Learn. Innovate. Discover. E-Cell brought a unique opportunity to all SPITians to #UnleashtheEntrepreneurWithinThem. What could be a better start than a fusion of everyone’s love for cricket with their passion for entrepreneurship!
IPL Auction
E-Summit 2018 brought a new twist to the conventional IPL Auction, which was conducted on March 20th. The event garnered attention from around 30 teams from across the five branches. It consisted primarily of a qualification round followed by the final auction. The top ten teams were selected for the final auction.The auction, apart from the regular bidding of players, consisted of a novel idea – the ‘Storyline’. The Storyline was based on true events from 2007 to 2017, where the ratings of the players varied according to their real-world performances. In the end, the team headed by Akhil Sardesai from B.E. EXTC came out on top followed by the team led by Niket Parekh from SE Computers.
Due to the massive positive response from the crowd, the auction was conducted again on 24th March. The team led by Jay from T.E IT emerged as winners in the second slot trailed by the team led by Parth Ambalkar from S.E EXTC.
“It was a unique experience to organize such a large scale event in E-Summit. The event was successful only due to everyone’s cooperation,” quoted Siddhant Bhagat, one of the organizers. The winners bagged prizes worth 6k, which surely called for a celebration, leading to the next event.
FOOD CHALLENGE
Combining the passion for entrepreneurship with something everyone loves ‘food’, led to Food Challenge 2018. 23rd of March was officially declared a ‘no-tiffin day’ and the college quadrangle saw nearly the entire student body queuing up at the student-run food stalls during the lunch break. A total of 12 teams participated and were determined to present their culinary skills. A whopping amount of Rs. 40,000 was generated. The winners were chosen based on their profits. Sahil Sheth and his team from FE IT stood first, as their lip-smacking variations of fries was an instant crowd favorite. They shared this position with Shreyansh Sheth and his team from SE ETRX, who made a lot of money by serving delicious Mac & Cheese balls and Red Velvet Cheesecake.
“Organizing food challenge was an amazing experience and the turnout was incredible. All the teams worked hard and made this event a huge success,” quoted Sarah Hawa, an organizer for the event.
It was now time to serve food for thought, and E-Cell did it in their own unique way.
SHARK TANK
This year’s E-Summit provided a chance to polish one’s pitching skills with Shark-Tank! The unique event let participants experience the most crucial activity for any start-up i.e funding. After all, no start-up can truly take-off without its investors.
“Shark Tank was not only about how well one spoke but it also tested all the skills that make one a well-rounded entrepreneur. The participants got the valuable real-time experience of how funding and investing works in a start-up.”, Siddharth Mehta from the organizing team.
Participants were allotted a startup on the spot and had only 15 minutes to prepare their pitch in the first round. Four teams who could successfully reel in investors advanced to the next stage. Round two saw the participants present their business models in detail and negotiate its shares with the investors. This was followed by a fierce Q&A session. After a very close competition, the team from DJ Sanghvi comprising of Yash Doshi and Bhumi Godiwala emerged victorious.
After learning how to acquire money from investors, it was time to test how to invest it in Virtual Stock Market.
VIRTUAL STOCK MARKET.
Virtual Stock Market was one of the most interesting events of E-Summit 2018. It brought out all the students who had a flair for understanding the stock exchange dynamics in a battle against each other. All participants were given a virtual sum of 20,000 dollars as soon as they registered on an app called ‘Encrypto’. They had to deeply scrutinize each news headline shown on the projector and invest in the different cryptocurrencies smartly. Suyash Joshi (F.E. EXTC) who emerged as a winner quoted, “We had to analyze every news and invest accordingly. It was a simplified yet a realistic stock market experience.”
“Although a challenging event, VSM was also an innovative one for my team and the active participation of the students made it worth all our efforts”, Krishna Mehta, Head of Events, E-Cell.
Now, the stage was set to learn the strategies of a real-time industry.
Strategizing Challenge
The E-Cell Strategizing Challenge inspired the participants to don their thinking caps and step into the shoes of the management of an actual industry. The teams were given the case to study the situation of “Meru Cabs”. They had to analyze its performance, financial strategies, and devise tactics to make the company profitable in the world where Uber and Ola dominate. Well-thought presentations made way to the panel of judges which consisted of Prof. Kaisar Katchi and Shadab Khan, a B.E EXTC student.“The ones who dare to compete with the best, are the ones that eventually become the best, that is why we had given Meru as a case study to the students. ” Ankur Chokwani, one of the organizers. The panel, after going through all the suggested models, declared the team led by Shashank Gupta, F.E I.T as winners and the team led by Atul, F.E I.T as runner-ups, who in all, bagged a prize pot of Rs. 5000.
After gaining all the experience, it was time to apply the knowledge in the real world
INTERNSHIP FAIR-2018
On Saturday, March 24th, S.P.I.T. was bustling with aspiring engineering students hoping to land an internship at the Startup Job Internship fair 2018. TBI (Technology Business Incubation center) organized this event in association with Mumbai’s IEEE chapter with support from E-Cell and IEEE volunteers. The event was started by an inaugural address by Javed Hawa and Amarjit Sabherwal, who gave an insight into job culture in the corporate world. 30+ startups participated in this fair with as many as 200 different openings, there was an opportunity available for all. Not quite sure about your resume? Feel nervous during interviews? Students could attend educational sessions ranging from Resume writing to Mock Interviews.
“Our aim was to help startups get talent and fulfill their recruitment process. Entrepreneurship and start-ups as a workplace couldn’t have been promoted better.” Samroz Khan, TBI.
“The passion for entrepreneurship dwells in everyone who enters this college. E-Summit 2018 provided a platform to explore this avenue. Proud of the entire E-Cell team to pull this off successfully!” – Yash Gaba, Vice-Chairperson, E-Cell.
By Artemis Fowl, Patrick Jane, Hercule Poirot, Arya Stark