Ahvan literally implies an inspiring call for action. It was initially started as IRIS in 2001 and later was called as Ahvan. The 10th edition of ahvan was celebrated spanning three days from December 2-4, 2010. The theme for the event this year was “Inspire to Act, Act to Inspire”. The event was a grand success and attracted students from top B-schools in Indore and throughout India to take part in various competitions and prove their superiority. A series of guest speakers were invited under the theme ‘Envision’. Some of the most prominent personalities from diverse fields such as Industry, Academia and Administration engaged the audience in thought provoking ideas and discussed solutions to problems that stare at our nation and hence, the name ‘Envision’. The famous personalities included Prof. Anil Gupta from IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Chandra Sekhar Ghosh, CMD Bandhan MFI, Mr. Kabir Kewalramani, MD Berggruen Holdings India, Mr. Karan Bhagat, Country Head and Managing Director, Barclays Corporate India, Ms. Meenakshi Natarajan, MP from Mandsaur and Dr. Saibaba Goud, founder of the Devnar foundation for the blind.
I-rising
I-rising is a series of online quizzes spanning over a month which serves as a prelude to the management festival, Ahvan. It attracts participation from people across professions and not just students. It also acts as a marketing tool for promoting ahvan.
Klueless
Klueless 6 was as ecstatic as ever and totally contained 34 levels of solving puzzles and going around a maze of labyrinth to find the answer for each level. Klueless is primarily an online game wherein a participant has to crack the clue at a given level to move on to the next level. Cracking the clue requires some lateral thinking, some googling and quite often just some presence of mind. Klueless broke all previous records when it was rolled down its dice for ahvan ’10. The number of hits on klueless page surpassed the previous year’s and crossed 6 million hits. Moreover, on the day of its introduction Klueless was in the top 5 most searched keywords of google. The people who gave it a try varied from American NRIs to army officers to IIM A grads to school students to married couples. Says one of the persons who made it to the hall of fame, “I have slept for less than 10 hours in the past 4 days, now that I have completed it, I can go to sleep with pride. I will be there for Klueless 7.” The organizers ensure that each level is so challenging that they brag that even God was stuck on level 15. Klueless will make it to the 10 million hits in the next 2-3 years. Give it a try once! You will be left Klueless and speechless.
Adapt
Adapt was an event focusing on advertising aptitude. The theme for “Adapt” this year was “Brand Revival”, which involved designing an advertising strategy and media plan for the revival of a brand which was once hailed as the next big thing but somehow lost its sheen with sands of time. Participants had to choose any ONE such brand from the list provided and had to clear 3 phases to emerge as the winner. Whereas preliminary rounds involved creation of ads centered around a theme for print and video advertising, the final round asked the teams to plan and create end-to-end advertising campaigns about how, when and where their ads would be launched and in what way.
Entrepid
Entrepreneurship has emerged to become a cliché in today’s world and innovation seems to be the means to prosperity and fame. Entrepid was an online business strategy competition based on an interactive business simulation platform which deals with management issues across different industry sectors in a supply chain. Each participant was the owner of a company and had to face uncertainties as he steered his company to maximize profits and value of stockholders by generating highest stock price. The game put forth a simulated scenario which is similar to those faced by all businesses in today’s world.
Ashwamedha
Ashwamedha is the flagship event of the Annual Management Festival of IIM Indore, Ahvan. An event that is beautifully mentored by Mr. Vinay Menon, Ashwamedha seeks to discover the individual who personifies the virtue of leadership. It takes the participants through a maze of formal and informal events, individual and team, spanning across a variety of subjects and brings out the multiple facets of their personality into the limelight. Demanding to shift roles quickly and effectively, it crowns the one who can juggle between being a negotiator, a creative artist, a manager, a decision maker, an organizer, a team player or even a comedian at times!This year Ashwamedha featured a range of events from quizzes on history, geography, current affairs and many other topics to a virtual market place simulation for trading, extempore speaking, general knowledge rounds and finally a spotlight where candidates were questioned by the distinguished guests that includes a few professors from IIM Indore. From the finalists from IIM Indore and ISB Hyderabad, IIM Indore could bag the only prize given.
Chain Reaction
Chain reaction is an event that measures ones level of understanding and ability of application of supply chain management principles for solution of operational issues. It is hugely popular across all the B Schools and attracts a very high participation. The first round this year consisted of a quiz along with a case study to filter out seven teams amongst all participating teams. The rounds tested participants on their ability to manage the production of a manufacturing facility in accordance with the given demand scenario and their understanding of all parts of a value chain for scheduling maintenance and dealing with breakdowns while satisfying customer demand. The rounds took place back to back, with the first round being half an hour long while the second around one and a half hour long. The winners were from SPJIMR, the second position was held by IIM Indore’s won team.
