FICCI TURF 2018 : Students Speak!

“TURF 2018” 8th Global Sports Summit, an international convention on business of sports- an iconic event took place on 25-26 October, 2018 at FICCI, Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi. With an aim of creating a dialogue between senior decision makers of the industry the strategic platform established serves more than just a single purpose.

At IISM, we firmly believe in the power of collaborations & understand its facilitation to success. It was thus an indeed pleasure to have had partnered with FICCI as their “Knowledge Partners” for Turf 2018 & have our Founder-Director, Mr. Nilesh Kulkarni be a part of an expert panel discussion.

We can’t stress enough about how youth engagement & development at the grassroots is of utmost importance for sports to develop not just nationally but globally. With eminent panelists, athletes and para athletes on board, the conference emblazed into a successful event as it took off ahead.

One of the key highlight for us was to have 4 of our students not just represent us but also be a proud contributor towards a research paper that was published at the conference.The students under the guidance of Mr. Amitava Pal (Associate Dean & Head Of Academics) & support of Ms. Avanti Desai (Adjunct Faculty, IISM) did exceptionally well. Here are excerpts of them sharing their experiences:

Mr. AKSHAY KARANJE (PGPS & WM):

“It was great experience to be able to attend such a prestigious conference. I’d like to extend my gratitude towards IISM board members for exposing us to such a great platform & letting us explore wide horizons through research paper or knowledge report. It was a great learning experience as we got an opportunity to interact with not just the industry experts but also dignitaries with abundant knowledge about the sporting ecosystem. Networking is key to success was embodied through this event as we also got an opportunity to interact with athletes like Manu Bhaker & Vikas Krishnan who’ve made India proud.

When I chose IISM to build my career within the sports industry, my ultimate goal was to become a sports analyst and I believe with opportunities like, I’m getting the right push as I get to interact with sports analytical experts from ruling sporting companies like star sports who guided me in various aspects of analytics which was the biggest and most important takeaway for me.

I am extremely grateful to IISM for providing this platform & helping me be more confident about my vision.”

Ms. UPASANA PUROHIT (PGPS & WM):

“Research was one area I have always been inclined to, and would firstly like to thank IISM for giving me this opportunity and exposure to work upon a knowledge report that was Released at the FICCI TURF 2018 Conference. The knowledge report was titled “Sports Development and Youth Engagement” which included a detailed study on sports as a career, business in sports and health and wellness. While working on this project I came to know about so many facts & figures that I was completely unaware about. It helped me get an in-depth knowledge about the sports industry and how youth is an integral part of it, for a bright future of this sector.

The FICCI Conference was held at Delhi on 25th and 26th of October 2018. I must say, it was one of the best conferences. I had ever attended and the information about the sports industry that I received was immense. It was an honour to attend the conference along with such experienced personalities who knew the nitty-gritty of this industry. It was agreat platform for not just networking but also learning and understanding what they expect from the coming generation in this field.

The conferences had various panel interaction that included experts starting from the decision makers, the athletes and people from the corporate sector. I personally had a lot of takings from this conference, but if I had to list down a few, it would firstly be on how to start a tournament and create an entiremodule around it; keeping the athletes and the coaches point of view in consideration before giving any reviews on their performances; the segment that talked about ‘train the trainers’; the CSR contribution of a frim and how few decisions and regulations that have been made years ago now require some modification seeing the current scenario.

To conclude, I would say that this was undoubtedly a great learning experience, and I wish to work more on various such research projects along with IISM and FICCI and would like to thank them for the opportunity that they have given.”

Mr. MASOOM JAIN (MSM-1 A):

“Firstly, I would like to thank IISM for giving me an opportunity to contribute & be a part of Knowledge Report development which was first of a kind experience for me. It was a pleasure for me to participate & write for this report with a great team where I got a guide like Amitava Sir & Avanti Ma’am who guided me very well while developing this report. I would also like to appreciate the work of my team-mates as well who were part of this report.

For me, TU₹F 2018 was just a second opportunity to attend a conference where I got a chance to Interact with the experts of the Industry & dignitaries from the Ministry as well. Personally, for me getting a chance to speak-up with Indian Olympic Committee & International Hockey Federation President Mr Narinder Batra about the upcoming Hockey World Cup was a great experience. Also getting a chance to meet & interact with the Athletes & Para-Athletes who had brought many laurels for the nation was amazing.

I gained immense knowledge while developing this report. Developing this report also made me feel free from the fear of writing about my own ideas with the help of some facts and figures. Getting a chance to converse with the Industry experts will provide you with lots of insights which would definitely help you in deciding your next Course of Action.”

Opportunities like these help us strengthen our beliefs & give our students the wings to fly high.