We just lived the Mumbai Open House (with a few darling Rodinhooders coming in from Delhi too) built by us and learnt a mighty few lessons like always. I’ll leave the event coverage (with Salsa and live music gigs thanks to Shawn & Samarth) to my fellow team members & presenters (especially as Vishal did a kickass job of live blogging it here), and will focus on what we are truly here to create.
“India needs 10,000 entrepreneurs…”
and we need volunteers.
Alok has hit the nail on the head in his article, because the money hardly makes sense without the entrepreneurs building good things. An Open House, in its true sense, is built by volunteers in every city. We need ideas, suggestions and the drive to see all the initiatives through. We are open to everything that we can build together, as long as its relevant to what we stand for 🙂 The spirit of enterprise!
What goes on behind the scenes?
Ideas, themes and a vibrant 8000+ community does wonders to Asha and she gets in touch with the city team when an Open House needs to be planned. We make a list of presenters, create an agenda keeping duration & individual preferences in mind and ensure that people are wholly on board with everything. The city team confirms details with venue owners and help Asha finalize the Master PPT (which is a compilation of individual presentations sourced from the presenters). Doubts are clarified and more information is sought internally in the last 2 weeks. Advance planning and a structured approached has helped Open Houses tick like clock work.
What goes on during the Open House?
Based on my Mumbai experience- we have an anchor doubling up as a time keeper, Asha being a pillar and in the loop regarding everything, Alok with a mic and being his awesome self, backend coordinator in touch with the anchor, mike runners and Asha while also making sure that there are enough water bottles outside. Plus we have a couple of photographers and active live bloggers. If the scope of work increases, we’d love this team to increase in size too!
What City Teams? Who volunteer?
- People like you and me! Entrepreneurs, students and working professionals who have the spirit of enterprise, believe in the platform and are keen to help each other out. Mail me (sushrut@rodinhood.com) if interested.
- If we stay in the same city, we end up working together as a team for every city-based Open House. So we coin the term in utter joy- ‘City Teams’.
- Everyone is welcome to be a part of these teams.
Is there a fixed pattern or are you willing to experiment?
- There is no ‘you’, there is only ‘we’.
- We are open to experiment with presentations & sessions, what we truly seek is bandwidth.
- The last two Mumbai Open Houses were managed by a core team of 5-8. Imagine what we can do with a core team of 20.
- We are here to encourage business dialogue, solve business issues, help everyone create business networks. Open to ideas which will make Open Houses more effective.
What next?
Well, we go back to businesses till our time to organize an Open House comes again, while staying active on this community and interacting with Rodinhooder buddies regularly 🙂 Looking forward to the next one already.
Asha & Alok- as written before, you do have an army with you.
Thank you for everyting. Love and peace.
🙂
asha chaudhry
so you posted this at 2:09am sushrut….!!
thank you for writing this. you are the right person to give us all a true perspective of what happens behind the scenes. very few folks can fathom what goes into the making of a 3+ hr event!!! there are so many moving parts and only a few people can keep them together 🙂
i think, as a Community – we are a perfect mix of crazy vs sane.
i think, when it comes to our Open Houses, we have the perfect amount of imperfections to teach us what to fix for the next time. plug-in the gaps. better ourselves in every small way possible. and trust me, from the feedback i’m getting from all over – WE ARE GETTING BETTER EACH TIME!!
thankfully, we have pearls of content. each one of us just needs to be that strong thread that holds these pearls in place; beautifully, if not impeccably.Â
being a typical startup person means rolling your sleeves up and getting your boots dirty  🙂 and each one of us needs to do that with whichever role we take up during one of our events.
my favourite part of the event was watching everyone shed all their inhibitions and dance on stage with a partner. that was the moment surreal became real. when what we curated on paper came live on stage. i didn’t see people dancing in pairs – i saw co-founders working out things together!
everyone went home happy sushrut. thank you for being the pillar in back that no one sees, but that everyone leans on.
i know i’ve said this before, but will repeat myself…. if i were to take leave, or fall sick, or disappear for a while, i would give the reins of therodinhoods to you knowing you would steer it on course at all times.
thank you for always being so dependable sushrut.Â
yes, alok & i have an army with us. gratitude… always. thank you for this reminder. entrepreneurship is a very lonely journey and with trhs we try to help entrepreneurs feel less lonely. that includes me. when i read something like this, i know i’m not alone here building this incredible community all by myself from my quiet corner in goa.
i know i have an army…
ps: i’ve already started planning the next Open House in Mumbai in my mind… 🙂
Sushrut Munje
Thank you, Asha 🙂 I’m kicked about the next one already!