For one week, young students of Loyola and the rest of the city colleges will come together to take part in a week-long awareness campaign to focus public attention on opportunities in today's India. Initiated by the non-profit National Entrepreneurship Network of the Wadhwani Foundation, E Week India 2010 is designed to embrace innovation, engage communities and inspire young people to think BIG; to think DIFFERENT; to break new frontiers.
Loyola EDC harbors to organize a range of activities and programs to harness the student’s potential as innovators and problem-solvers. Industry captains, experts, non-profit leaders, and faculty members will be in attendance in large numbers to encourage, guide, and inspire students to take action. In doing so, students will begin to acquire the knowledge, skills and values required to grow high-potential, sustainable enterprises for a brighter tomorrow
(Human Rights Day event on Women Empowerment - 10th Dec, 2009)
This time around, the E.D.C organized a panel discussion exclusively for women, their role in management and ways to empower them. This was organized on 10th December 2009 between 10.15am to 11.15am at the Y.D Hall. An empowered and aristocratic panel was engaged to deal with the issue which had successful and knowledgeable ladies. The event titled ‘Empowering Venus’ was an event organized by the Entrepreneurship Development Cell of Loyola College in association with the Women’s Forum of the College.
They panelists included Ms. Marie Banu (Head, Communications, Centre for Social Initiative & Management), Mrs. Latha A. Krishna (Co-Founder & Partner, Virgo Events), Ms. Sree Vidya (Managing Director, D Group Security Services) and Mrs. Usha Rajkumar (CEO, Parijatham Trust), who were chaired by Ms. R. Devika (Women’s Rights Activist). The topic for the discussion was ‘A journey of a woman – from a home maker to a life changer. Dr. K. S. Antony Samy, Dean of Students, Loyola College, Prof. Mary Swarnambol, Dean of Women Students, Loyola College, Students Union representatives and the faculty advisors of the Entrepreneurship Cell graced the occasion.
The Welcome Address was given by Dr. Francis Jose, the mentor and faculty advisor of the EDC. The panel discussion was about the scope for women, the difficulties they face, the balancing factor, and views on sexism, self confidence, inner-engineering and many social topics. All these topics were addressed according to the situation and the panelists answered the questions and the appeals put forth with professionalism and real-life examples. Empowerment must be a ‘within’ factor and Sympathy should not be the source of a woman’s development were the major topics discussed. To strike a balance there were speakers who spoke about a man’s importance in a woman’s life and in addition questions related were also answered. Real life examples and the plight of the common women were the crucial factors that enhanced the quality of the discussion. The Dean of women students gave a few real-life examples on how women are treated and mocked at! She emphasized on eliminating fear as a hindrance to the path of development. Revolt against all odds, fight hard, work well, and success will be the result. It is all about equity and reduced disparity. Women want equal status and when they are deprived of it they will get assertive or if needed, they will revolt to achieve what the need. Wait for the right moment was a good point that was raised by a person from the audience.
The event which was pulled off by the core team of EDC in a mere 3 day time, saw an interesting full house audience, indicating success – thanks to the opportunity given by the Management and the tremendous support given by the Women’s Forum of Loyola College.
The annual cultural extravaganza of Loyola College- Ovations was held this year on the 11th and 12th of September. As every year, it was spectacular and amazing and everyone had a good time. Kudos to Pradeep and Karthik and the Loyola Students Union for pulling it off in spite of extreme shortage of funds (most probable sponsors showed us the back door due to the recession... or so they claim!)
One of the things that set this year's Ovations apart form the previous years was Global Village. Those of you who have attended IIT Saarang and have actually had the energy to travel a considerable amount of the campus would have heard of this concept - where there is a melting potof different cultures on sale. It is basically a set of community specific stalls selling culture-specific items and food.
We put up six stalls - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Tibet, Sri Lanka, Africa and (hold your breath!) France. These were a few of the students' communities of our college. I was the organizer for global village, and my job was to basically get the communities interested, help them draw up plans, make a list of what they need, get those things, help them put their plans into action, get them cash and see that everything goes on well during the two days of ovations.
Simple, isn't it?
It was made simple by the very enthusiastic students (most of them were doing PG, they were senior to me but they didn't mind - they were so damn sweet!) who really made it possible along with all the coordination. And the result? Global Village was a huge success. It was probably as big as the Ovations itself (I dare say that) and it saw amazing portrays into different cultures, along with some excellent food that is extremely rare. Everything was sold out, some of the stalls sold out their items in less than half a day!
And buying food and T shirts was not the only thing. There were folk dances by Kerala and Tibet and a mind blowing hip hop performance by the African students.
Too bad that outsiders are not allowed to watch ovations, and hence they could not visit global Village. But here's to all you readers - wait for 'Ignite', the pro shows hosted by Loyola that is most likely to be held in February. We just might have another, possible bigger Global Village that anyone can come and take in the sights, sounds and tastes personally.
Psst - tune in to SS Music on the 27th and do watch the special program on Ovations. Outsiders are generally not allowed to watch, so this might be your best chance!
