BIMTECH hosted its second virtual Business Literature Festival 2022, entirely student-led, bringing together writers from diverse fields to engage in meaningful debates and dialogues centred around the genre of business literature and non-fiction.
Harivansh Chaturvedi, Director, BIMTECH, welcoming the participants, said he was happy that his vision of BBLF had turned true and envisaged a bright future for it. He encouraged the attendees to engage in reading to evolve in life and asked the writers to assert the importance of liberal arts in professional education.
Valuable lessons
The chief guest Prof Debashis Chatterjee, Director, IIM Kozhikode, inaugurated the event with leadership nuggets from his book Karma Sutra. He emphasised that karma is the foundation of life through stories from his book. He reiterated the importance of human intelligence over artificial intelligence, how the world is moving from consuming to caring, and from producing to innovating.
Listening, observing, and failing are three critical leadership tools, he said, adding, “The world is changed by your actions, not by your opinions.” He believes that we all have our own karmas. He explained how the book decodes secrets of effective leadership by stating that in each follower there’s an emerging leader. He emphasised listening, observing, and failing as three critical leadership tools. “The world is changed by your actions, not by your opinions,” he added.
The valedictory address was delivered by Prakash Iyer, Founder CEO of Leadership Works, and author of How Come No One Told Me That? He said, “Figure out why you want something, do you want it, and don’t worry about the fear of missing out.” He also advised students to have an alteration tailor in life to highlight the importance of agility and adaptability. He shared valuable lessons learned over the course of life with wit and vigour.
Confluence of ideas
The seven-hour virtual literary event witnessed book discussions, book launches, themed panel talks, author interviews, masterclasses, and contests. The fest was a kaleidoscope of featured books on diverse topics ranging from self-awareness, entrepreneurship, dairy and agricultural industry, branding and marketing, women authorship, future skills, research, and leadership.
More than 28 eminent speakers ranging from academic leaders, corporate stalwarts, bureaucrats, and writers along with books fresh out of the oven were showcased in the unique confluence of literati and bibliophiles. The fest particularly voiced the need to encourage women authorship and reiterated the importance of inclusion of literature in business classes.
Robust panel discussions took place as speakers spoke on issues like “Renaissance of Liberal Arts Education in Indian B-Schools’, “Future of Work & Skills Managers Need to Excel’, “Women Authorship”. Carefully-designed master classes on Being an Author, Corporate Lessons from the Gita and blogging as the first step to getting published were well attended by students and professionals.
To bring together the student community in the fest, a national contest “Blog Your Way” was organised. Vishaka Choudhary, LPU Punjab, won the event while Akshay Kumar, IIT Madras, and R Gokul, IIM Indore, were 1st and 2nd runner-ups respectively. The fest also acknowledged creativity demonstrated by BIMTECH students Palak Mittal, Charvi Gosain, Rishika Sharma, Pragya Singh, and Niharika Chandan for their exemplary work in the promotion and branding of BBLF 2022. The event was supported by publishing houses Penguin Random House and Westland along with MBA Universe, Design Mantra, FMA Digital, Mentza and Atal Innovation Centre.