Chennai Chapter Alumni Meet
In pursuit of connecting with BIMTECH’s Alumni, post covid times, and after 3 long years, Chennai Alumni chapter Meet was organized on 25th February 2023. Fifteen young spirited Chennai-based Alumni from across the programs graced the event along with their spouse and children at Park Plaza Hotel, Chennai.
As usual, registrations were done to record their presence which also reminded them of marking their attendance during the college days. The QR codes were placed on the venue tables and the alumni were requested to scan the same which redirected them to a “throwback questionnaire” which was about “Life at BIMTECH”. Alumni were made to answer the questions that related to memories of the past during their stay at the campus. This was continued with an ice breaking session which was conducted by Alumni Conduit executive members of Batch of 2022-24.
With a quick show of hands, the executives called upon on stage Alumni from batch 2000-2005 to share their experience & recall memories of BIMTECH almost two decades back. The executives further updated the developments at BIMTECH over the past years to apprise the alumni about the current status and the achievements of their Alma-mater. To make it more engaging and to ensure maximum participation, the conduit executives started with the Rapid fire round where crisp, smart, witty and interesting questions were asked that led the audience to reminiscence old memories and enjoy the lighter moments.
Subsequently, there was a briefing session which was undertaken by Professor Gagan Katiyar (Chairperson, Alumni relations)
Chennai chapter meet convener, Mr. V. Varun was presented with a memento as a token of appreciation. Alumni who graced this occasion with their spouse and the most interactive alumni were also presented with gifts. The event was brought to life with professional photo and video coverage.
This was followed by snacks, beverages and dinner. The event concluded around 11 p.m. with some alumni still engaged in discussion as one could notice their reluctance to leave. The Alumni left on a happy note with a commitment to interact & engage at more such occasions. They also shared their thoughts to make the alumni meetings more productive and vibrant.
The function commenced at around 7.00pm in a venue at Hotel Savera. The ground work for the meet at the local level was laid by our alumni Mr. Varun Venkitakrishnan, Mr. Geetesh Garg and Mr. Kirtivasan, all from PGDM-IBM batches. It was conveyed to us that this function was the first formal alumni meet ever held at Chennai as most of the previous meeting were informal with about 8-10 alumni attending. For this meet, in all, there were 29 BIMTECH alumni who participated out of a registration of 31.Of the 29 participants, 6 were lady alumni. They ranged from the batches 2005-07 to 2016-18. Among the participants were two spouses and a child.
Prof. Priyadharshi welcoming the audience briefly touched upon few of the latest developments in the BIMTECH campus. He stressed that the alumnus could contribute significantly to the brand building of their alma mater.
Prof. Krishnan narrated latest developments on the alumni front, such as the revamping of the alumni portal, increase in its versatility, the developments with regard to GAAB etc. It was explained to assembly that with a view to making the chapters more relevant and self-sufficient it was proposed that they should be conducting two major events every year. One was the a CSR project which the alumni can launch taking into account the local factors as well as the support from various corporates in the city BIMTECH would also help in the conduct of the activity. The idea was to pay back to the society as an initiative from the Chennai chapter of BIMTECH alumni. A creative second event has also to be held by the chapter. It could take the form a seminar/workshop or conference dealing with a very topical subject or issue which would be found relevant by the local industry or corporates. It could be a one or a two day event. The funding for this function will be generated at the chapter level through ad sales in the Souvenir or by other means. The chapter gets to keep the balance amount after expenses, which can be utilized for building a corpus.
The alumni were also informed about a proposal for instituting four awards at the all India levels to develop a spirit of competition among the chapters, the details of will be communicated to them soon. By way of feedback, the alumni who were very enthusiastic, wanted at least one formal meet like the current one each year with BIMTECH participation and were willing to offer they help for implementing all the schemes. They also wanted regular communication from the alumni department.
The function concluded with a vote of thanks from the professors after a sumptuous dinner at Hotel Savera.
