IIT Kanpur to
Organize Annual Business & Entrepreneurship Festival 'Megabucks 2007'
On April 06-08, 2007
'Megabucks' is the Annual
Business and Entrepreneurship Festival organised by the Indian Institute of
Technology, Kanpur. Its purpose is to create more awareness among the youth
about entrepreneurship and business.
It aims to launch young, untried but brilliant entrepreneurs and to translate
their ideas into successful business ventures.
Originally an idea of the premier
batch of 1965, it was actualized in 2000 and was a part of Techkriti, the
Technological Festival of IIT Kanpur. In 2002, however, it was held
independently and was met with astounding success. The first three teams were
awarded an amount that exceeded Rs. 2.5 lakhs and the winners also participated
in Stanford Global Entrepreneurs Challenge held at Singapore.
Now, Megabucks joyfully claims
participation not only from prestigious Indian institutes like IIMs, XLRI, FMS,
IITs but also from international institutes like National University of
Singapore, Stanford University, Purdue University, University of Rochester and
University of California. It has invited speakers like Mr. Dilip Chhabaria
(DC Designs), Mr. Douglas Breckenridge (CEO, Mindguild), Mr. Muneesh
Chawla (MD, IL&FS), Mr. Vijay Kumar (CEO, NIIT Ventures) and Dr.
Aditya Tyagi (Founder and CEO, Enablers InfoTech) for the Business
Conference that it holds along with numerous other activities. In Megabucks
2004, distinguished personalities like Mr. Ravi Mohan (MD, CRISIL),
Ms. Divya Pathak (Marketing Head, Columbia Tristar), Mr. Sanjeev Shriya
(Director, LML Ltd.) participated in the Final Conference on 'New Age
Entrepreneurship Opportunities'.
The most important event, of
course, is the Business Plan Presentation Competition - Ideas. Here, the
submitted entries are evaluated in multiple stages. The competition is tough but
the award is worth it - to see one's simple thought mature into a successful
enterprise. This event proudly proclaims to have jumpstarted such companies as
Transversal E Networks, Kalzoom Technologies and GEO-X.
Megabucks has developed an expansive network of venture capitalists,
industrialists and angel investors, and hence, facilitates the incubation and
maturation of deserving business ideas.
Forum is the
Entrepreneurial Conference that sees stalwarts from the corporate world
inspiring budding entrepreneurs. With people from different strata of the
corporate fraternity, viz., industrialists, entrepreneurs, businessmen,
academicians and students brought together for this event, Forum followed by
Gurukul becomes the place to raise your queries and have them answered by
competent professionals.
Gurukul is an opportunity
for the leaders of tomorrow to interact with those of today. Introduced for the
first time in Megabucks, Gurukul is an endeavor that takes this mutual
interaction to higher dimensions. There will be around 15 speakers / guests /
dignitaries with around 20 participants registered with each dignitary. This
would provide one-to-one interaction between students and those who have been
highly successful.
Impresario targets the
networking between the different sections of the corporate world. It brings
together the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, trade associations,
technocrats, incubation hubs, start-ups and the academic fraternity.
Here the companies that pose interesting entrepreneurial challenges can showcase
themselves to a distinguished panel of assessors that are willing to fund them.
This year, Megabucks has
collaborated with McMaster University's Center for Engineering
Entrepreneurship and Innovation (XCEEi), Canada, which in association with
the seed funding company ATCC, is looking at investing up to $750,000 CAD
in promising ideas.
Planet is another such
event where the young entrepreneurs get to interact with the titans of industry.
Here a number of problems are posed and posted on the website by the sponsor
companies and a large number of solutions will be short-listed. They will be
presented to the company who will be free to implement the suggestion in
accordance with its own discretion.
Battlefield, a Case Study
Competition, challenges the acumen of business, financial and strategic
analysts. The participants analyze actual business problems faced by major
organizations and predict its future progress.
For all the diehard addicts of
video games, Markstrat adds an entire new dimension to virtual reality.
It is a marketing strategy game that is designed to simulate a real business
environment. It tests such skills as brand portfolio strategy, segmentation and
positioning strategies and operational marketing strategies without actually
exposing the user to risk. All in all, a great way to hone one's corporate
skills.
Finsense provides the
chills of the actual market where participants trade with actual end-of-day
stock prices for a whole week in a bullish attempt to come on the top.
AdMad, the advertising
contest, brings out the creativity and imagination of the participants in
designing advertisements for real products and services.
The beginning of Megabucks is,
however, celebrated with a business quiz competition called Cliffhanger.
This event attracts a large audience and boasts of quizmasters of the likes of
Barry O'Brien, Avinash Mudaliar and Satyajit Chetri. It
serves as an exciting prelude to the events that follow up.
And through all this dash of
activity and enthusiasm there is a magazine - no, Megazine - to keep the
track of pre- and post-event updates. This latest addition will not only publish
interviews of entrepreneurs abroad and articles by scholars of international
universities but will also give expression to the general mass.
It will address the wide community of the students from the participating
institutes, the academia and the corporate sector from the entire world keeping
the spirit of Megabucks alive and kicking until we meet next year.
Offering the wide spectrum of
opportunities that it does, Megabucks indeed promises to be a scintillating
experience for everybody.
Contact
Details
For more details on the event
and participation, contact: -
Mayank Jain, Festival Coordinator,
Phone: +91-9411079337 / +91-512-2594809
E-mail:
[email protected]
Ragini Hariharan, Head - Public Relations,
Phone: +91-9415511367 / +91-512-2584309
E-mail:
[email protected]
Check the website at: -
URL:
http://www.iitk.ac.in/megabucks
Or write to: -
E-mail:
[email protected]
