Event: Avant Garde – The Film Festival
Host: Copyrights Club
When: 29th – 30th January, 2010
Where: American Centre (New Marine Lines)
Entry: Free

Avant Garde

A premier venture by the Copyrights Club, presents a 2 day film festival, which provides opportunities of a lifetime for young media professionals with a keen interest in film making. Avant Garde will be an excellent platform for participants to express their foresights about the society in the future. Budding film makers are hereby given a chance to film a social evil that will be of concern in the near future. 20 shortlisted entries will be screened and the best will be awarded.

Register here for the event.

About Copyrights Club

Started by a group of Mass Media students of the Mumbai University with zeal to be different and stand out from their contemporaries. It all began as a medium of expression of thoughts and ideas- to tell the world what we feel- to portray our opinions. The Club is an initiative to provide a platform to media students and professionals and make their voice heard in today’s world. It’s all about using the power of Media and making our presence felt in the society.

Register here to participate.

We will also be organizing workshops by industry professionals on various aspects of film making to help develop amateur talent. Some of the workshops may include background score, direction, camera handling, special effects etc

Register here for workshops.

Event Schedule

DAY 1 – FRIDAY, 29TH JANUARY 2010

INAUGURATION: 10:30 am

Workshop on Animation/3D/MAYA: 11:00 am
by ARENA MULTIMEDIA

Workshop on Film making Techniques: 2:30 pm – 4:30 pm
by Eminent Personalities

Screening of a prominent movie from the: 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm
AVANT GARDE genre

DAY 2 – SATURDAY, 30TH JANUARY 2010

Screening of Shortlisted entries of Participants: 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm

Awards Ceremony: 4:00 pm

Register here for the event.

After kick starting the year with the success of 3 Idiots and Paa, Reliance Big Pictures (an Anil Ambani Enterprise) is set to make all the right moves in 2010. Anil Ambani has showed interest in bidding for Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Hollywood studio, the Hollywood studio which owns the James Bond franchise.

Anil Ambani already owns a controlling stake in Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks studio and has partnered with Hollywood stars including Brad Pitt, Jim Carrey, Julia Roberts and George Clooney to promote their films.

Industry sources close to Anil Ambani confirmed his interest in acquiring MGM and said it would help him to achieve his ambition to become the world’s most powerful film mogul.

The MGM acquisition would empower Reliance Big Pictures and bring one of Hollywood’s greatest film libraries under their control and will certainly ensure box office hits over the next three years. MGM is slotted to release a new James Bond film in 2011, starring Daniel Craig, and two Hobbit films starring Sir Ian McKellen.

MGM, on the other side needs to strike an effective deal to avoid potential bankruptcy later this year when a series of debts must be repaid. The current estimated bid is expected to be beyond $2 million.

IRDA (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority) has appointed Adfactors Advertising as the sole agency to create and advise them on communication across media. The decision was taken after a multi-agency pitch conducted by IRDA.

The agency has designed a campaign ‘Bima Bemisaal’ which will highlight the importance of insurance. The campaign is being supported by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs. The print campaign for the campaign is ready and will be visible in newspapers and magazines shortly.

Atul Dube, VP, Adfactors Advertising, elaborated, “The brief we got from IRDA was creating awareness for the need for insurance among all segments of people. Life Insurance is largely seen as a tax-saving instrument and is often limited by it. In the case of non-life insurance, too, rational thinking is not applied. In most cases, insurers are not aware of their rights and duties. For example, how many people are aware that a policy has a ‘look-in’ period of 15 days? Most insurance purchasers do not have any clue as to what they should do if they have a disagreement on any issue with their insurance company – whether it is a simple thing as repeatedly asking for a change of address or receiving the policy itself or a slightly more.”

He further added, “Our present campaign is simpler in presentation, which will make easy for people to understand what are the risks that we avoid in our daily lives. These campaigns are easy to understand and give a clear picture of insurance in our daily life.”

