Bengaluru’s first business literature festival to take off on October 31st

The first edition of the Bangalore Biz LitFest hopes to motivate the city's executives and give them a break from the daily rigmarole. Here's how it all came about.

Bengaluru. Snarling morning office traffic. A population of 10 million jostling for space. Boring office, same old chores. Two million working executives struggling for breath. Snail-paced late evening traffic back home. No small wonder that three-fourths of the respondents in a recent survey commented that they are deeply demotivated; They are not stimulated enough, either in their personal or professional lives.

We could relate to these boring data points without too much difficulty – because we are part of Bangalore too, and we are going through the same rigmarole. Based on the idea that was thrown up by Benedict Paramanand, Editor, ManagementNext, V Raghunathan, CEO, GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, Shankar P, Editor, Knowledge@Wharton, Shinie Antony, Economic Times Columnist and Sangeeth Varghese, Chairman, LeadCap Ventures, decided to meet to figure out a solution. Is there a way we can help Bangalore executives get their motivation back? Can we do this in a way that all of us can get invigorated?

Founding the Bangalore BizLit Fest

Through our coffee discussions, we realised that though there were several literary fests in the city, it lacked a business literary fest. Though business books motivate, empower and skill our executives, no justice was being done to this genre. In the words of Raghunathan, “Lit-fests have become common features in most cities in recent years. However, most of them remain centred around fiction. A platform for showcasing and discussing non-fiction works hardly exists.” Or as Benedict commented, “Business leaders and students have been reading business books, articles, and blogs, and watching films by authors, writers and filmmakers, yet, one rarely gets to hear them speak or dialogue.”

So, essentially we stumbled upon the idea of Bangalore Biz LitFest—centred on business, motivational and other non-fiction books—whose time we thought had come. Through this, we wanted to open up an opportunity for stimulating dialogue across members of the public, and some well-known authors and professionals from business and other walks of life on a weekend. We found that this fitted in well with each of our personal agendas – since that is important to make sure that each of us gave this idea their time, resources and efforts. 

Inspired learning with fun

Date: October 31st

Time: 10 am to 6 pm

Venue: Century Club, Seshadri Road

Website: bangalorebizlitfest.org

Facebook | Twitter

Bangalore Biz LitFest is an attempt to bring all kinds of people on one platform – the young and old, IT and non-IT, businesses and not-for-profits. It is not only meant for inspired learning, but also to have fun while doing so; for the audience, as well as the founders. There are takeaways for just about everybody who loves good business storytelling and wants to learn about how exactly that food chain works. Meticulously designed panels and workshops will cater to the needs of young managers and business or technology professionals; authors, publishers, distributors and others in the business books and literature ecosystem; students and educators; and others. Above all, Bangalore Biz LitFest promises to be an exciting place to network.

Bangalore Biz LitFest will come alive on September 26th at the sprawling Century Club in Bangalore’s Cubbon Park, a buggy-ride away from the city’s downtown and commercial districts. The day-long fest, incidentally, the first of its kind in the world, features invigorating dialogues and refreshing interactions with more than 30 leading authors, movie screenwriters, publishers, corporate leaders, technology professionals and non-profits from across the nation – all focused on fuelling the immense potential of Bangalore.

Speakers and authors

Speakers like R Gopalakrishnan, (Director, Tata Sons) and Vinita Bali (former managing director of Britannia Industries) will stoke the business side of conversations, while Kumud Srinivasan (MD, Intel India) and Sadagopan (Director, IIIT, Banglore) will appeal to the geeks. Shombit Sengupta (Founder, Shining Strategy) and Harish Bijoor (Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults) will help look at our world from the marketing and branding perspectives. We have also ensured that the younger crowd is not left high and dry. We have Rashmi Bansal (author of best-selling books on entrepreneurship), Shradha Sharma (Founder, YourStory.in), and many others devoted entirely for the young Bangalore. To top it all up, there is a creative session led by Grammy winner, Ricky Kej.

Fortunately for us, a formidable group of sponsors and partners could immediately see merit in our proposition. So, we have Knowledge@Wharton, Westland, Sage, Great Lakes Institute, NHRD, Yourstory, all of them coming forward, extending their hands and hearts to the cause. This has ensured that though most good things in life come at a fee, ours remains free.

This journey has been special for all five of us. It helped us discover new friendships, fresh perspectives, explore bright ideas and instill new thoughts. We can vouch that we are no longer a part of the three-fourths who are struggling with their motivation. Come September 26th, we are hoping that we can reclaim at least some of them to the side of those who have rediscovered their mojo.

Related Articles

Those three days at the Bangalore Literature Festival
Bengaluru’s first literary weekend a big hit

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Similar Story

‘Banni Nodi’: How a place-making project is keeping history alive in modern Bengaluru

The Banni Nodi wayfaring project has put KR market metro station at the heart of a showcase to the city's 500-year urban history.

KR market metro station is more than a transit hub in Bengaluru today, as it stands at the heart of a project that showcases the city's 500-year urban history. The Banni Nodi (come, see) series, a wayfinding and place-making project, set up in the metro station and at the Old Fort district, depicts the history of the Fort as well as the city's spatial-cultural evolution. The project has been designed and executed by Sensing Local and Native Place, and supported by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) and Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL).  Archival paintings, maps and texts,…

Similar Story

Wounds of cyber abuse can be deep, get expert help: Cyber psychologist

Cyber psychologist Nirali Bhatia says that parents, friends and relatives of sufferers must not be reactive; they should be good listeners.

As technology has advanced, cyber abuse and crime has also increased. Women and children are particularly vulnerable, as we have seen in our earlier reports on deepfake videos and image-based abuse. In an interview with Citizen Matters, cyber psychologist, Nirali Bhatia, talks about the psychological impact on people who have been deceived on the internet and the support system they need. Excerpts from the conversation: What should a person do, if and when they have fallen prey to a deep fake scam or image abuse? We need to understand and tell ourselves it is fake; that itself should help us…