“What lovely roads. It would be great to drive super cars on these roads.”, this was the first thought I had when I entered through the gates of my graduation college which is VIT University Vellore. I was in my first year when I had the thought of organizing a big premium event in my college. But I didn’t know how to go about it. There were other big premium events that were already being organized in the campus. And so, I had the option of either repeating the same events or coming up with a brand-new event. However, as days passed by, things got busy and I had to concentrate on my grades and other club activities.
Things changed rapidly during the final year of my college. It was the month of March’2015 and VIT organizes the biggest technical fest of southern India which is called graVITas. I thought this was the last chance to organize something big in my college. And then came the idea of organizing ‘AutoExpo’, an exhibition/display of super cars and bikes, automobiles that every teenager my age dreamt of owning one day. I thought that people will be interested in this event because it will give them an inspiration to pursue their goals.
I started collecting details and started preparing to organize the event. I needed to contact the exotic car owners, sponsorships, event utilities etc. My search led me to Mr. Taha, a person who was an event manager and had prior experience of organizing Autoexpo throughout the country. We had been discussing on the technicalities of the event for months till the last week before the event. We had the sponsorship, the required contacts to accomplish the task and all the utilities were in the right place.
A week before the event, Mr. Taha informed that he would be coming to my college all the way from Chennai to ensure that all things were in place. We made all the arrangements ready and were waiting to receive him. On the day of his visit, I received a call from an unknown number. The person on the other side informed me that Mr. Taha had met with an accident somewhere between Chennai and my college and his situation was critical. Me and my friends rushed to the spot only to see Mr. Taha moaning in pain. He was being carried away in an ambulance to Chennai for treatment since the local hospitals in the vicinity weren’t well equipped to treat him. At that point in time, it was a huge crisis since the tickets were already sold, venue was booked and all arrangements were ready. But without the event manager, the event could not be organized. I rushed to the emergency ward of the hospital in Chennai where Taha was admitted. The doctors informed us that his right leg, hand and ribcage were fractured. He couldn’t speak and laid unconscious the whole time. We wanted to cancel the event and were ready to face any kind of repercussions. While I was on my way back to the college, I passed through a remote village. There was barely any connectivity in the region. Thankfully, this one call changed the entire scenario for us. The call was from the owners of the super cars who wanted to be part of the event and wanted me to act as the event manager in the place of Taha. They wanted the event to happen at any cost. It was a big responsibility since apart from it being my final year, recruitment activities were taking place which would decide my career. I decided to move ahead with the event and till the time of the event, I was not just a student busy with exams and placements but also an event manager of a multi-crore event.
We were successful in organizing the event which had a turnout of over 10,000 students. The revenues that we generated were also huge and both the college as well as the super car owners were happy with the event. This was a very big challenge that came my way and I didn’t falter. Rather, I used the opportunity to test my capability and succeed.
There is a link between the above-mentioned story and ABG. A very big reason why the event happened was because of a product/brand of ABG – Vodafone. The fact that I was able to receive that important call from the super car owners despite passing through the remote village was a testimony to the connectivity that was provided by the Vodafone network. If it were any other network, I wouldn’t have received that call. Vodafone had a big role to play in the event going down as one of the most successful events in my college. I will forever be grateful to Vodafone and ABG since without their support, I wouldn’t have fulfilled my desire to organize something big in college.