“It is a 360 degree campaign comprising TV, print, Internet, OOH, road shows, etc. TV, OOH, radio, and BTL will follow after the print campaign. The message behind the campaign is that one needs to be an informed insurance buyer. Don’t get influenced by agents,” he concluded.

Law & Kenneth has been appointed as the creative agency by Spencer’s for its in-store labels like Smart Choice. Prior to this, the account was handled by Grey, Kolkata. The account was won after a multi-agency pitch from various advertising agencies.

Confirming the news, Jiten Bhagat, Vice-President, Law & Kenneth Kolkata, said, “We are going to be their communication agency and will come up with strategy and communication solutions for new private labels from Spencers.” He further added, “We are not doing any mass media, but we will be doing a lot of in-store activities. We will be working on their food and non-food business.”

Sanjay Gupta, vice-president, general merchandise, Spencer’s Retail, said, “We aspire to take the private label to the next level. An understanding of this part of the business brings out that apart from high quality products, it is extremely essential to look at high quality packaging. Packaging has a huge rub-off on the quality of the product. Law & Kenneth has been roped in considering its design capabilities, which will help work on the packaging bit.”

Mona Jain, India Head – Strategic Investments has been promoted to the position of the COO. In her new role, Jain will be mainly responsible for the content and partnerships of the brand. Her team will comprise of the new Executive Vice-President, Sejal Shah and Shikha Mahajan, Vice President – Expansion and Alliances among others.

Ambika Srivastava, Chairperson, VivaKi Exchange India confirmed the news and said, “IMX in its new avatar as Vivaki Exchange presents strategic opportunities for the team to leverage its powerful scale in India. Our media buying clout ability is already noteworthy, and as we move into the new brand our clients will witness the unique capabilities we bring to the fore. The VivaKi Exchange platform enables us to amass and supplement resources as well as invest in delivery of new tools, capabilities and technology platforms to clients in this dynamic and growing market.”

She further added, “I am extremely pleased to see the team being rewarded. Mona has been on the front lines for the past two years, building IMX along with her senior colleagues. In her new role as COO, I am positive she will be creating innovative and unique unassailable competitive advantages for VivaKi Exchange.”

Jain concluded, “It has been an extremely rewarding experience to work in such challenging times. Today’s market dynamics and vast media landscape, including the integration of both offline and online opportunities, coupled with the strong influence that the VivaKi Exchange will bring to the fore will be game changing. As IMX, we have been the greatest challenger and have amassed the best for our clients and now I am looking forward to the new panorama that VX will unfold for clients and the community alike.”

VivaKi Exchange is the consolidated media buying arm of Starcom MediaVest Group, Zenith Optimedia and Solutions Digitas.

The Government of Uttarakhand (GoU) has appointed Impact Communications as the official advertising agency, which will handle all the advertising rights for Mahakumbh Haridwar 2010. The Mahakumbh starts from January 14, 2010.

Sanjay Kaul, CEO, Impact Communications, said, “We won the account following a multi agency pitch. Earlier, we had won the ad rights of Mahakumbh Ujjain in 2004.” He also added, “”February is the peak time for the mela when the royal bath begins. And thus, we will begin with our on-ground activations during that period.”

Per the terms of the agreement, Impact Communications will have to pay the licensee fee in four installments for January to April.

The agency will showcase ads and earn revenues by selling space on four gantries, 100 entry gates, 25 parking lots, 400 kiosks, 1000 signage co-branding with social messages, 10 mobile vans and 25 air balloons. Industry sources reveal that the agency aims to earn revenues worth Rs. 30 – 40 million through this project.

Impact Communications is currently in talks with various companies including GSK, iShare, Dabur, Cadburys, Kodak along with a few telecom companies for branding the event.

CampusBoxer – The Power-charged BMMBox College Ambassador

As a CampusBoxer, what will I do?

