With Oasis inching closer, the Oasis English Press (OEP) sat down with Praful Malik, the Coordinator of the Department of Sponsorship and Marketing, to learn more about their work for the fest.

Praful explained that their work revolved around securing sponsors and the distribution of merchandise. Additionally, he mentioned that they had responsibilities pertaining to maintaining and getting food stall vendors for Oasis.

When discussing the ongoing preparations for the fest, Praful stated that he had started his work in July alongside the current second year batch, while the first-yearites had started working as soon as they got recruited. He noted that the department had to start early—working even in their summer vacations—as it takes a lot of time to reach out to sponsors, negotiate, and actually convince them.

In the days leading up to the fest, the department had started off with on-ground deliverables, which included reaching out to departments like RecNAcc for sponsor accommodation and co-ordinating with the Department of Controls for organising travel plans. Praful noted that most of their work, like the “reaching out part” and coordinating with vendors for products like merch and food stalls, was almost complete.

While talking about the setbacks that they had faced this year, Praful stated that there were no major logistical or administrative roadblocks in their way. According to him, the functioning of the department as a whole had gone quite well. However, he did add that one recurring setback that they faced year after year was that some sponsors ended up not responding to the calls of the department and the deals with them did not go through, which he emphasised was outside their control.

Speaking about his experience as the Coordinator thus far, Praful acknowledged that as the head of the department, managing both getting sponsors and coordinating with the StuCCA simultaneously had brought a lot of pressure, but it had also been a great learning experience.