Manfest festival at IIM Lucknow

It is always good, rather imperative to put your learning into practice. That is what the business school festivals are all about. And to this effect, IIM-Lucknow is organising a festival called ‘Manfest’, which is going to be held from January 16-18.
According to professor at IIML and coordinator of Manfest 2004, Anil Chaturvedi, ‘‘Manfest involves an hitherto unseen holistic dimension.In the beginning, the IIML festival involved only fun element, but since the past couple of years the orientation of the festival has tilted towards instilling global responsibilities in students.’’
For the IIML students, Manfest provides an opportunity to operate amidst a business-like environment: managing budgets, maximising visibility, developing communication strategies, working out operational details and designing systems to support events.
‘‘Manfest is a complete CEO workout,’’ said Kanika Kalra, a student of IIML and member, core committee, Manfest 2004. Manfest 2004 is an amalgam of leadership-centric novel ventures, along with the tradition cornucopia of management-related technical competitions. And new this time is Arcade D’ Offbeat Management, the flashpoint of interaction between industry and academia, which will embrace a complete perspective towards management. The Arcade plays host to top-notch leaders, including chairman TRAI, Pradip Baijal, executive director, ICICI Bank, Chanda Kochchar, former Indian cricket captain, Kapil Dev and representatives of the Dabbawallahs of Mumbai that is called the six-sigma organisation, and renowned newspaper columnist, Jug Suraiya, to share their perspectives on their areas of excellence.
There will be events like The Business Quiz by quiz master Siddhartha Basu, Maestro General Quiz, The Biz Theatre, performances by leading bands, Euphoria and Indian Ocean. In addition to it, Manfest hosts the alumni of IIML, to relive old memories and share their experiences.
‘‘The total cost of the festival will be Rs 28 lakh. “Major part of it comes straight from the companies which come down to IIML for placements,’’ Kalra pointed out.
The three-day fiesta, has so far confirmed participation of around 400 students of B-schools from all across the country and 3,000 have registered for the online event.
Pratyush Jha, a student of IIML and member, core committee, Manfest 2004 remarked, ‘‘Although we are guided by our teachers, yet it is not that easy and we have to put everything together by taking time off from the rigorous day-to-day schedule of ours. But, it gives us a real taste of managing human and monetary resources.’’