The Department of Live Events (DLE) was responsible for handling mess signings, hospitality for professional shows, and production for Oasis 2019. The Oasis Review Meet 2019, held on the 22nd of November, was not a pleasant experience for them. Following an intense discussion of the issues faced by other clubs and departments with DLE during the fest, motions to put the department on probation for the next two years and to transfer the responsibility of handling production to the Department of Sounds (with the aid of Backstage and Lights, under the supervision of Audi Controls) were passed. The English Press Club met with Shubham Saxena and Aditya Varshney, the coordinator and the production manager of the department respectively, to discuss Oasis, ORC, and the way forward for DLE.
The department felt that there were more important issues, such as Cisco’s dissatisfaction with the branding at the Hindi Professional Show—which was the title sponsor’s event—that they were unable to bring up because of time constraints. Cisco’s Senior Director of Engineering had been enraged by the lack of visibility of Cisco branding in comparison to RealMe’s branding and had expressed his dissatisfaction with the StuCCA. Subsequent efforts to resolve the situation eventually led to the involvement of the Institute Director and the Chief Warden.
Varshney said, ‘The people at ORC did not try to find solutions to the problems faced this year. Instead, they tried blaming certain clubs and departments for this.’ DLE felt that matters had not been presented to the GBM in an appropriate way at ORC. As the coordinator, Shubham wanted to bring up issues in the existing system and suggest changes to benefit the succeeding StuCCA and coordinators. However, given that ‘there was a huge amount of information thrown at the GBM’ and ‘false claims’ were made at the ORC, he felt that the meeting was eventually reduced to people ‘circling around the same issues and telling the GBM how they ruined their event’ instead of addressing the issues and why they happened.
The department also felt that the postponement of ORC was not addressed properly. Aditya recalled being present for ORC on the 21st, and noted that the claim of a lack of quorum to call off the meeting was baseless as the attendance had not been taken then and a sizeable crowd was present. He also spoke of rumours of specific clubs and departments influencing people to walk out of the venue, which eventually led to the lack of a quorum when attendance was finally taken and resulted in the postponement of ORC. These ‘mysterious circumstances,’ DLE felt, merited more discussion at the ORC. ‘The meet should have been a lot more focused on issues than departments,’ said Shubham, noting that not finding solutions to problems would cause similar issues to arise for the 50th edition of Oasis next year. ‘I accept the issues that were my department’s fault. That is how we improve ourselves for next year, and it is meant to be an evolving structure because there is no perfect structure for a festival. I did not see that spirit in ORC,’ Shubham commented.
At the end of ORC, two motions regarding the future of DLE were proposed: that they be relieved of production responsibilities for Oasis 2020, and that they be placed on probation. Both motions passed. Regarding the first, DLE noted that a similar situation had arisen in ORC 2017, wherein a different department was assigned production responsibilities for Oasis 2018. Given that DLE has been responsible for the work for a few years and that it has been ‘the only department that takes care of SR Lawns for the past three to four years’, they feel that other departments lack the necessary knowledge to fully take on the responsibility. DLE said that it would be willing to lend a hand in production duties and the handling of events in SR Lawns if needed. Shubham was confident that if, while under probation, DLE is left to take charge of events in SR Lawns, the department would be able to manage the responsibility. He went on to add that in 2018, their experience warranted their intervention in handling the production of events at SR Lawns.
DLE feels that the production work for SR Lawns, which they have been handling for multiple years, should have stayed with the department, since they would be involved with the work regardless. ‘Having no issues with SR Lawns during the past two to three years does not mean that it is easy to deal with; it just means that we have dealt with it effectively. SR Lawns production should have stayed with DLE because we have been doing it perfectly fine for the last fifteen fests or so,’ said Shubham. He also felt that being put in probation was unfair, although it would enable DLE to collaborate more with all clubs and departments. Varshney complained about not being given a fair opportunity to defend themselves against allegations ‘without substantial proof’ at ORC, although he acknowledged that the meeting had been pressed for time.
When asked about their plans for upcoming fests, Varshney said that plans had already been laid down for APOGEE and BOSM 2020, and that the events of this Oasis would not affect them in any way. Shubham added that they would make ‘subtle’ changes to the ‘already almost transparent’ system to ensure increased transparency. Since there is relatively little production work involved with these fests, especially at SR Lawns, there will not be much change in the way DLE operates. However, he also said that DLE is welcome to any feedback or discussion with the CoStAA, CoSSAC, or StuCCA to improve their functioning.