The Enrepreneurship Development Cell of Loyola College,Chennai kick started this years events with the orientation programme for its 300 budding entrepreneurs on 29th July,2009.The meeting was conducted for the sole purpose of involving the members in the cells activities by personalising and taking up sugestions for the cell's actionplan.
The following is the proposed action plan for EDC during the course of this academic year. It is designed to give maximum benefit to the students.
At least one event per month
The EDC wishes to conduct at least one ‘event’ in each month. The ‘events’ can be any one of the following:
Lectures, Workshops, Activities or Seminars
These events will be conducted in collaboration with the NEN and will be conducted by professionals in these fields, such as businessmen themselves or professional trainers. For example, last year we conducted a Business Plan Writing Workshop where Mr. Murali of Unifi Solutions taught the students how to write a business plan.
Last year, we had conducted a total of six lectures, numerous activities that were part of Oxygen 09 and we had a Greenpeace Seminar. We also had an Open Coffee Conference.
Oxygen ‘10
Our entrepreneurship week will be held in February or March. It will be the crown of EDC activities for this year. Oxygen ’10 will be one of the best E-weeks ever.
Contests are part of our events.
The activities of the EDC are not confined to Loyola alone. There are many other colleges with their own E-Cells. We have maintained a good network with them through the NEN and now through Chennai E-Cells coordinator, Mr. Akshay.
Networking with other E-cells
We can send our students for the seminars, workshops, contests, etc. conducted by these E-cells. In addition, various seminars that are conducted by the NEN and other entrepreneurship networks (which by the way are highly informative and useful) can be opened to our students. For example, IIT conducts an OCC on the first Sunday of every month.
Getting contacts
Throughout these activities, there is always the opportunity to make some ‘contacts in high places’. That is, people can get contacts of businessmen and others who may be of some help.
Inspiration
Those who come to talk to the students could be a source of inspiration for them to become successful entrepreneurs.
Possible start ups
Start-ups and internships can be made possible. It is being done at the NEN and also through Chennai E-Cells coordinator, Mr. Akshay, who is doing it using his website- hardum.com.
The Entrepreneurship Development Cell of Loyola College took a great leap forward this year and conducted many activities to spread entrepreneurship among students. The activities that were conducted were as follows.
Inauguration: The inaugural session was held on --. Mr. Pandiarajan of MaFoi talked about how he became an entrepreneur and inspired many students. Also, a number of students joined the EDC.
B-Plan Writing Workshop: On the 16th of December, Mr. R Murali of Unifi conducted a workshop in our college on how to write ‘Business Plans’- an essential step to be taken if you want to become an entrepreneur. It was very informative and a number of students benefited from it.
TiE Conference – Bangalore: The TiE conference was held from 16th to 18th of December in Bangalore. It was an international conference to celebrate entrepreneurship and its various aspects. Prominent entrepreneurs such as Vijay Mallya and Azim premji came to share their experience and ideas. Two of our student – Pradeep Rajadas and Erick Irani had the rare previlige of being invited to attend the conference. They benefited a lot from the valuable experience and met many high profile businessmen.
Anna University Panel Discussion On the 28th of January, some of our first year students attended a panel discussion held at Anna University between various speakers on the pros and sons of entrepreneurship.
Genesis 2009-IIT Madras Some of the students of the Entrepreneurship development cell also attended Genesis 2009 hosted by IIT madras about Business Plan writing.Which had many prominent organizations and speakers.
Panel Discussion-NEN’s Hottest Startups-Chennai Many of our students also attended a panel discussion with the finalists in Tata Nen’s hottest startups from Chennai, with speakers like Mr.Karthik from Evam, Mr.S.Nandakumar from Perfint and Uday Shankar from Ennovasys
Oxygen 09 This was the pinnacle of all EDC activities of the year. It was organized in collaboration with the enviro club. A four-day long celebration of entrepreneurship in collaboration with environment awareness, ‘oxygen 09’, the entrepreneurship week of Loyola College was a grand success. The activities were spread over four days from 2nd of March to 5th of march as follows.
Day 1: Inauguration: Presided by Justice Jyothimani and forest Minister M. Selvaraj. Mr. Jyothimani gave the inaugural address and the minister talked about the environment.
‘Tailor Made’ This was a series of department-specific talks given by entrepreneurs from various fields. There were totally 6 talks, 3 of them on day 1.
First talk was given by Mr. Venkatasubbarao of TSK and Co. He gave a useful insight into entrepreneurship. Second talk was in the afternoon by Mr. Sunil, a.k.a. ‘Shoosha’ of Evam Productions. The audience was made up of mostly Vis. Comm. Students and he talked about Theatre and opportunities in the Media sector. It was fantastic. Third and final talk of the day was on technology. Mr. Dorai Thodla is a fantastic speaker and presenter and showed us some unbelievable stuff that technology can do. This was followed by some mind blowing stats.
