Ads, the news, events, movies - Do they ever make you wonder; who makes the frame look like the
way it does? Are you curious to know how some people know what to put in the platter and how?
Do you seek to understand how the public psyche is gauged and connected with so very effectively?

If it interests you to read the subtexts, to understand the contexts and to develop ideas that innovate
and effectively communicate, then Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication can help you
channelize your energies in fulfilling and productive directions.

SIMC places a premium on academic rigor and it sometimes gets intensely hectic. However, when even
caffeine succumbs to nature’s clock, when your eyes shut down before your laptop does, all you need is
to open your door and take a walk. The breathtaking view of these sprawling green mountains at Lavale
refreshes you for the day. Creativity is not considered a virtue here, it grows on you naturally, and it
gets married with your thought process-for life. SIMC provides ample opportunities for recreation with
playing courts, health club and swimming pool of international standards

This place gives you everything needed and more, even the inimitable Amitabh Bachchan has agreed
to be a part, here eminent speakers like Rajdeep Sardesai motivate you and likes of Alyqe Padamsee
share with you the nuances of the industry you wish to be a part of. Industry exposure is regular and
exhaustive, and internships form the core of the pedagogy-extending classroom learning to industry
applications. SIMC gives you unparalleled insight of the world of communication.

Ideas escape all the forms of monopolies. It is the idea itself that curbs monopolies. As the guest lecture series SIMClairvoyance’10 at Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication entered its fourth day, the mega learning ball refused to stop rolling. A session laded with the power of ideas and the extent to which they can impact a marketing conversation was delivered by Mr  Aniruddha Banerjee,chairman of Publicis Ambience .
Through his comprehensive ten tenets of success, Aniruddha highlighted the times that we are living in are those marked by exponential growths, best exemplified by the ongoing prowl of Social Media worldwide. This makes the marketing models of today vulnerable to suffer from the consumer’s amnesia which in turn is brought about by the increasing clutter of marketing communications. Mr Banerjee went to draw interesting parallels between our regular conversation and the brand communications. With the technology becoming increasingly pervasive, the views the masses hold about your brand is largely out of your own reach. A set of interesting videos featuring ad campaigns and the strategizing process of campaigns that gripped the consumers mind like never expected were employed by him to emphasize what formed the take away meal of the session – the uber importance of devising contagious ideas that change the conversations between the brand and the consumer to maximized ends. The sum total was obtained as the ability of ideas to be storyable and of creating social currencies.

The media students of SIMC today got a comprehensive industry insight on the various aspects of Production and also television industry in general, as Roshan Dutt, Production Head - BBC Worldwide, addressed them at SIMClairvoyance ’10 .
He started off sharing his experiences with an outlook of his journey to a Productions person from various different professions that he tried his hands on, before realising his ultimate goal.  He made funny references about his looks and said that looks don’t come in the way of talent. He also said that we should keep experimenting with different projects so that we get a wholesome knowledge and also to develop our skills .Though he clearly discouraged the whole “Hop on, Hop off” attitude that some people follow. “Once you commit to a project, do it well and complete it, even if you don’t enjoy it “, he added.
He narrated a funny incident that he encountered at Kanha in Madhya Pradesh where he went to shoot a very simple sequence but due to some bizarre turn of events it became very tough for him to accomplish his task. He emphasised on how the situation on ground and in real can get twisted.?
Talking of promo production, he said – “No shoot is an easy shoot” and quoted an incidence where a small miscommunication lead to very serious repercussions which resulted in a loss of money spent on it. He urged students to check and re-check while communicating with co-workers so that no errors creep in and cause huge losses.
The session also involved a good interactive discussion revolving Reality Shows and their present state in India which invited a lot queries from the audience. Talking about the content of reality shows he said – “Indians like Masala, and the situations have to be dramatic to make it an interesting watch”. He made it clear though that there is no manipulation when it comes to Voting procedures as the companies who produce the shows have an International reputation to take care of.  He also added that there is no dearth of talent in India but the channels only support shows and formats that are commercially lucrative and popular. “Ultimately, it all boils down to Money”, he said.

She completed her diploma from the Asian College of Journalism (Chennai) and
began her career just four years ago at the age of 22 as a desk head at CNN-IBN, Delhi. She
transferred to Mumbai in 2007 and is well known for her reports on the 26/11 attacks, the
Swine Flu outbreak and for holding a plethora of discussion-based shows and features on
television.