* You will represent your college and serve as a vital link between your
campus and BMMBox.

* You will be in command of all activities of BMMBox for your college and
will help smoothen the process – of course, the BMMBox team will be
assisting you always!

As a CampusBoxer, what’s in for me?

* You will be an integral part of the internal BMMBox Team and so you
get to be the first in your college to know of latest happenings in BMM
– exams, papers, and much more!

* Just as a bonus, you will be featured on BMMBox as a CampusBoxer –
so you’ll be famous + you get special access to some of our coolest
features like social groups, picture albums, private messaging, and so
on on BMMBox.com.

* You get an awesome certificate of experience with our cool stamp on it!

Okay, I’m ready, what next?

* Register here, and we come back to you supah speed! Or

* Send us an email (connect@bmmbox.com) with your name, college
name, year, and mobile number

Event: National Symposium ‘Media Rush’ 2010
Host: SIES College of Arts, Science and Commerce, (Nerul)
When: January 30, 2010
Where: SIES College Auditorium (Nerul)

Register here to attend the event.

Media Rush 2010

Everyone knows what Shashi Tharoor’s tweets have to say. Every news paper reports on what Chetan Bhagat writes on his blog. Every feature that people could do on Farmville and Facebook has been done. And all of this is pointing towards only one thing, there is a central uniting factor changing things. You can call it joblessness, we call it the internet. And the internet has given rise to new forms of communication, which has lead to the coinage of the term ‘New Media’. And if you want to know about new media and how it is affecting communication as well as journalism, then you should definitely attend ‘Media Rush’ a state level symposium organized by the The Department of Mass Media of SIES(Nerul) College of Arts, Commerce and Science.

Media Rush 2010 is about the emerging trends of new media and how they will and have affected the general way in which news is seen and interpreted. The conference will also be concentrating on the feasibility of online activism, the advent of global culture through internet journalism, can new media bridge the urban-rural divide or will it only highlight it and other key issues.

Along with panel discussions and a general exchange of ideas, people will also get lunch and a nice air conditioned auditorium to sit in.

TOPIC: Emerging Trends in New Media

The following content will be covered:

• Transition from Print and Broadcast to New Media.
• Leveling of Equations (Global Monopoly and Advent of New Media).
• Tools and Technology in New Media.
• Bridging the Divide- Rural and Urban through New Media.
• Activism through New Media
• Citizen Journalism and Regressive Communication.

Register for the event.

Media Rush is an annual conference organized by the department of Mass Media of SIES (Nerul) College of Arts, Science and Commerce. Media Rush has been graced with the presence of eminent professionals from the industry like Mayank Shekhar (Mumbai Mirror), Kiran Kasbekar, Dale Bhagwagar, Yogesh Pawar, Dr S L Dhingra, Shoiab Ahmed, Geeta Seshu, Mr Sanjay Ranade, Mikhil Bhatt, Ateeq Shaikh , Atul Loke, Girish Mallya and Ignatius Gonsalves (Chief Editor of Jeeva Naadam, star journalist, Malayala Manorama).

Register here, to attend the event.

SCHEDULE FOR MEDIA RUSH 2010

1. Breakfast : 9.00-10.00

2. Lamp lighting and inauguration: 10.00

3. Module I: INTRODUCTION

A] Transition from Print and Broadcast to New Media: 10.30- 11.15
B] Leveling of Equations (Global Monopoly and Advent of New Media): 11.15- 12.00
C] Tools and Technology in New Media: 12.00-1.00

4. Lunch: 1.00- 2.00

5. LECTURE: Bridging the Divide- Rural and Urban through New Media 2.00- 3.00

6. Module II:

A] Activism through New Media: 3.00- 4.00
B] Citizen Journalism and Regressive Communication: 4.00- 5.00

7. Conclusion and Felicitation: 5.00-5.15

For more details or queries regarding registration, contact Neha – 9920829494.