#StoriesThatMatter

IIT Kharagpur
11th October 2015
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 Contents
Theme
President's Address
About AIESEC
Agenda
Sessions:
Mr. Thomas Payapalli
Mr. Sanchit Singhi
Mrs. Rupal Yogendra
Mr. Harish Iyer
Miss Harsha Mukherjee
Photography Workshop- Mr. Amrit Vatsa
Vote Of Thanks
Executive Board Co-ordinators
Core Committee and Organising Committee
Posters and Banners
YSF in pictures
YSF In numbers
Partners And Stakeholders
Its not about the
stereotypes
anymore,
Its about the stories
we create.
#StoriesThatMatter
 Theme

The Youth Speak Forum 2015 in AIESEC IIT Kharagpur was a one day event, an initiative
powered by AIESEC, which aims to bring together both young and senior leaders to form a
diverse cross-sector and multi-generational space for inspiring conversations around pressing
global issues.

It is a premiere event where inspiration and collaboration are converted to action.

We make this happen by taking our delegates through the unique and interactive framework
of Inspire, Engage, Act. We create a blank campus for the youth of the nation, where they
can paint their opinions on world issues and world trend that dwells and spindle around the
youth, and they can express their view-points and share their ideas. The event is marked with
a series of relevant workshops and guest lectures, by prominent personalities and world
leaders.

Globally this forum aims to create an environment where people from diverse backgrounds
can cross-pollinate ideas, share insights and gain new perspectives to create actionable
outcomes to push the world forward. On the day of the event young students of the age
group 18-24 yreas of age brainstorm, challenge and create ideas together with the speakers
and world leaders and come up with solutions to some of the pressing challenges that exist in
the world today.

This year the Youth Speak Forum focussed on varied topics like Social Responsibility,
Behaviour as a society, Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
Inspire: To create change, it must also change mind sets.
Every YouthSpeak Forum is arranged to inspire the delegates
through experiential learning, power talks and keynote
speakers. We want to open the minds of delegates to think
differently and spark new innovations.

Engage: Creating a positive impact requires different

strengths and capabilities. By bringing together people from
diverse backgrounds across sectors and geographies, we form a
rich learning environment where speakers from varying
organizations bring challenging perspectives and help spark
opinions from the delegates.

Act: Taking action is the most important part. As inspiration

and engagement occurs throughout the day, we want to ensure
that delegates are given the chance to group together and form
the sense of ownership and commitment towards the ideas and
projects they pitch. We connect resources and networks with
the projects to enable a real impact to occur.
 Presidents Address
Dear Stakeholders,

2015 has been a great year for AIESEC IIT Kharagpur. Our vision, growth and happiness, has been
our driving force in all our activities this year and we continue to strive to achieve same. I am
extremely delighted to share the success story of our event, YouthSpeak Forum, with you all.

YouthSpeak Forum is a premier event that brings together both young and senior leaders to form
a diverse cross sectional and multi-generational space for inspiring conversations on pressing
global issues. This years YouthSpeak Forum created an environment where people from diverse
backgrounds shared their insights and helped the delegates gain a newer perspective on current
issues and empowered them with knowledge to create actionable outcomes to push the world
forward. We at AIESEC IIT Kharagpur are overwhelmed by the response and the enthusiasm
shown by the students from colleges in and around Kharagpur. The event was structured around
our theme Stories that Matter and covered several diverse fronts which included social
entrepreneurship, homosexuality and innovation.

I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Thomas Payepalli, Co-founder, Axilor Ventures for sharing his
valuable insights; Ms. Harsha Mukherjee, Managing Director, International Institute of Corporate
Sustainability and Responsibility (IICSR) for enlightening us on Social Entrepreneurship; Mr. Amrit
Vatsa, Founder, ShaadiGraPher.com, for giving us a taste of what it would be to follow ones
passions and Mr. Harish Iyer for inspiring us to fight for everything and everyone we stand for.
This event would have never happened without Mrs. Rupal Yogengra and Mr Sachit Singhi, the
co-founders of Stayzilla. It has been a privilege being associated with Stayzilla and I thank them
for all the support and guidance provided. I would like to thank all our partners, for without their
support YouthSpeak would have remained a distant dream.

