They hang out at malls, go to the movies or the gaming zone. Last weekend saw the techies pour into Ventures Reboot 2010, a corporate fest.
The two-day fest had a host of events like general quiz, antakshari, mad ads, dumb charades and group dance to mention a few.
The show was meant exclusively for the IT crowd in the City. It began with antakshari hosted by Kaustav Bhattacharya, followed by the mad ads finals.
The fun and excitement rolled over to the next day when corporates battled it out for the quizzing competition which was hosted by quiz master Arul Mani of Karnataka Quiz Association.
There was also the dumb charades where the participants came up with some innovative concepts.
The final round of the dance competition saw techies shake a leg to some of the popular tunes.
David Ramesh, the director of Ventures says that this event surpassed his expectations, in terms of the participation, crowd support, enthusiasm and preparation that the teams did to contest in the various events.
“We’ve been organising this for nine years now and we’ve seen the numbers double every year. There was a time when we fell short of funds to take this forward but the tremendous crowd support kept us going,” says David.
Among the companies that participated were Infosys, Siemens, IBM, SAP Labs, iGate, General Motors, G E, SLK Software, Bosch, Tesco, to mention a few.
Talking about their experience Murali, manager Employee Engagement, iGATE who also happens to lead iGate’s music band called ‘Rubber Band’ says it has been a memorable experience to come year after year.
The band called themselves the Rubber Band because they’re flexible in playing any genre of music in just about any language.
Among the pieces that they performed were Dil Toh Baccha Heinji, Naadamaya in Kannada, Hotel California and Iris, Mere Laundry Ka Ek Bill from Rock On and a medley of old rock songs like Yeh Mera Dil, Dum Maro Dum and Anjali Anjali in Tamil.
“The spirit of Reboot, where different people from different companies come and cheer us in different contests, is unique and everyone feels connected. The healthy culture is addictive and makes us to look forward to Reboot each year,” says Murali.
Sandesh from Tesco who won the mad ads three times in a row says the exposure and experience one gets here is unparalleled.
“This is the only inter-corporate event that we techies earnestly look forward to. We practice well in advance for the events and come here only with the intention to win. There’s healthy competition and the judging is fair. That’s what I like the most,” says Sandesh.
The overall cultural champions of the fest were IGate Solutions.