Undoubtedly, a lot of sweat goes into the planning of a festival as large as APOGEE, and a lot of gears need to lock together for it to run noiselessly. An integral cog in this wheel is the Department of PCr Apogee, responsible for the crucial task of getting the participation. With a jaw dropping 10k calls made and 75k on the mailing list, this department strives to ensure that each iteration is bigger than the previous one. They conduct talks in other colleges on the festival, handing out invitations as well as publicizing it through various other portals like newsletters and the internet. Every couple of years, the college list is modified to increase the participation. They also design identification cards, certificates and souvenirs to make the participants’ journey that much more memorable.
‘The online registration has greatly increased this year’, shared an upbeat coordinator Stavan Patel, ‘but you can’t be sure how many will actually turn up, so my fingers are crossed.’ He cited some 7k odd online registrations, stating that only around 800 were expected to actually make the journey down to Pilani. Expressing dissatisfaction over the lack of support from the Institute, he complained about the imposed restrictions on the accommodation which were limiting the participation this time round. Stavan also explained how his department has tried to publicize specific events to ensure each one gets its due attention, and assured that the kernel events would be bigger this time, thanks to a whole lot of registrations.
To conclude with, Stavan remarks how Apogee, though on par with other technical festivals of the country, doesn’t get its due from the Bitsian’s themselves, a lot of whom choose to take off elsewhere over the period of these 5 days.
On a positive note though, here’s hoping that this time’s Apogee finds more takers back home.
