Each team, acting as a PR agency, presented its strategy to rescue the situation before the judges and audience. Says Dheeraj, an audience member, “They surprised us with some really interesting loopholes they’d fished out in the case. But the best part was the mock press conferences that followed.” At the end of their presentation, the team was grilled on the points they’d made by the judges and the audience itself. As the questions were flying thick and fierce, the winning factors became diplomacy, a thorough understanding of the problem and the ability to think on one’s feet. As Priya K, coordinator of iSMaRT, explains, “We wanted the participants to really feel what it’s like to face the press in a tricky situation and see how creatively they could defend their clients”. SIBM Pune’s Team PRunks, consisting of Manavi Mehendiratta, Akshay Jadeja and Siddharth Verma, won the competition with their comprehensive solution and their smooth presentation and defence. Team Colorfoolz from SIMS Pune too put up an impressive performance and attained second position. “Most importantly, we really enjoyed the unique format of the event; we discovered our impromptu defence skills in the process!”, said Ragini Jain of Team Mega Minds from IIT Madras.
Mr. Rohit Chandavarkar, the chief guest, had an interesting pointer, “In a live, high-pressure press conference, there’s no scope for error, so implicit understanding and coordination in the team is vital. You can not afford to be discussing amongst yourselves while the press awaits a response.”
As the team looks forward to the next entertaining PR battle in 2017, they would like to thank the sponsors this year for their indispensible support: Khaitan Electricals, Unicorn Pvt. Ltd., The Chaai, Pune, Sakal Times (Media Partner).
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