This journey of success wouldnt have been possible without the support of our esteemed clients,
stakeholders and advisors, who supported us at every step. AIESEC IIT Kharagpur would remain
indebted to you.

Sincerely,
Rajnish Aggarwal
Just imagine what
solutions might be found
if young people are given
the space and
encouragement to
participate and lead
Kofi Annan
 About AIESEC

AIESEC is a global platform for young people to explore and develop their leadership
potential. It is a non-political, independent, not-for-profit organisation run by students and
recent graduates of institutions of higher education. Its members are interested in world
issues, leadership and management. AIESEC does not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity,
gender, sexual orientation, religion or national / social origin.

Since AIESEC was founded, it has engaged and developed over 1,000,000 young people who
have been through an AIESEC experience. It is present in over 125 countries and with over
50,000 cross cultural internships each year directly impacting the interns and indirectly
impacting thousands more. The impact of this organisation can be seen through its alumni
who represent business, NGO and world leaders, including one Nobel Peace Prize laureate,
Martti Atisaari of Finland.

AIESEC through its programs and plethora of opportunities offers invaluable experience
through exposure at a very young age. These young minds, gaining through the leadership
experiences are the ones who will actively take the world forward.
 Our Vision
Peace and fulfilment
of humankinds
potential.

70,000 2,400
active members worldwide universities represented

126
countries and territories
 Agenda

Opening 10:00 a.m.

Ms. Harsha Mukherjee 10:30 a.m.

Mr. Thomas Payapalli 11:30 p.m.

Mr. Amrit Vatsa 12:30 p.m.

Mr. Amrit Vatsa-Workshop 2:30 p.m.

Mr. Harish Iyer 6:00 p.m.

Session by Stayzilla 7:15 p.m.

Mrs. Rupal Yogendra

Mr. Sachit Singhi
Thank You Speech 8:30 p.m.
Sessions
 Ms. Harsha Mukherjee

Corporate Social Responsibility

In this competitive world everyone is struggling hard to be a successful entrepreneur in
both corporate as well as social terms. Students from engineering colleges want to give at
least one try to this beautiful yet courageous leap of faith.

Youth Speak Forum 2015 at IIT Kharagpur witnessed Ms Harsha Mukherjee, an alum of the
Indian Business School (ISB), Hyderabad, one of the top business schools in India. A
philanthropist and social entrepreneur, she is the founder of Ekjaa Foundation, which
provides fund raising services and fund monitoring and humanitarian support. Harsha,
nominated as one of the top 10 women entrepreneurs in India by Dell Women
Entrepreneur Network (DWEN-2012), is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) consultant
for many companies. Since all firms desire to maximize the profit along with impactful
contribution to the society, these days many established start-ups face problem dealing with
the CSR. Ms Harsha Mukherjee, a specialist in this field gave a thought provoking lecture on
this topic stressing on the strategies needed to deal with CSR as such a huge amount of
money that cant just be invested anywhere and needs special care and attention. This
would enable it to be beneficial for society as well as company both. Her approach on
dealing with CSR along with taking care of company showed a wonderful blend of expertise
and focus on social aspect of success in business. The story of this National Social
Entrepreneur Fellow has bolstered the delegates in realizing their dreams and left a deep
imprint on their minds creating an impact by her unmatched industrial knowledge and
informative CSR programs.

The session concluded with cross questioning by participants who were very keen to get
the intricacies of this aspect of business.
Mr. Thomas Payapalli

Being Entrepreneur
In the institute where technocrats and entrepreneurs are worshipped and where working in
IT giants such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook etc. is sort of ultimate dream of a large
section of students; came the session of Mr. Thomas Payapalli, an Ex-AIESECER, Ex-
General Manger of Microsoft India, Ex-Manager of Microsoft India Global Technical
Support Centre and co-founder of Axilor Ventures a venture capitalist.

He started with him talking about his wonderful and life changing experience in AIESEC,
how AIESEC became one of his lifetime achievement. He went on to become an AIESEC
International official.

Thomas had worked in Microsoft for almost 20 years. He stressed on the importance of
working in MNC and why it is necessary, to setup a good base for a startup.

