PAONTA SAHIB, Himachal Pradesh, February 9 " IIM Sirmaur hosted its second TEDx event with the theme The Journey. Organized by Akshay Devapal and Shankho Chakraborty, students of IIM Sirmaur's third batch of PGP programme, the exclusive invite-only event featured a group of speakers from wide-ranging fields and diverse backgrounds.
The event was split into three sessions each centered around one aspect of the tagline 'DREAM'," INVENT" and "EXPLORE".
Ms. Alka Rai is a senior manager of learning and development with e-commerce giant Flipkart. Her talk regarding listening to other people stories set the tone of the event. She highlighted on the journey of one Ikigai, perspective and fear. The next speaker, Mr. Shambhu Pandit is the chief editor of Balaknama, a newspaper run by street children bringing their stories to the mass. His heartfelt speech about his journey from a child labour to a class 10 student exhibited the power of 'DREAM' and garnered him a standing ovation from the audience. The second session highlighted on 'INVENT' starting with a magical performance by mentalist Mr. Sushil Jaiswal who enthralled the audience with mind reading. The third talk of the evening by Mr. Arun Kumar Sukumar, Head of Cybersecurity and internet governance initiative at Observer Research Foundation and member of World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on the Digital Economy and Society. He spoke about the journey of technology in India from 1947 till present deliberating on role and journey of the technology as it became a crucial part of the social life. The session concluded with Mr. Hemant Gupta, Sr. Manager with Tata Steel Adventure foundation inspiring the audience with the story of his expeditions to Mt Everest and the lessons learned. Before the last session started, the in-house band of IIM Sirmaur 'The Crux' gave a mesmerizing performance including musical performances by Mr. Phukhato Sema, Ms. Vaishnavi Deshpande, Mr. Ashish Gupta, and Mr. Ankit Barthwal. The last session revolving around 'INVENT' saw the talk of Mr. Kunal Prasad, COO, and Co-founder of CropIn, an agritech startup working on digitally transforming the farming business. He verbalised the essence of his journey with CropIn and how as a team they turned a failed business model to succeed.
All of these stories spoke about some aspects of the myriads of the journey called life.
Opening the series of talks, Director Prof. (Dr.) Neelu Rohmetra giving her thoughts on the theme said, 'The journey has to be understood and conceptualised around three values that each should want to imbibe and give it a shape of execution. The first value in our life should be to make some impact to leave some impression. The second value, relationship, and commitment, should be reflected upon as there is a direct relation between the two. The third and last value is the element of sacrifice. We should sacrifice our ambitions for the interest of contributions and no journey is complete until and unless we make those sacrifices. Only if these elements of readiness are available in our personalities, we can start our journey.'
Geofrey Joy, from the first year, described the event by saying, 'The bright, sunny day of 9 Feb 2019, was made brighter by five speakers from a gamut of backgrounds, ranging from a street child turned newspaper editor to an engineer turned mountaineer. TEDxIIMSirmaur 2.0 was a celebration of unique viewpoints through the lens of struggle and personal experiences. Second year student, Masoom Modh, said, 'The students of IIM Sirmaur went on a journey of stories and ideas that the esteemed speakers shared with them on the second edition of TEDxIIMSirmaur. The main belief behind organizing the event was to help students understand the importance of the journey that they need to make in their life
About TEDx, x = independently organized event
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. (Subject to certain rules and regulations.)
About TED
TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, usually in the form of short, powerful talks delivered by today's leading thinkers and doers. Many of these talks are given at TED's annual gathering in Vancouver, Canada, TEDWomen and TEDGlobal conferences, and thousands of independently organized TEDx events around the world, then made available, free, on TED.com and other channels.
TED's open and free initiatives for spreading ideas include TED.com, where new TED Talk videos are posted daily; TEDx, which provides licenses to thousands of individuals and groups who host local, self-organized TED-style events around the world; the TED Fellows program, which selects innovators from around the globe to amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities; and the educational initiative TED-Ed.
Follow TED on Twitter at http://twitter.com/TEDTalks, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/TED, on Instagram at https://instagram.com/ted and on Snapchat at tedtalkshq.
About IIM Sirmaur
The Indian Institute of Management, Sirmaur is one of six new third-generation IIMs established in 2015 by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India. Nestled in the foothills of Himalayas, IIM Sirmaur graduated its second batch of PGDM students last year. Under the stewardship of Prof. (Dr.) Neelu Rohmetra, the first woman director of any IIM, the institute is committed to revitalising higher education in the management sciences by designing future-aware training and research which engages with both local and global stakeholders.