With APOGEE less than a week away, securing an interview with the CoStAAn of the Department of Sponsorship and Marketing (Sponz) was no easy feat. Despite the busy schedules,  the APOGEE English Press managed to sit down for a quick chat with Shreya Gupta, in which she elaborated on some of the experiences her department and CoStAA have had while putting in the work for the first offline APOGEE in two years.

The primary function of Sponz as a department involves generating revenue for the fests in the form of cash and kind sponsorships, while ensuring that the commitments made to the various companies in exchange for this sponsorship are met. They also manage the food stalls that are set up during the fest. Shreya explained that the work for APOGEE usually begins right after Oasis, but the uncertainty surrounding the permission to hold the fest delayed the onset of preparation until the end of October. By the time CoStAA received verbal confirmation from the Chief Warden that APOGEE would be an offline fest, Sponz had already begun talking to sponsors, working on the assumption that the fest would be in a hybrid mode. 

Based on previous years’ trends, Shreya said she had promised CoStAA a figure of ten lakhs in cash sponsorships for the fest. She indicated that this number was a highly conservative budget, owing to the serious challenges in acquiring sponsorship that COVID had caused. Sponz was, hence, able to close far more deals than expected, finally securing 22 lakhs in cash sponsorship. For this edition of APOGEE, she wanted a wide spectrum of sponsors from the technical industry while not limiting their reach to the IT sector. She mentioned that alongside already established names, Sponz was also looking to get “well-growing” startups on board for the fest.

The title sponsor for APOGEE 2022 is a prominent American FinTech multinational corporation, FIS; while Cisco, a BITS legacy recruiter, is the associate title sponsor. The fest is powered by Bolt, a startup based in electronic vehicle charging. The sponsorships in kind include 2,500 product cans from the official refreshment partner of the fest, PepsiCo, and units of packed coffee from Rage Coffee.

While discussing her experience as a member of CoStAA, Shreya said that though one would expect problems to arise from there being nine different stakeholders in a fest, no major conflicts arose within the council. She attributed this ease of proceedings to the entire CoStAA being very understanding of the difficulty of the situation, and all the members being ‘very open to any suggestions and criticisms’. She mentioned that being part of the council has been an enriching experience for her, and how some of the members are now the people she is closest to.

Along with the short timeline, another hurdle that CoStAA faced was the lack of exposure that the members had to APOGEE and fests in general in an offline setting. They worked around this challenge by being in constant contact with their seniors, who were receptive and helpful. Departments and clubs were required to give pitches for both online and offline events. Nearly all of these events ended up requiring numerous changes to reflect the various updates in the guidelines for the fest, finally shifting almost entirely towards offline events. According to Shreya, all of them did a great job adapting to the challenging circumstances, and were understanding and responsive to CoStAA.

Shreya mentioned that the highlight of her tenure has been the involvement with two teams she has worked with, her department and CoStAA. She commented that the time crunch and the uncertainty surrounding the fest had left her skeptical of whether they would be able to execute everything that they had envisioned for APOGEE. However, she believes that the efforts of all those involved in the planning and execution of the fest helped them adapt to the circumstances and ensure that the fest is one to look forward to.