The stage was all set for the chief guest to deliver his talk, Mr. Murali S who is known to have over 3 decades of experience in the industry across FMCD, FMCG and Telecom sectors spoke on modern marketing trends and technology-driven marketing in the era of Alexa and Siri. He spoke on how technology can be used to make more accurate and faster decisions. He also spoke about different business models and the change brought by mobile technology and the internet on these business models. He made the gathering of faculties and students understand the importance of moving with the technology and taking the help of technology to drive business. The talk was enjoyed by the gathering and ended with some question & answer session.
The next speaker for the keynote address was Mr. Vaibhav Sisinty. Mr, Vaibhav who is a marketing innovator and has been helping start-ups scale-up and tap the new markets using growth hacking in digital marketing gave a vibrant and crisp talk on growth hacking and consulting. He made the gathering understand, what is growth hacking and how it can be done. In his own words "Growth hacking is understanding how the system works and make it work for you". His talk revolved around innovating new strategies, thinking out of the box and ended with a remark that innovation is necessary to please a customer in today's fast-paced time.
After the insightful talks by Mr. Murali S and Mr. Vaibhav Sisinty the gathering was ready to hear the panel discussion by Dr. Uppiliappan Gopalan, Mr. Anirban Mozumdar and Mr. Binoy B the event was moderated by Prof R. Sathyanarayanan. The topic for the discussion was " Imperatives for a marketing professional in this world of AI and Machine Learning". The panel discussed the new ground rules that are being created in this age of AI and machine learning. The discussion moved from how AI and ML are impacting the marketing industry to how these technologies can be used to have a better marketing plan and decisions. The discussion also went on how young professionals should use the technology to pave their way for success.
The gathering took a break for lunch which again gave time for closer interaction between the students and the esteemed guests. The students along with faculty members discussed various marketing trends, expectations, and industries.
After the lunch break, the session started with project presentations by students in the domains of digital marketing, branding & positioning and product launch. The session saw four students group present their hard work in front of the guests, the students received creative feedback from the guests and were well appreciated for the effort that they had put in the projects.
The end of the presentations brought the event to its final phase. Dr. Amar Saxena, Marketing Chairperson for IFMR GSB was called upon for addressing Valedictory Session. In his speech, he thanked all the guests for being a part of the session. He also summed up the theme of the event and talked about the changing trends brought by technology and its impact on marketing. After this Mr. Madhavan Parthasarthy, XLRI Jamshedpur alumnus with rich industry experience of over 20 years was called upon to give valedictory session address. In his speech, he talked about various aspects of consumers and markets. He talked about how the markets and the customers are evolving. He threw light on how technology is holding the consumer and helping him evolve and demand better products and services. He talked about the movement from "one fit for all" to "one fit for one". He drew in various stories from his experience and concluded with what is a perfect customer remark.
The event came to an end with the vote of thanks which was given by the Markaholics-the marketing committee of IFMR GSB which is the organizing committee for the event along with the CRCS team. The team thanked all the stakeholders involved in making the event successful and the students went with lots of enrichment and knowledge which they can apply once they take up positions of responsibility in the industry.
-Deepak Pandey
Student of IFMR-GSB Krea University
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