A long time since my last post. Been kind of busy. Our office was organising a one of a kind, first time ever B2B show. Ok, for the record, B2B stands for Business to Business and not some geeky acronym off the net.
This show was christened "Industrial Expo 2011" and slated for 29, 30 and 31 March 2011. What is it with my organisation and weekends. I mean weekends are supposed to be off, but we rarely get them off. Almost all events, programmes, meetings, conferences, seminars etc have to be organised and scheduled for a weekend.
Nonetheless, I wasn't much of a part of it, since the preparations were on since September 2010 and i only joined in November 2010. besides I had taken a whole month off and joined only on 19 Jan 2011. As a result, I was kinda uninvolved in any of the aspects of the expo. i felt guilty though and tried to help out my team in whatever way I could, doing odd jobs, and working on the menial tasks of data entry, correspondence, telephonic follow ups etc. I was not to accompany the team to Haridwar either, instead stay back and hold the fort and provide any support these guys may need.
yeah about Haridwar; it lies at a distance of approximately 55 kms from Dehradun (where my office is) and is one of the largest Industrial areas of Uttarakhand. Incidently, it is also famous for its shrines and the river Ganga which flows right past this town. thats where the industrial expo was going to be held obviously since dehradun has little or no industry.
About the team, at the time I returned from holiday, our office was bustling with 8 people in the office. 3 regular officers, 1 director, 1 office peon and 3 temporary staff; as compared to the normally subdued and leisurely pace of work. I was actually left out.
Preparations were on in full swing. I had attended a similar trade fair although on a much larger scale in December. this time I was just not some additional staff being called in from other offices to provide manpower support. this time I was part of the core team. but our team was lacking in manpower and experience, as a result we had almost 10 people from the various offices in the northern region chipping in and taking up different responsibilities.
It was all set, despite our worst fears almost all of the floor space (I shall explain these terms in later posts) had been sold and we were all set to put the show o the road. Participants had started dispatching thier machinery, which they were to showcase at the expo, invitations were printed and ready, to be posted, letters of invitation had been sent to VIPs, eminent persons, elected persons, appointed persons etc. Some of these guys even confirmed their dates of visit to the expo.
There were like 10 days to go to the expo and we get to here that the Govt is pulling out. And they were supposed to be partnering the expo, helping us get clearances etc. And why was the govt pulling out at the last minute cause local body elections were scheduled in Haridwar district and the election commission had imposed code of conduct in the area. the election commission had expressly denied permission to hold the expo in a letter too.
And chaos struck. Long hours of deliberating whether we should let the govt withdraw from the event and do it on our own or should we postpone, or should we appeal to the election commission. We were desperately trying to play out all possible scenarios and their possible outcomes and repercussions. But a decision had to be taken nonetheless.....
This show was christened "Industrial Expo 2011" and slated for 29, 30 and 31 March 2011. What is it with my organisation and weekends. I mean weekends are supposed to be off, but we rarely get them off. Almost all events, programmes, meetings, conferences, seminars etc have to be organised and scheduled for a weekend.
Nonetheless, I wasn't much of a part of it, since the preparations were on since September 2010 and i only joined in November 2010. besides I had taken a whole month off and joined only on 19 Jan 2011. As a result, I was kinda uninvolved in any of the aspects of the expo. i felt guilty though and tried to help out my team in whatever way I could, doing odd jobs, and working on the menial tasks of data entry, correspondence, telephonic follow ups etc. I was not to accompany the team to Haridwar either, instead stay back and hold the fort and provide any support these guys may need.
yeah about Haridwar; it lies at a distance of approximately 55 kms from Dehradun (where my office is) and is one of the largest Industrial areas of Uttarakhand. Incidently, it is also famous for its shrines and the river Ganga which flows right past this town. thats where the industrial expo was going to be held obviously since dehradun has little or no industry.
About the team, at the time I returned from holiday, our office was bustling with 8 people in the office. 3 regular officers, 1 director, 1 office peon and 3 temporary staff; as compared to the normally subdued and leisurely pace of work. I was actually left out.
Preparations were on in full swing. I had attended a similar trade fair although on a much larger scale in December. this time I was just not some additional staff being called in from other offices to provide manpower support. this time I was part of the core team. but our team was lacking in manpower and experience, as a result we had almost 10 people from the various offices in the northern region chipping in and taking up different responsibilities.
It was all set, despite our worst fears almost all of the floor space (I shall explain these terms in later posts) had been sold and we were all set to put the show o the road. Participants had started dispatching thier machinery, which they were to showcase at the expo, invitations were printed and ready, to be posted, letters of invitation had been sent to VIPs, eminent persons, elected persons, appointed persons etc. Some of these guys even confirmed their dates of visit to the expo.
There were like 10 days to go to the expo and we get to here that the Govt is pulling out. And they were supposed to be partnering the expo, helping us get clearances etc. And why was the govt pulling out at the last minute cause local body elections were scheduled in Haridwar district and the election commission had imposed code of conduct in the area. the election commission had expressly denied permission to hold the expo in a letter too.
And chaos struck. Long hours of deliberating whether we should let the govt withdraw from the event and do it on our own or should we postpone, or should we appeal to the election commission. We were desperately trying to play out all possible scenarios and their possible outcomes and repercussions. But a decision had to be taken nonetheless.....
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