Day 2: ‘Tailor Made’ Fourth Talk was by Mr. Harihara of Mayuras infotech. He talked about business in his field and in the field of robotics. Fifth talk –Mr. Maalolan Anand on ‘English Entrepreneurship’ took the audience by storm. We let him go on for more than 2 hours since it was amazing. The hall was packed. The students loved it. Best Quote – ‘Your writings will be the eyes of the world’. He only quoted from some tamil proverb. Very inspirational- for a second even I thought of becoming a writer. Sixth talk – Mr. Shrinivas of PPP infotech talked about translated literature and a bit about his business. He is a multi-faceted personality.
Day 3:
Greenpeace talk: The world renowned environment protection agency – Greenpeace came to our college to do what they do best- spread environment awareness. They also conducted the environment quiz that got the crowd involved. That’s when Oxygen Compete started.
Open Coffee Club: Mr. Suresh of RSK and Mr. Vaidi – founder of open coffee club. The first talked about entrepreneurship and the latter about green technology.
Oxygen Compete: These are a bunch of competitions that occupied the last two days. The events included: Business quiz, debate, junk art, case study, slogan and logo design, poster making, photo entrepreneurship, Rs. 50 challenge (which is quite interesting – students given Rs. 50 and given 24 hours to try and make maximum profit out of it).
Day 4: adzap, debate finals, stock wars, what if, block and tackle, paper presentation, plan your budget, creative writing, street play, business plan writing.
Participation was great, the events got a bit delayed but that could be accepted in all culturals. We got a positive reponse from the students. Our own college students also participated. Overall championship went to Vivekananda College. Second was SRCM (Sree Ramchandra College of Management which is under Sree Ramchandra University).
Valedictory: Mr. Sameer Metha of Atlas Agency. The final function- the valedictory where prizes were given out and gratitude was expressed to all the participants (and sponsors).
We (the organizers) worked very hard for it and were quite satisfied with the outcome. We worked against all the odds in the world and still went ahead with it. It was much better than last year’s and I would be audacious enough to say it was better than the e-weeks of most other colleges.
Career Fair: On the 12th of March, three prominent entrepreneurs came to our college to interact with our students and to discuss the prospects of entrepreneurship in recent times.
Alright Ladies and Gents! This here is the list of Cash prizes up for grabs at Oxygen: Compete. Editor's Note: What's given below is the total cash available for the event. We're giving cash for the first and second places. S.no Event Total amount in Rs 1 Business Quiz 2400 2 Junk Art 750 3 Enviro Quiz 500 4 Slogan & Logo Design 750 5 Poster Making 500 6 Debate 800 7 Photo Entrepreneurship 400 8 Adzap 2600 9 Stock Wars 900 10 What If 300 11 Block & Tackle 300 12 Case Study 600 13 Paper Presentation 1600 14 Plan Your Budget 600 15 Creative Writing 600 16 Street Play 1800 17 Biz-plan Writing 3500 18 50Rs- Entrepreneur 1500 Remember the event is happening on the 4th and the 5th of March 09. Register by sending in your entries to edc.loyola@gmail.com. Happy earning!
Erick first thought this was Taylor Made:p. His xplanation was that anything made by Elizabeth Taylor ought to be good. Bless Him. Anyways, Oxygen Tailor Made is a series of six talks. It's called tailor made because the speakers are drawn from diverse fields to suit the needs of the various departments of Loyola College(Editor's Note: Anything that fits Loyola, pretty much fits the world)
No of participants: 2 per team, 2 teams per college
Event description : Written Event, Participants will be given a problem involving environmental legislation they must come up with a feasible legal solution for the problem.
Criteria: Legal Correctness, Viability and Correctness of the solution.
Name: Paper Presentation
No of Participants : 2 participants per college
Time allotted per team: 5+2 mins
Event Description : “Cleaning the world is our Business”
·The participants have to submit their papers by the 1st of march, 2009.
Annual Report 07-08 Inauguration:The E-cell was inaugurated on the 10th of December by Mr. S Jain, Founder and CEO of 10 miles Corp. E-week, Loyola, 8 Feb. ‘08The cell conducted the E-Week on 8th February, 2008.The event featured several eminent personalities from the industry as judges with Mr. Sarath Babu, CEO and founder of Food King Pvt. Ltd as the chief guest. 14 city colleges participated in the E-week and MOP College took home the overall trophy. Some of the events conducted were :• Business Quiz• VC Pitching• Crazy Problem Solving etc.EXPLORE 08:Explore 08 was yet another much-lauded event conducted by the E-cell In March 08. The event drew participation from several eminent city colleges as well as a large audience from Loyola itself. The event took place in the form of a panel discussion and featured speakers such as Mr. Salahuddin of Hotel Blue Diamond, Mr Murali of Unifi Financial Solutions and several others.CONFERENCES/ACTIVITIES::Our members also attended various city level and national level competitions on Entrepreneurship including that conducted by the Great Lakes Institute of Management.Our members attended several workshops at the city level. TIECON 08 a national conference featuring personalities such as the CEO of Yahoo! India, Apollo Hospitals, Fitness one etc. is a case in point
