About
Young Indians(Yi) is an integral part of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). Registered as a non-profit, Yi was formed in 2002 as a pan-India platform for young Indians to realize the dream of a developed nation. Through its programs and initiatives, Yi reaches out to millions of youth across the country.
Yi has 3500 members who hail from the length and the breadth of the country. Their members are mostly entrepreneurs, doctors, lawyers and professionals in the 18-45 years of age bracket. These individuals offer their expertise and share their knowledge. Yi also regularly reaches out to college students and helps them to get ‘job-ready’.
Among the many events that Yi organises, the annual national summit is one of the key events. The summit is usually a physical event with members across the country coming together and celebrating the achievements of the year. Given the current pandemic situation, this annual meet also had to be hosted virtually.
Varun Jain, Chapter head of Yi North shares his experience of hosting the event.
Challenges (And Solutions)
Challenge: To select a platform that offered extensive support, competitive rates and ease of use
Varun Jain said, “Being a technology entrepreneur, I was asked to select a platform for our annual summit. We explored close to 10 platforms but zeroed in on Airmeet.” Yi was very particular that they wanted an India-based events hosting site so coordination wouldn’t be an issue. Added to this a team member from Varun’s organisation had attended an Airmeet event and gave positive feedback.
Varun said that he had personally been observing the organisation since its inception and was impressed with its growth. Yi then tested the platform with smaller events and since these were executed flawlessly, they selected Airmeet.
Varun added, “Yi is a volunteer-run organisation. Hence, the time that members can invest is very limited. We wanted an event hosting partner who would give us unparalleled tech support and could manage the back-end for us.”
With these needs and much more in mind, Yi approached Airmeet. The solutions that were offered to them were:
Complete tech support: Aimeet offered Yi unparalleled tech support. Varun says, “We told Airmeet what we needed. The rest was managed by the Airmeet team.” Airmeet’s services like dedicated support manager, event coordinator and the virtual stage manager was a big help for the Yi team. With these services, Yi could organise and host a national event with the least demand on their time. Varun added that since the team was available for Yi almost 24*7, it made communication and coordination a breeze.
Technical host, design services, events creation and set-up: Yi, took advantage of all these services of Airmeet. Yi provided Airmeet with all the materials and the entire task of designing, event creation and setting up was done by Airmeet. Signing up for a technical host/emcee further saved time for the organising team. All-in-all the services added on the Airmeet platform helped team Yi host and execute their event flawlessly despite lacking the time and bandwidth.
Competitive pricing: Yi said that they had approached many global events hosting platforms. However, they found that Airmeet was priced the best. He said that for the features and services that Yi needed Airmeet offered the most sensible pricing in the market which tilted the balance completely in Airmeet’s favour.
Transparency: Team Yi said, “The Airmeet team was very communicative and transparent. They told us what features would be available for our event, which features would best suit the event. Also, the team was candid and informed us of new elements that we could incorporate into our event. This kind of transparency is much appreciated and helped us get the best of the virtual platform.”
The comprehensive services provided by Airmeet made event hosting effortless for Yi and was an apt solution for their challenge.
Challenge: Hosting an event where there was ample opportunity for interaction and networking
Talking about the members of CII-Yi and their needs Varun said, “all of Yi’s members are achievers. The reason they are a part of the organisation is to meet other people with similar interests, learn from each other and build contacts. Hence, we needed a platform that offered Yi members space for networking where they could interact with the speakers as well”.
Airmeet features that helped them solve this challenge were:
Tables: This feature was particularly appreciated by Yi. “The presence of tables encouraged interaction and networking. When people saw someone they knew at a table they joined them and the conversation started.” He added, “The tables allow more interaction between people. For me, Airmeet is all about the tables! I love this feature as it encourages networking and gives a real event-like feel.”
Chat: They used the chat feature and it proved to be a success. Audiences asked questions and gave their feedback on the chat. During the Q&A sessions, the moderator picked a few questions from the chat and posed the same to the speakers. This worked well for all parties concerned.
On the whole, Yi had an absorbing, coordinated and well-supported event.