His informative and thought provoking lecture enlightened us on how entrepreneurship

culture can be cultivated in todays youth population. He also focused on some common
challenges faced by entrepreneurs while starting a company, how to get funding, and what
should be core values for a company. He even invited the participants to come forward
with real and impactful ideas, so that Axilor could become their angel investor. His
cosmopolitan views on starting a company and how it is different form a job, in a highly
interactive session had a great impact on the participants.

This session gave a glimpse of a vivid and inspiring entrepreneurial personality. It brought
forward the essence of AIESEC as an international organization and the opportunities it
provides for a global experience.
 Mr. Harish Iyer
In a country where globalization is at its peaks but ironically talking about homosexuality or
even thinking about it, is considered as a sin, AIESEC IIT Kharagpur broke the stereotype by
inviting Harish Iyer as a guest speaker in Youth Speak Forum event 2015. An equal rights
activist, he is best known for his quirky campaigns for the rights of Homosexuals, Women,
Children and Animals. Harish is one of the most vocal voices for the LGBT campaign
worldwide and thus is listed at #71 in the World Pride Powerlist 2013.

Iyer's jovial nature, easy approachability and his ability to handle complex questions with
rare sensibility mixed with unexpected quirk made him the star speaker of the event. He
shared his story. Harish's childhood was scarred by repeated sexual abuse. But with a little
help from his animal friends, Harish learnt to take the lemons which life gave him and made
sweet lemonade out of it.

Homosexuals are as abnormal as heterosexuals Harish Iyer.

He spoke how LGBTQ community is as insane and sane as any other so called
heterosexuals are, how its absolutely natural to be lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.
He told us how hard his life was when he decided to come out of the closet, the struggles
he faced and the voice inside him which was persistent to be the true-natural-self he was.
What ultimately matters is the attitude of staying strong and not giving up. This session was
definitely the most liked by the audience as it was clear how they laughed throughout the
session, on the witty and quirky statements made by Mr. Iyer. He was patient enough to
answer all the questions and speak to few of them personally. He encouraged people to
ditch the narrow mind; to break the stereotype; to come out of the closet and to discuss
about this social stigma with their family and friends. This would serve as an initiative from
every individual to solve the burning social issue of the society.

This session showed the values of AIESEC (as an international organisation) and the
students of IIT Kharagpur which they believe in and how they do not shame in breaking the
stereotypes and do not discriminate anyone based on their sexuality, region, colour or
religion. What we learnt from this session was how important it is to demonstrate integrity
as an individual and how important it is to know, feel what we truly and naturally are.
Stayzilla Co-founders

Becoming A Successful Entrepreneur

This workshop was organised by two of the founders of Stayzilla, a company that focuses
on hospitality of people who travel to new places, and look forward to lodge in guesthouse,
homestays, etc. The company which is worth over $50Mn, is one of the most successful
start-ups in India.

The co-founders shared their experience about the early days of Stayzilla, what they
decided to do with the idea, difficulties faced in early phases, how they overcame such
difficulties and what has kept them going since. It was a full-on interactive session where
the young and budding entrepreneurs exuberantly participated in the question-answer
session and brought out the real significance of a forum. Not only did this jovial event
satisfy the curiosity of the young minds, but the facts that speakers emphasised on along
with their answers, intrigued and left them hungry to explore more about the wonders of
entrepreneurship. They gave a brief introduction as to what kind of ideas the students
should look forward to work upon. The kind of funding they would require, and the
difficulties they would face were discussed too.

Stayzilla also organised a movie making competition for students of IIT Kharagpur. They had
to make a movie of not more than 4 minutes, which was related to Styazillas latest
campaign named Find Your Ideal Stay-Buddy. The topic of the movie was Make room for
something new using the idea of.,the favourite activity of the group of students. The
competition held was a successful event. The prize distribution ceremony was held just
after the workshop of the co-founders.
Workshop
Mr. Amrit Vatsa

Visual Storytelling
The digital workshop included the different aspects of visual storytelling, with Mr. Vatsa
focussing on redefining the basic terms involved in stories, and then relating these to visual
storytelling. Participants were encouraged to think out of the box while being involved in
storytelling, and were taught how the same story could be told in different ways. Mr. Vatsa
also shared his own experiences from the time he decided to start Shaadigrapher, and what
made him stick to making documentaries, short films and photography.
 Vote of Thanks