Her discussion at Clairvoyance ranged from being a good reporter and television
anchor to filming features for news channels. She also indulged in a role-play exercise in
which she asked certain students to step up and anchor a news show whilst under the pressure
that all anchors face in a studio. She then screened snippets from some of the features made
by her for CNN-IBN focused on social issues in Mumbai.

All in all, a rather interesting lecture by the youngest speaker at SIMClairvoyance.
Her narration of a mere four years of experience in broadcast journalism left the journalism
students in the audience charged up and even more eager to start honing their skills in the
field.

Her presentation began with the background of Lintas, where she pointed out the various
divisions in Lintas. The presentation talked about Communications being driven by a high
value idea. If the context and issue is understood, the solution for any problem would be easy
to find. She emphasized that ‘India is becoming a creative powerhouse of sorts, thus bringing
large number of opportunities”.

Despite an absence of formal training in PR, her knowledge about the subject is tremendous.
She explained with the Barbie example and highlighted the 5 major PR trends.

She then went on to demonstrate the growing importance of social media in PR. Case study
of PUREIT HUL water purifier was an informative analysis of social media tools. She
expressed her desire to come again and talk about ‘Measurement Tools in PR’.

In a nutshell, an engaging and informative session, where she rightly highlighted its essence
as, “The only limitations are those of imaginations”.

One of the finest adornments known to the Indian kind is a leaflet stuck on the windscreen of one’s car that reads “Press”. The misfortune lays intact herein. The onus of being the watchdogs of the society serves as the legality for the journalists to convert each and every point of their being into a comfort zone. The true sense of duty and righteousness for a journalist stands obscured today. The plague of withering of ethics, that has infested journalism in India since long, was the prime subject of discussion in the session conducted by  Mr Shishir Josh,the initiator of India’s first mentorship-based programme for journalism, with the students of Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication, Pune  . Mr Shishir Joshi session was a part of the guest lecture series SIMClairvoyance 2010.
Rendering a large set of live (and real life) examples from his earlier long and influential stints at Aaj Tak & Mid Day,Shishir highlighted the nature of freedom & censorship of press  and the importance of Right to Information act in current times. Laying a strong emphasis on the need for stepping out against the negative vibes in the society,Shishir actually proponed RTI,Kapda aur Makan as the new order of the society. Through an interactive exercise, he made the students grab the pens of media personnel facing dilemma in issues related to freedom & censorship. Not to mention, the stand of righteousness was appreciated by him. The phrase of an imaginary gun pointing at the skull of a journalist exercising his freedom to bare the truth was well received by the students. Shishir pointed out that the democratic setup of the nation has always given an impetus to the freedom of press, contrasting it widely with the press of other nations. He stepped onto the much frequented pulpit of change-the-society, albeit with an entire different air. Revisiting the 26/11 scar, he pointed that never do our own names  figure in our own taxonomy notebooks where we brand people as heroes, zeroes and the lessons learnt after such events. We’ve chosen ourselves to bask comfortably as a fly on the wall, with the spectacle of moving times laid before us. It is this misery he referred to and advised to come up as a responsible citizen first and a journalist thereafter. It is important to change ourselves before we tread on the much talked about road of changing the society. The session, which Shishir proclaimed not to be a gyaan session, ended with a perfect brew of ideas breaking out in the minds of media folks of tomorrow.

