked the world!”  As team members and attendees, you have enabled the metamorphosis - kudos go to every one of you because you immersed yourself in the greater WE – the team!

THE first attempt and then, inception

Houston and IITAGH have been trying to get the PanIIT global event– believe me, we were knocking on that door since fall of 2009. Supposedly, we had a smaller alumni base, an organization without relevant big conference experience, without a flashy industry base – information technology or finance to attract sponsors and speakers. Our turn in 2011 came and went as we got the news on that February day in 2010.

As they say in NFL draft, we got the call on July 15, 2012. Houston, you have been drafted to organize IIT 2013 – less than seventeen months to organize the biggest global PanIIT event.

IITAGH Board and Trustees had a meeting. It was not an overwhelming yes vote to organize the event – some of the IITAGH old-timers were worried about the attendance at our events and our organizational capability; some who were not involved in IITAGH organizationally but had organized other conferences and were part of the original proposal wanted to do it. Ultimately, as a team, Houston decided to take up the challenge – let’s show the world.

Initial planning – 90-day team

First planning meeting happened at Stress Engineering on August 4, 2012. We discussed details of what we proposed, how IIT conferences are organized, discussed vision and themes and finally, landed on a small team to start the preparation.

We had an initial team of seven people – called the 90 day team which spanned August-October of 2012. We had worked on venues, the team structure with responsibilities – we decided to focus on the structure first before filling in the names. Structure got ratified in a joint Board and Trustees meeting. We also conceptually agreed that there will be a Chair and Co-Chair in each of the critical areas so that we are not dependent on just one person and there is someone to step up in case of emergency.  We got the Chair (Witty Bindra) and Vice-Chair (Pratish Kanani) ratified in a subsequent meeting along with few key committee chairs.  While the committee was being slowly built up, we went into negotiation with Hilton and George Brown on the venue availability and dates.  With Hilton having several offers for Christmas parties, negotiations were long and hard, with finally T.K. Das closing the deal.

Work started on theme, logos and website. After several weeks of focused discussion on themes, we came up with “Inspiring Innovation for Tomorrow”, submitted by our own Sandman – Sundy Srinivasan. Hence, Sundy got the honors to launch our beta website internally at the kickoff meeting in November. Logo was based on the theme – IIT with an image of sun wrapped around it. Sun stands for energy (inspiration), sparks on the sun symbolize brain spark or innovation and finally, rising sun points to the future.

Conference Planning

Armed with theme, a rolling presentation, flyers, Witty Bindra went to Kolkata.  He launched the official www.iit2013.org website in India at the IIT 2012 Global Conference. He met with Airport Authority of India Charman, Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani,  Monahar Parrikar, Mamata Bannerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, and Usha Uthap and started marketing the Conference in Kolkata. Buzz was spreading but what do we need to do to deliver?

After several rounds of negotiation taking couple of months, we landed on December 6-8, 2013 at the Hilton. Outreach team, led by Hemant Jha, started their outreach campaign. Outreach had several sessions in Dallas, Austin, San Antonio. Outreach campaign reached other cities and focused emails went out to Foundation and regional lists. Sponsorship team, led by Surajit Dasgupta and Richard D’Souza, landed KBR as the first sponsor.  They did a fabulous job – collecting the highest revenue every collected for an IIT conference.

One common theme – we need marquee speakers to attract sponsors and attendees and for marketing to market the event. Program team, led by Pradeep Anand and Sunil Pangarkar, decided on STEEL – that seemed to galvanize the program structure. Sustainability, technology, education, energy and life sciences were five threads, woven together to face the challenges of today and find the solutions of tomorrow. With Amartya Sen, Vicente Fox and Andrew Gould and finally, Miss America, IIT 2013 sailboat now had wind in its sails.

Operation team, led by T.K. Das and Dhruba Ghose, focused on the execution – planning for every little thing of the conference – food, audio-visual, facilities, transportation and so many others. Outreach and operations worked together on the onsite registration. On the design end, they worked with marketing who provided the designs for everything from merchandise to banners to backdrops.

