TechTatva’17: Behind the Scenes with Outstation Management

A fest is not quite the same without its outstation participants. It is the people from the outside that bring to the fest the zest and energy it needs. Without them, it’d be just like any other college event. The category, Outstation Management, worked day and night to reach out to colleges all over the country and managed to invite and accommodate teams from about 30 different colleges. We, at MTTN, sat down with them to listen to their journey through it all.

MTTN: Can you tell us about the working of your category?

We start with our work 3-4 months prior to the beginning of the fest. The first thing we do is prepare a database of the colleges we want to invite. We then send out the invitations and filter out the ones which show some interest. The final confirmation is taken from them a few weeks before the fest, following which we start to work on their accommodation. Once the teams from the different colleges are here, it is our job to get them registered and escort them to their respective dorms or hotels. Our work doesn’t end until the last outstation team is on its way back home.

MTTN: How was the participation from outstation teams this time? How did you go about pitching our fest to different colleges?

The turnout was pretty much the same as what we see every year. There were a total of around 25 outstation teams, majority of them being from the Southern region. We did our best, by focusing on student contacts instead of searching for contacts in administration, and were able to contact almost 600 colleges from all over India.

The featured events of TechTatva are the highlight of our fest. We focused on them while sending out our invites. Another great selling point was the fact that MIT is celebrating its 60th year this time.

MTTN: Did you face any hiccups?

Accommodation was definitely a big issue this time. Due to the increase in the intake of freshers this year, we were unable to accommodate the outstation teams in hostel rooms. We had to make some of them stay in the 10th block TV rooms since we did not have sufficient budget to book hotel rooms.

Another problem we faced was that all of us spent a lot of money in making calls to various colleges, trying to convince them to turn up, but the college doesn’t cover that. We know that money is gone and we’re not getting it back.

MTTN: What made you choose Outstation Management as the category to work for?

Being a part of our category, you get to interact with a lot of new people. As far as the people from our own college are concerned, we interact with them on a regular basis, but a fest is the time when you can get to know people from outside. Outstation Management teaches you how to talk to random people, and to convince them to come be a part of something new. We’ve been working together for a long time, and have become a small family now.

MTTN: How do you think we can increase the number of outstation participants in TechTatva?

One way would be to increase the number of cash prizes. If someone is travelling all the way to attend another college’s fest, they should be able to see some incentive. Calling some famous personalities from outside Manipal to perform during the fest, like we do during Revels would also be a good idea.

 

–As told to Gaurangi Gupta for MTTN

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