"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky."- Rabindranath Tagore. 17th October 2019, the colourful campus of IFMR GSB at Krea University which was witnessing soft drizzle was all set to add some more colors to its palette. The colours of advertising, the colors of branding and overall, the colours of marketing.
On October 17, 2019; IFMR GSB hosted one of the biggest marketing conferences on the theme "The changing faces of marketing imperatives for the young professionals". The guest list included industry veterans and professionals who have made a mark in the industry with their experience, wisdom, and practice. The chief guest for the event was Mr. Murali S, Executive Vice President & Business Head Vodafone-Idea Tamil Nadu. The keynote speaker for the event was the most vibrant and one of the youngest in the list Mr. Vaibhav Sisinty who is a growth consultant and an ex-Uber marketing manager. The guests for the panel discussion on the topic " Imperatives for a marketing professional in this world of AI and Machine Learning" were; Dr. Uppiliappan Gopalan, Chief Operating Officer Kals Group, Mr. Anirban Mozumdar, Chief Executive Officer Chlorophyll Consulting, Mr. Binoy B Senior Vice President Aditya Birla Group. The valedictory address for the event was given by Mr. Madhavan Parthasarthy, Executive Vice President Sales & Marketing TVS Tyres.
The eventful day began at 9:00 AM when all the guests arrived at the faculty lounge of IFMR GSB at Krea University. The guests were introduced to each other over the breakfast table and the faculty lounge became witness to one of the biggest gathering of knowledge and experience. The formal greetings turned into casual smiles and sharing of experiences. The event was to begin at 10:00 AM and so the guests moved to the H.C. Kothari hall of IFMR GSB, where more than 200 students were waiting for the celebrations of the event to begin. The students stood up in respect of the guests and welcomed them with thundering applause. The event began with the Dean's address. Dr. Ananth Nageswaran who recently has been appointed as a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister welcomed all the guests, faculty members and students at the college campus and also talked about the current economic scenario of the world.
The stage was all set for the chief guest to deliver his talk, Mr. Murali S who is known to have over 3 decades of experience in the industry across FMCD, FMCG and Telecom sectors spoke on modern marketing trends and technology-driven marketing in the era of Alexa and Siri. He spoke on how technology can be used to make more accurate and faster decisions. He also spoke about different business models and the change brought by mobile technology and the internet on these business models. He made the gathering of faculties and students understand the importance of moving with the technology and taking the help of technology to drive business. The talk was enjoyed by the gathering and ended with some question & answer session.
The next speaker for the keynote address was Mr. Vaibhav Sisinty. Mr, Vaibhav who is a marketing innovator and has been helping start-ups scale-up and tap the new markets using growth hacking in digital marketing gave a vibrant and crisp talk on growth hacking and consulting. He made the gathering understand, what is growth hacking and how it can be done. In his own words "Growth hacking is understanding how the system works and make it work for you". His talk revolved around innovating new strategies, thinking out of the box and ended with a remark that innovation is necessary to please a customer in today's fast-paced time.
After the insightful talks by Mr. Murali S and Mr. Vaibhav Sisinty the gathering was ready to hear the panel discussion by Dr. Uppiliappan Gopalan, Mr. Anirban Mozumdar and Mr. Binoy B the event was moderated by Prof R. Sathyanarayanan. The topic for the discussion was " Imperatives for a marketing professional in this world of AI and Machine Learning". The panel discussed the new ground rules that are being created in this age of AI and machine learning. The discussion moved from how AI and ML are impacting the marketing industry to how these technologies can be used to have a better marketing plan and decisions. The discussion also went on how young professionals should use the technology to pave their way for success.
The gathering took a break for lunch which again gave time for closer interaction between the students and the esteemed guests. The students along with faculty members discussed various marketing trends, expectations, and industries.
After the lunch break, the session started with project presentations by students in the domains of digital marketing, branding & positioning and product launch. The session saw four students group present their hard work in front of the guests, the students received creative feedback from the guests and were well appreciated for the effort that they had put in the projects.
The end of the presentations brought the event to its final phase. Dr. Amar Saxena, Marketing Chairperson for IFMR GSB was called upon for addressing Valedictory Session. In his speech, he thanked all the guests for being a part of the session. He also summed up the theme of the event and talked about the changing trends brought by technology and its impact on marketing. After this Mr. Madhavan Parthasarthy, XLRI Jamshedpur alumnus with rich industry experience of over 20 years was called upon to give valedictory session address. In his speech, he talked about various aspects of consumers and markets. He talked about how the markets and the customers are evolving. He threw light on how technology is holding the consumer and helping him evolve and demand better products and services. He talked about the movement from "one fit for all" to "one fit for one". He drew in various stories from his experience and concluded with what is a perfect customer remark.
The event came to an end with the vote of thanks which was given by the Markaholics-the marketing committee of IFMR GSB which is the organizing committee for the event along with the CRCS team. The team thanked all the stakeholders involved in making the event successful and the students went with lots of enrichment and knowledge which they can apply once they take up positions of responsibility in the industry.
-Deepak Pandey
Student of IFMR-GSB Krea University