What happens behind the curtains to make an event successful?
Every time we attend an event, we just go and watch the event and come back home. Not once have we given a thought about what all measures are taken to make that event happen or what difficulties are faced by the production team to make the event enjoyable. Honestly, this thought hadn’t crossed my mind also until I got to watch our team at Aadyaa organise a conference on Legacy Waste Management.
A couple of days ago, to be precise the 26th of July, the team at Aadyaa organised a Conference on Legacy Waste Management at the Suvarna Bhavan, Bangalore on behalf of TIDE (Technology Informatics Design Endeavour), BORDA South Asia and Municipal Administration Karnataka to provide a platform for experts to share their experiences and views on legacy waste remediation.
The conference focused on discussing different ways of tackling legacy waste which could further lead to hazardous and irreversible environmental issues. There were speakers who are involved in this industry in different parameters sharing stories of towns and communities which have successfully handled and resolved the problem of legacy garbage. Panel discussions were held where challenges related to financing dumpster remediation, policies and regulations made to control legacy waste, the technology used by different companies who are part of this industry were addressed.
About 15 to 20 days before the conference, preparations began. The welcome kits, brochures, stage setup, and other behind-the-scenes tasks fell within the purview of the Aadyaa team. In addition to employing a good sound system, designing the brochure, hiring a few photographers and videographers, handling the zoom attendees, streaming live on YouTube and setting up the backdrop and banners, we also produced the whole welcome kit, which contained about 5–6 eco-friendly products.
The main challenge our team had before to the event was finding eco-friendly products that would be included in the welcome package (for obvious reasons) while being budget-friendly. The crew at Aadyaa overcome this obstacle by using creativity when selecting and constructing products that contained absolutely no plastic at all while having the ability to be used as many times as desired.
Despite a few minor technical difficulties, the conference’s big day went smoothly. When a few panellists joined the discussion through Zoom, connecting the meeting to the LED wall and the YouTube live stream became a little challenging. However, the problem was quickly resolved and the event went on as planned. The second and fortunately final problem that occurred during the conference was a fuse trip which caused our live stream to pause and later cause the clip to lag and buffer for at least 30 minutes. Fortunately, the streaming problem was eventually fixed, allowing online viewers to watch the event without interruption.
In my opinion, having a cultural event at the end of the event kept the audience seated but having one at the start would have boosted their energy even more. Even though the conference’s primary objective was to raise awareness about legacy waste and ways to resolve the issue by showcasing examples of successful communities and the various technologies available, including sessions where the audience could actively participate would have made the conference even more lively and interesting.
Attending this conference (although not as an audience) has ignited hope in me that plastic pollution and its adverse effects can be controlled.
Written by – Dhriti Kiran
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