MyCampaign
IIM Indore is known for its social inclination combined with top quality management education and ‘My Campaign’ will be a step in the right direction. The objective of this event is to put to test the creativity, knowledge, passion of the participants in creating a social campaign that compels the common man to spend money on it. This event shall take young men and women through real life marketing challenges and also socially sensitize them. The whole idea is based upon the highly successful campaigns that have been part of the world in the last half decade. Remember the ads of TATA Tea’s Jaago Re, Earth Hour, Teach India, Aircel’s Save Tigers? A simple thought gave rise to ‘My Campaign’ and it is only entering into its second year of inception and already turning out as a huge success.The teams had to go through two rounds of idea promotion to get to the final round. This in itself shows the zeal among the participants and it only added to making the organizers part tougher in selecting the top 5 concepts. The final round involves a presentation round where the teams are scrutinized by 30 judges who are selected from various spectrums of people. This is the only event where so many people from varied back grounds will be part of judging the winners. Team Parivartan, from IIM Kozhikode were the winners of MyCampaign this year. Their winning campaign was ‘Urja…..Let there be light”, a campaign focusing on saving energy.
Samanvay
Samanvay is a social welfare and community development initiative conceptualized under the auspices of Ahvan. Based on Ahvan’s mission of “Inspire to Act, Act to Inspire”, it seeks to promote social upliftment through participation and contribution.Samanvay was inaugurated starting this year and focused on “financial inclusion” as the theme. Many poor people have been deprived of banking and financial services such as insurance, credit facilities etc. This initiative by IIM Indore provided the poor with ‘no frills account’ to bring under the institutional banking system. Its broader objective is to promote financial literacy and to expand the coverage of financial services to all sections of the population. To turn the dream of ‘inclusive growth’ into reality and to ensure harmonious socio-economic development of India, the objective of financial inclusion needs to be fulfilled.
Kalpavriksha
True to the meaning of Kalpavriksha, a tree that provides the needy of all they want, the event kalpavriksha is also an attempt to create ideas for a social benefit. Kalpavriksha, a social entrepreneurship challenge, strives to create a positive societal impact by providing a forum for self sustainable business plans which seek to sensitize its participants about the responsibility and the potential difference they can make. The belief that drives kalpavriksha is that the amalgamation of business principles with the efforts towards societal upliftment can be sustained and can be used as a powerful tool for change.The event comprised of 4 phases- an executive summary phase, B-plan submission, Refining of B-plan phase and final phase. Nearly 50 teams participated in the event out of which 5 finalists were selected. The winners took home a cash award of Rs.1, 00,000 and more than that they have created a social change.
Gordian knot
Gordian knot is an event that tests one’s ability to untangle complicated situations and find out a solution. This year the first round consisted of 10 puzzles which had to be cracked by 240 teams that had registered. The puzzle round which filtered 34 teams was followed by the second round in which teams had to shoot an ad featuring themselves and upload it on youtube. Six teams were selected in round two and called on campus. The first campus round was a school round in which the teams had to teach a class of 7th, 8th and 9th std students. Then they had the city round in which they had to maximize a given amount by choosing to buy and sell any item/commodity they wish. It was conducted in the main streets of rajwada. Then in the night they had a debate round and thereafter an interview about their performance in the city round. The next day they had to stage a virtual product using some given props. This round was judged by distinguished professors from IIM Indore. The last round in campus was ‘explainin the situation” in which one member from each team was asked to explain a given situation and the other participants were asked to rate the explanation in the order of its relevence. The team from IIM Indore won 1st prize and NMIMS team won 2nd prize.
Chanakya
It is an event that saw its maiden conduct this year in Ahvan and was sponsored by Cognizant. It is an event for the consulting enthusiasts and deals with providing solutions to corporate problems.This year the event attracted humongous participation in the form of 300+ teams or 1000 participants from more than 30 B-Schools. Round 1 consisted of responding to cases and filtering of 40 teams on this basis. The next round again required responding to cases though of a more complex nature that were designed by Cognizant. The third round had six teams flying to Indore and making presentations in front of the panel from Cognizant and a surprise round. The team from Great lakes emerged the winner while IIM Indore bagged the second prize.
Fin League
Fin League is a competition that brings together various domains of finance under a single umbrella. It challenges the best financial brains in areas of insurance, banking, equities and derivatives. It contained one online quiz round and the selected teams had to clear 3 final campus rounds. Every round, every step and every decision had an impact on who emerged as the winner at the end. About 80 teams participated in the fight for the top spot.
Livewire
Ever experienced what electricity felt like? Livewire gives you an opportunity to get yourself charged and the magnanimity of the event will simply blow your fuses. Livewire is the musical night of ahvan after all the hard work gone through in the first three days of ahvan discharges your batteries. Livewire has historically been the most exciting event of the festival because of all the electricity and passion that a live performance generates in the crowd and on stage. The legacy of Livewire has been a long one and it still continues. After the splendid performance year-after-year by famous music bands including the likes of Indian Ocean, Parikrama, Euphoria, Strings in the past, this year the Kunal Ganjawalla of Bheegay Honth fame was there to set the campus on fire. With more than 3 hours of famous numbers sung, the crowd was excited and many times were heard the chants of ‘Once more, once more’. There were more than 2500 people in the audience and it was an evening to remember for them. Kunal Ganjawalla went on to speak about the passion he had for IIMs and was very pleased to be singing that night. The audience went in a roar of applause and truly enjoyed the night.
Now, its countdown for Ahvan ’11.
– Sharada Karmakar & Asvin V (Class of 2012)
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