How do I make it different?? How do I come up with a brilliant idea? How am I supposed to state the obvious yet be different and eye catchy? …Many more questions like these and doubts which revolved around the whole process of Creative Ideation got a simple answer , in what could be called as the perfect starting to our Lecture Series – Clairvoyance ‘10 , by a man who carries 26 years of Advertising Industry experience behind him , Mr. Adi Pocha .
And mind you it’s pronounced as Adi as in Buddy minus the B and not the Adi of Aditya. Why do I state this unimportant detail? Because this is how frank and candid he was during the entire lecture (rather an interactive session) and this is how he connected almost instantaneously with the audience, the moment he held on to the microphone.�
He started off inviting various different interpretations of creativity, 36 of them, all from the audience. After which he stated the Classic definition of Creativity which says that creativity is nothing but an idea which is Novel and yet Relevant. The two words kept coming back in the whole interactive session. He then moved on to what according to him the working definition of creativity is i.e. bringing together two hitherto unrelated things to form a relevant idea. Giving the example of a revolutionary Ad campaign of Kamasutra Condoms that he worked on , he emphasised on how a really creative idea gets laughed at initially but eventually goes on to become a success once the relevance kicks in . “Laughter is the best symptom of a truly creative idea”, he said. He also touched upon how tough it is to sell a creative idea. “In advertising, you take one day to write an idea and five days to sell it…” he added.  He talked how we think in compartments and look for creativity limiting ourselves to those compartments only. The way to come up with a novel idea is to combine ideas from these different compartments that we usually don’t relate to.
During the course of lecture he also came up with activities that involved active participation from the audience which led to opening up of several future Ad professionals. He bowled over the audience by coming up with an Anti-drug TVC in under 5 seconds flat and that too revolving around a random word chosen by a student . He then said that he cheated with this whole act and that he didn’t come up with the ad in 5 sec , rather it took him 26 years and 5 seconds to come up with it , thus making clear the contribution of Practice and Experience to any creative person’s career .
There were several lighter moments in the entire session and he gave his take on Indian Education system and also expressed his views on censorship of Ads and media. He said - “Everyone is born creative, but then we go through a 23 year process that kills creativity. It’s called education”. He expressed his displeasure on how our education system doesn’t encourage students to think freely; rather it makes them think in a certain way.

                                                                       “Sawaal Poochiye.

                                 Agar Aapne Nahi Poocha toh iss desh ko poochne wala koi nahi bachega “

Taking the quintessential journalistic vigor, a notch higher than usual,  Prabal Pratap Singh , Executive Editor, IBN-7 conducted an interactive session with the students of SIMC - PG, Pune as a part of the on-going guest lecture series,  SIMClairvoyance ‘10.

The recounting of his experiences spanning from being probably the first journalist to enter the war-torn Afghanistan post the  9/11 attack,  to a narrative of a quaint city that was home to nothing genocide the Godhra carnage in Gujarat, Mr. Singh stressed upon passion as the chief ingredient of beingthe being called Journalist.

The passion is more than just exposing blatant lies, those are rampant in the world we live. The passion has to emanate from a firm self belief. He highlighted the critical role & responsibilities of media and journalists as the watchdogs of the society and quantified his belief saying that “the power we wield can go either way”. He stressed upon the fact that there is a lot of resposibility that is ttached to the profession of journalism, he said, “Those people who cannot shoulder that responsibility, should get into another profession”

He laid out the importance of the journalist being armored with a great deal of general knowledge and relevant facts as they make their moves against the establishment. During the course of the discussion, he did not fail to admit that there have been instances when media has hovered around the negative excesses, such as influencing the Judiciary in certain court cases and high profile events as of Aarushi Talwar murder.

The fascinating half of the session followed, with a switch to the interactive mode. Prabal rendered no question unanswered and no conflict of opinions unresolved. The session witnessed more information coming along through unheard real incidents, as shocking as the one where he unearthed the female trafficking in the hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh on a Rs 10 stamp paper. The educative session rounded up with the underlying beats of fearlessness and espousing responsibility as a journalist. The vox populi is shaped by the media, so it is important that the media follows matters to beyond the normal perception. With such a beginning to SIMClairvoyance ‘10, we think there is a lot more to look forward to.

There are great lectures and then there are those which give a whole new dimension and direction to the way we think. Adi Pocha, owner of Squirkle productions Pvt. Ltd., conducted one such workshop today on creative ideation at SIMClairvoyance ’10 at SIMC, Pune.
Refusing to be addressed as “sir”, Adi started the workshop by asking people to write down what creativity means to them and after 36 viewpoints including responses from faculty members he defined creativity as “a combination of novelty and relevance”.
He elaborated on concepts and techniques to enhance one’s creative potential and also demonstrated them by conceptualizing a brilliant 30 sec TVC off the top of his head using a random word thrown at him by the audience. The man with 26 years of experience in the advertising world, delivered what he promised at the commencement - a guaranteed boost to audience’s creativity. He emphasized that everyone is inherently creative but “goes through a 23-year process called education that kills it”, he added in a lighter vein.
“Just like you can’t learn to ride a bike by only listening to somebody who knows how to, you cannot exploit your creative thinking if you don’t practice it”, said Adi who urged everyone to “get on the bike and try”.
For those who were there in this enlightening session of SIMClairvoyance ‘10, Adi Pocha has provided the keys to creative thinking - It’s up to us how many cupboards we open.