Ikshana Media Fest 2025
17-January-2025
Ikshana Media Fest, a national festival of contest, workshops and conclaves on "Communication in the Post-Truth Era". was held from 14th to 17th January.
The events were as follows : Cinephilia - Celebrating films through panel discussions, Bollywood themed play and more. Madma - consisting of Advertising exchanges, Symposium and stroytelling sessions. Istoria - Publicity, branding and promotional discourse, panel discussions and conclaves, and Alfaaz-Lit Fest - consisted of journalism dialogue, workshops and niche discussions.
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Istoria 2025
We all have a story to tell and ideas to share. Istoria 2025, the annual festival from the Public Relations and Corporate Communications batch, was held under the banner of ‘Ikshana’ on 16th January 2025 at the iconic hall of St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. It was precisely about having a story to tell. Perhaps more than one.
Public Relations is all about taking these stories to your audiences and striking a chord in their hearts and minds.
The day commenced with a keynote session by acclaimed filmmaker and XIC alumnus Tushar Hiranandani, who shared anecdotes from his college days and encouraged students to pursue their dreams while embracing challenges. This respected and revered filmmaker through his own journey gave the audience a lot to think about.
Simultaneously, YouTuber Pooja Gupta, famously known as Media Mentor, conducted a workshop on communications as a career. Her audience felt that they were hand held in this beautiful direction that Pooja gave.
The day had an amazing line-up of panelists and speakers. The first panel – ‘Let’s talk Business’ witnessed visionary founders of ventures like Vibhuti Arora (House of Beauty), Arjun Rastogi (Nagin Sauce) etc. discussing about the significance of communication in the success of business. Their own footprint in business was the highlight of their talk to lead others.
Making the intimidating topic of data, fun and simple, we had a panel discussion on ‘Does data analytics kill a story of build it?”. The panelists - Shubhreet Kaur (Ad factors), Akshay Gurnani (Schbang) and Ritu David (Data Duck) converged on the argument that data doesn’t take away the purity of art; it amplifies it. The moderator Mr. Sundeep Nagpal lead the group into very fruitful talks through his own expertise and experience on the subject.
Further, in a captivating session, Manpreet Bacchar who is a renowned talent agent and producer and Parul Gulati, influencer and CEO of Nish Hair threw light on the role of PR in movies and building personal brands. Both these panelists being so well known in their field regaled the audience with their incisive viewpoints and experience.
The event concluded with the soul-stirring 'Mai Hoon Yuvaa' open mic, celebrating the art of storytelling and the healing power of active listening." Young students shared their stories and views on and through this platform so very fruitfully.
Overall, in conclusion, the event gave the audience so much to think of and amazing directions to take their journeys forward.
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