Ground Zero Fest — a conference that caters to artists, musicians, writers, designers, fashionistas and more — will be a two-day fest (February 10 and 11) held across several venues in Visakhapatnam. The fest will see a session on Zumba and Yoga at VUDA Park, speeches on ‘Evolution of Design’ and ‘Essentials of Design Art’ at the Hawa Mahal on Beach Road, and a Networking Party at Myz-Uno The Brew. Sounds like a lot? Well, that's just Day One!
When you hear the word ‘conference’, what's the first thing that pops into your head? Banquet halls? 8 hours of just sitting in one place? It is this convention that Siddharth Marupeddi, Managing Director Stoxide, wanted to move away from when Ground Zero was conceptualised. "We were clear from the very beginning that we wanted Ground Zero Fest to be a different kind of conference. We did not want to generate content, we wanted to generate experiences," he says passionately. And he did this with an equally passionate team.
The organising team is perfectly tuned into what the youth wants to talk about, thanks to the various events they have organised. This helped them decide the agenda on their own and the logistics of venue too. "We have no output planned; it's just to spark an idea," shares Marupeddi. And instead of organising exclusive events in arts or literature, they have decided to go ahead with a conglomeration of events that will focus on the individual in general, rather than a community in specific.
The sessions will be woven around specific themes and not around speakers and their availability. “The speakers were not finalised at the time we went to print,” confesses Marupeddi, who also shares that there will be a few celebrities and a lot more "local underdogs". The team has already observed a good response in terms of registration and are organising this first edition for about 300 to 350 people. And though they had initially planned this event for December 2017, they decided against it because December was a busy month for Vizag, with events like Visakha Utsav and more.
But why would they want to have multiple venues? Like destination weddings, Marupeddi wanted it to be a "destination conference", as the destination of the next conference may not be the same. For now, the only take-away he wishes for the people who will be attending Ground Zero Fest is that they make use of this knowledge-sharing platform to, "meet people, have conversations with them and gain different perspectives," he concludes.
Check them out at groundzerofest.com
