Bonfire

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.”

With this in mind, The Bhawanipur Education Society College’s Department of Business Administration hosted its annual inter-college management fest, ‘BONFIRE,’ sponsored by Gioia, to provide a platform for students to demonstrate their abilities.

BONFIRE is an acronym for BONDING-ORGANISING-NEGOTIATION-FOCUS-INTUTION-RESPONSIBILITY and ENTERPRISE.

The 3-day fest initiated with an opening ceremony as it has the aim to bring out the competitive spirit of the students and put them to test.
The opening ceremony was held at The Lalit Great Eastern on 24th March, 2022.

The opening ceremony initiated with the introduction speech of the student representatives of The Business Administration Department of The Bhawanipur Education Society College, Devjyoti Banerjee and Madhav Mohta.

After which with there was lamp lighting inauguration done by the dignitaries to bless the entire fest.

After the lamp lighting there was an opening speech by the emcees Ada Bux and Anusha Akbar where they welcomed all the colleges and discussed about the 30+events that will happen from all dimensions of corporate cultures.

Following which the dignitaries were introduced and felicitated with gift hampers.

Prof. Dr. Suman Kumar Mukerjee, Director General of The Bhawanipur Education Society College, gave an inauguration speech shortly after the opening speech ended. He highlighted the significance of the name “Bonfire” and appreciated students for their active engagement in the events on behalf of the college.

Parveen Agarwal owner of Rajwada Group one of our chief guest for the opening ceremony spoke about his life experiences over the years in entrepreneurial world and shared how to handle the real estate world. He also discussed the competitions that exist in today’s world for aspiring young entrepreneurs, as well as how to put their leadership skills to good use in the right places in order to operate a business successfully.

Dr. Rupali Basu, the Director and CEO of Woodlands Multi Specialty Hospital Ltd., began her speech by discussing the country’s medical issues, which had reached alarming levels in recent years. She also discussed how they dealt with their patients at difficult times and how bonding and organisation aid helped in the smooth operation of a business over time.

Ms. Shaleni S Biswas, founder of Easy Notes Stationery Pvt. Ltd., is a business legend and one of India’s most successful entrepreneurs. Her address began with a discussion about women’s empowerment in the fields of business and start-ups. She described how she set up stationery camps in housing societies throughout the pandemic to keep her business afloat. She explained to the management team that managing and bringing in additional ideas for a business or organisation is really vital.

Later on, Dr. Tridib Sengupta, Coordinator of the BBA department of The Bhawanipur Education Society College put forward his valuable thoughts regarding following passion and spoke about the dignitaries and how their roles play an important role in the student life’s.

The alumni Dikshya Jha and Khizir Jaffri were felicitated by the Director General of The Bhawanipur Education Society College Prof. Dr. Suman Kumar Mukerjee.

After the dignitaries’ speeches, everyone went for breakfast.

The Bonfire’22’s foremost event ‘Fashion Show’, kicked off with a bang and pumped up both the competitors and the audience. The participants of the Fashion Show, which included colleges such as The Heritage Academy, Sister Nivedita University, Loreto College, The Adamas University, and St. Xavier’s University, were transformed into beautiful divas by make-up artists from the Lakme Academy, after which they walked down the ramp demonstrating their modelling skills. It gave a hint of the wild trip that the Bonfire attendees were in for.
Competitions like Stress Interview, Shipwreck and Bluff were curated to test the skills of business ability. Stress Interview saw participants being assessed on stress tolerance at the workplace. They were required to keep their composure while handling situations such as workplace unrest, unhappy clients, and work pressure. The participants had to submit their resumes and the judges marked them on their intuitive skills. Students felt it enhanced their ability to perform better in real-life interviews. While Aparna Harnandka from THK Jain College was declared the winner, Aliza Ali from iLead bagged the second position and Elima Basu of NSHM Knowledge Campus placed third.
Shipwreck was a business event with a slight twist. Participants were assigned a particular company from sectors like banking, finance and pharmaceutical. They were assigned a crisis depending on the market economy and asked to present a solution. Avantika Singh, a third-year Business Administration student of BESC, was declared the winner, followed by Arushi Khandewal, a third-year student at St. Xavier’s University.

To create a real-life scenario of the stock market, the event Mock stock was designed to test participants’ financial management skills, market analysis, and adaptation to changing market conditions.

The main attraction of the event was the BSE-Bhawanipur Stock Exchange. Each representative from the participating institution bid stocks on a real-time basis with their fictitious money under manipulated conditions. Specific scenarios resembling real-life stock market situations were presented to the students. Representatives were required to participate as stock bidders and sellers actively. This event created a chaotic, yet exciting, atmosphere emulating real-life stock markets. Aryan Ramakrishnan from St. Xavier’s University won, with Om Gupta, a first-year BBA student of The Bhawanipore Education Society (BESC), coming second and Aditya Kumar Singh from Shree Agrasain College placed third.

Apart from these business events, there were several literary events such as Extempore, Turncoat Debate and Book Review, where participants used their wit and explored ideas. “We have been working on this for the past six months. We designed events that would incorporate corporate work culture by providing real-time simulation. I believe a lot of effort was put in by the team for this magnificent fest to be pulled off,” said Devjyoti Banerjee, a third-year Business Administration student of BESC, who is the student representative at the fest.
The Bhawanipore Education Society College was declared overall winner of the fest, followed by St. Xavier’s University and JD Birla Institute being crowned first and second runner, respectively. “B.O.N.F.I.R.E. provided an exhilarating opportunity to participate in a corporate environment,” said Kaushik Banerjee, professor, and event coordinator.