Through this letter, I, Ashank Kumar on behalf of AIESEC IIT Kharagpur would like to
sincerely express my gratitude to all the stakeholders associated with the Youth Speak
Forum (YSF) 2015, powered by AIESEC IIT Kharagpur. To start with I would like to thank
Miss Harsha Mukherjee, leading CSR Consultant, well known philanthropist and founder of
the Ekjaa Foundation, for starting the day's event on a bright note by delivering a very
instructive session on the role of CSR and its importance, different aspects of
entrepreneurship among other things. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Mr
Thomas Payapalli, ex-GM Microsoft India and co-founder of Axilor Ventures, for sharing his
journey and his valuable experience and views with the students. I would also like to thank
Mr. Harish Iyer, known and appreciated for his invaluable contribution to the LGBT
community at the global level, for making his presence felt at the forum. He further went on
to deliver a very motivational and engaging session highlighting the need for the society to
embrace the different communities. I would like to thank Stayzilla for hosting the short
video making competition on "Make room for something new" inviting entries from 150+
students and giving away prizes to the best 3 adjudged videos. Also I would like to express
my gratitude to Mrs. Rupal Yogendra (co-founder and COO , Stayzilla) and Mr. Sachit Singhi
( co-founder, Partnerships and Finance Head, Stayzilla) for their amazing interactive session
with the students, sharing the ideas of Stayzilla which helped create awareness about
Housing market in India and gave entrepreneurship advice to the students. I would also like
to thank Mr. Amrit Vatsa (founder of ShaadiGraPher and 3minutestorytelling.com) for
delivering a very fun-filled and entertaining workshop on Visual Storytelling and interacted
with them sharing his experiences and giving valuable insights.
Finally I would like to thank the Executive Board Co-ordinators and the Core Committee,
YSF 2015 who were responsible for conceiving such a big event and bringing thought to
process and the Organising Committee (OC) for carrying out the event from the start to the
end, managing any setbacks and keeping the event on track. I would like to commend all the
members of AIESEC IIT Kharagpur for showing their zeal and enthusiasm towards the
event, and working with utmost dedication, sincerity, ground and logistic support and
assisting the OC in any other way to bring about the event. And I would like to sincerely
express my gratitude to the entire Executive Board and the Local Committee President, Mr.
Rajnish Aggarwal, for lending their utmost support at each and every step of the event and
giving the members a chance to showcase their potential and conduct one of the biggest
events of AIESEC in IIT Kharagpur, which also happens to be the flagship event of AIESEC
both locally and at the global level. Last but not the least I would like to thank all the
concerned authorities and the guidance of our able mentors, with whose help we were able
to successfully conduct this event, and all the other people who have contributed and
helped AIESEC.
Thanking You.
Best Regards.

Yours Sincerely,
Ashank Kumar,
Vice President (select) Business Development
AIESEC IIT Kharagpur.
 Executive Board
Coordinators
Vinayak Mahbubani
Vice President-Incoming Exchange

Anshul Gupta
Vice President-Marketing

Sashank Gambhira
Vice President-Business Development
Core Committee
Hardik Kharbandha
Shreyas Saravanan
SSS Anjan
Himanshu Kumar

Organizing
Committee
OC President- Umang Kumar
Hari Pranav K
Jayant S Jeena
Pinak B Mohapatra
Rahul Goel
Pruhta Kale
Aakarsh Yadav
Avinash Venkatesh
Simran Garg
Aditya Kothari
Harsh Raj
Abhilash Gollapalle
Razdeep Hajong
Umang Palod
Anurag Goyal
Posters
Snapshots
YouthSpeak Forum
in numbers

Number of Attendees( sessions and workshop) - 600+

Online Registrations - 100+

Social Media Participants - 12000+

Lives impacted - Countless

Partners and
Stakeholders
Title Partner

Platinum Partners

Silver Partner

Session Partners Food Partner

Travel Partner Outreach Partner Strategic Partner

Let Your
Voice be
Heard

YouthSpeak Forum 2015

AIESEC IIT Kharagpur