The APOGEE English Press spoke to Jayant Jain, the coordinator of the BITS Pilani chapter of Enactus, to learn about their work during the fest.

Jayant shared that Enactus is set to organise Catalyst, an event aimed at bringing together Enactus teams and student organisations from various colleges to present their sustainability projects. He explained that the event would be conducted in two phases. The first round would take place online, where participating teams would submit pitch decks outlining their projects. He added that the shortlisted teams would then advance to the second round, where they would showcase the real-world impact of their initiatives through demonstrations.

However, Jayant pointed out that organising Catalyst had not been without challenges. He highlighted the difficulties Enactus had faced in securing sponsors for the event. He reported that due to unforeseen circumstances, previous sponsorship arrangements had fallen through. It forced the team to seek alternative sponsors late in the planning process. As a result, he stated that event preparations had to be temporarily put on hold while the team focused on outreach and marketing efforts to attract potential sponsors.

 He shared that the club had originally considered a case competition or a sustainability hackathon, depending on sponsor interest. He added that when the title sponsor opted out of the case competition model, Enactus had decided to pivot to Catalyst, aligning the event’s structure with the club’s long-term vision of fostering sustainability-driven initiatives.

Jayant noted that navigating sponsorships had presented a new learning curve for the club, as Enactus had not previously handled such negotiations. Despite the hurdles, he expressed that the club had viewed the experience positively, recognising it as an opportunity to gain valuable insights into event management and sponsor relations.