Business Plan competition, led by Suraj Mhatre and Abhay Sawant, put entrepreneurs in place and more importantly, brought together an incredible group of contestants, bright-eyed and ready for prime time.

Student volunteers were an impressive addition at the end – the ladies, led by Renu Jain, worked together to publicize the opportunity, sort through the applicants and finally, train them. Finance team, led by Abhijit Gadgil and Prabhu Murugan, constantly monitored the budget, fine-tuned numbers, and asked the necessary questions, making sure we were prudent and not profligate.

Exhibition team, led by Vinay Mehta and later, Ravi Guddeti, sold our booths out, with an impressive pickup of momentum towards the end.

Marketing, led by Partha Chatterjee and Siddhartha Sinha, aimed to create an ambiance of innovation during the conference. Team designed a brochure with a glossy finish and perfect binding. Backdrops, designs and signage were prepared to augment the ambiance. Paintings on innovation and a special marquee video on innovation played before each session, added to that aura.

Finally, Witty Bindra and Pratish Kanani made sure that they coordinated between the teams. More importantly, they kept the external pressures from all corners, who are bigwigs in all walks of life, off the team’s back as much as possible.  It was important to keep the conference true to the goals we set up, the themes we focused on and it was critically important to stay on course, without getting diverted. 

We are ready to roll – but will the conference rock? Will the hours of dedicated work, time away from families, bear fruit?

Conference Execution – December 5-8, 2013

Chairman’s reception, supported by Bharat Desai and Umang Gupta, kicked the conference off with a great show, performed by Anjali School of Dance. From the Chairman’s reception to opening ceremony to plenary sessions to breakout sessions to closing ceremony, the content was fabulous. 

People crowded the sessions – our worry of having too less people in the session was proved wrong. Attendees loved the sessions, speakers and last but not the least, our religious adherence to time. From Vicente Fox to Andrew Gould to Amartya Sen to so many others, speakers were eloquent, open and not adverse to touching controversial subjects. Programs were well-planned with speakers well-coordinated. Moderators did a great job pulling the speakers together.

Operational details impressed people- wide choice of foods, the chargers, the audio-visuals. Attendees loved the onsite registration and not having to stand in line for long. It moved very efficiently. Business Plan Competition had fantastic attendance, great presentations and hopefully, really successful future entrepreneurs.  Ambiance created by the dazzling backdrop, wide variety of signage, the video on innovation added to the conference experience. Attendees were truly impressed.

Post-conference, the accolades just continued to flow to Witty Bindra, Pratish Kanani and the entire team. We got flooded with emails and notes in the first few days. Old-timers said – “best Pan IIT conference ever”; newcomers wondered why others discouraged them from attending – this is a fantastic experience!

The TEAM delivered and we did rock!

Why the success and what now?

Many have come over and wondered why the Houston conference was a success.

First and foremost, we were a team – we placed the team goal of delivering a super conference above everything else. We did clash, differ on ideas but at the end of the day, we pulled in one direction.  

Secondly, we were dedicated and considered this as much of a job as anything else. Every single volunteer went above and beyond to excel. It was not about a volunteering opportunity with no responsibility – we took this very seriously and held each other accountable.

Next, we paid attention to details and did a what-if analysis before to a large extent. We had contingency; we planned ahead; we kept buffer and we pushed each other.

Finally, there was stability at the top and consistency of the plan and approach – we had a plan and we worked the plan. We were consistent and prepared!

So, friends, this was a team effort. Few months back, with some of our experience at organizing other conferences, I had implored – “Successful events create legacy. Let's create a legacy.”

The same Houston, which was thought to be too small, devoid of big time conference experience – now will be seen as THE template for conference, the team as THE model team to run events and organizations and the leadership to pull all this together. You, my friends, have left a legacy – the challenge for all of us is how to build on this as part of IITAGH and pan IIT movement and create something better.

Let’s do it together as a TEAM – together everyone achieves more!