Performing their best under pressure

CHALLENGING MINDS

A business fest is generally about presentations and reports, but for the first time the students of B Com, Department of Professional Studies, Christ University, decided to break the monotony and think out of the box while organising their annual business carnival Cognito 2010.

For almost a month, the students brainstormed each other and their sponsors to come out with innovative rounds that challenged the mind.

These young people promised all the participants that the pressure of the
various rounds would destroy the strongest of minds.

“A month ago when we conceptualised this fest, we had something called
Incognito, where students of our class took part and tested the intensity of the various rounds. And we thought if students could actually break through all this, they can really be the ultimate business whiz. That’s when we went national and invited the best colleges from all over the country to take part. To keep things fair, we made sure that none of the B Com students of Christ University took part in the fest but instead be volunteers and ensure that things go smoothly,” said Dhruv, a second year student.

Before the three-day extravaganza began, around 80 colleges went through an intensive qualification round out of which only 10 teams  made it to the next 15 challenges.

Keeping topics like marketing, human resource and finance in mind, Cognito 2010, came out with innovative events like Author Sound, Bollywood goes Hollywood, Stress Management and even a Paintball Competition.

With a theme like Check Mate, strategising and planning the next move during the fest was the key to get through these rounds, said Mukut, a third year student.
  “Each team had five members but they didn’t about the events that were in store for them. Before each round, we would only give them a brief of the event after which the team had to make a move and pick the member who would attend the round,” he added.

Vishwas, a student from Manipal University, said the various layers made the competition interesting.

“If one round brought in immense pressure, the next round lightened things up for the members,” he added.

The highlight however was the online trading system invented by Arun Balan, a third year student, and the Google Presentation.

Being the only event with a presentation, the students had to come out with products which Google has not ventured into. Based on how well each team performed in all the rounds, the winner was decided.

“In terms of professionalism and transparency of evaluation and judging, Cognito sure did set up a benchmark. Getting ideas is one thing but executing them to the finesse is another, I will surely take back many things from this fest and try to imbibe it when we organise our annual business fest,” said Imran, from Amity College, Noida.