The APOGEE English Press sat down with Samarth Lonar, the APOGEE coordinator of the BITS x Postman Innovation Labs to understand their role in the fest.

Samarth explained that BITS x Postman Innovation Labs is a technical team directly funded by Postman. With numerous verticals and innovators, the team conducts events, both in and out of the campus including national-level hackathons with over 700 participants. They also conduct an annual API as a nod to the Postman platform. Other than this, he mentioned that the tech team also works to build apps, websites, games, and various other projects. 

Samarth shared that this fest, the team will be conducting their flagship event, GameJam, a game development hackathon with participants from across the nation. It is a two-round event, the first conducted online over a month before the fest where participants would be tasted to build a game.  In the second round, the participants would be given unique challenges, which they would be required to implement in the games they made for the first round. He added that although the event was held for two days last year, it would only be for only one day this year.

When asked about the challenges faced during their preparation, Samarth mentioned that their major concern was vouching for more participation. The team has reached out to campus ambassadors to market the event. In addition, they had also restructured the event to improve the quality of the competition. Furthermore, he highlighted that the prize money had been increased from INR22,000 to INR 50,000 this year. 

When asked about his role as the coordinator, Samarth mentioned that it had been a very smooth experience, especially coordinating with the game development vertical of the team. With new marketing strategies, an enthusiastic team, and prompt juniors, Samarth was ecstatic to coordinate the events for this fest.

On a final note, Samarth advised all those who would be attending their first tech fest to participate in competitions and other events, as it would provide them with a fruitful experience.