MOP Vaishnav College for Women recently hosted Ignite 2017, a national-level entrepreneurship summit, over two days. Twenty-three speakers and 15 colleges participated. It aimed to inculcate passion for entrepreneurship among the youngsters and create a forum for exchange of ideas and insights, transforming the student delegates into budding entrepreneurs.
The summit was inaugurated in the presence of the guest of honour Lauren Lovelace, Consul for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, US Consulate, Chennai. The chief guest, Vaishali Neotia, CEO and co-founder of Merxius, addressed the gathering on 'What it takes to be an entrepreneur', and emphasised the need for women in business, breaking stereotypes, and self-confidence.
Range of speakers
The summit had a host of speakers from across the country. These speakers gave their views on topics such as jugaad entrepreneurship, or frugal entrepreneurship and how people can create businesses out of simple everyday solutions, busting the myth that a successful business is only an outcome of great ideas. Vijay Rajagopal, Head of Strategy and Operations at PayPal, presented trends in business financing, and formulating and pitching a business plan. This was followed by an analysis of the entrepreneurial capabilities and statistics of the audience through a pre-delivered test.
Panel discussions on 'Entrepreneurship: an idea or an opportunity?' and 'Entrepreneurship: lineage and new age?' were held. Speakers from families with a business background and new-age entrepreneurs engaged with the audience in an interesting discussion about the pros and cons of both kinds of entrepreneurship.
Healthy competition
Four B-Labs (business domain workshop) were organised: e-commerce by Vandini Ravindran, Proprietor of Janvi Adornments; food and agriculture industry by Meera Maran; media and entertainment by Bala Manian and Chocka of OPN Advertising; and social entrepreneurship by Sahaana Krishnan from Teach for India.
Competitions on business model presentation and start-up mime were conducted to extract the entrepreneurship spirit.
The valedictory session featured an address by the principal of the college, Lalitha Balakrishnan, and a session on entrepreneurship mentoring and role models by Kiruba Shankar, CEO, Business Blogging.