Organisers had a tough time convincing corporates to participateThe Consumer Market Research Fest (Insight-2008) of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) opened on Sunday with a mix of enthusiasm and expectations. This year, expectations have been low, as the market downturn seems to have caught on with one of the country’s premier institutes. Apparently, the event organisers have had a tough time convincing corporates to participate, while the steady list of participant companies has hit rough waters. Event Secretary Prateek Agrawal points out: “We had to try very hard this time to convince the participating companies. Many of them had been pleased with our earlier projects, yet they backed out this time. The market downturn has made them cut down costs for campus activities drastically. Participation has been seriously affected.” Anish Passi, Corporate Communications coordinator for the event observed: “There has been a decline in sponsorships this year. Even those companies that participated after a lot of deliberation did not do so like last year. We had to tell them about the benefits about how we could customise results for them and its effect. However, we have been able to secure an almost equal number of projects as compared to the last year when the market was on a high. This time, the companies have been more cautious. Although the slowdown started with investment banks, companies in all sectors have been affected.”The footfall this year was lower than last year’s 6,000.
