April 10th 2024, Kolkata: On April 8th 2024, the 3rd edition of the 3-day career conclave ‘Future Vista – The New Age Careers’ dedicated to the students was inaugurated at iLEAD. Future Vista is organized with the aim of discussing the changes and growth in the respective sectors along with the emerging new-age career opportunities. The first day of the event for iLEAD School of Business witnessed experts from the fields of entrepreneurship, management, digital marketing, and tourism.

The first panel in the morning on ‘Entrepreneurship’ consisted of dignitaries like Mr. Abhishek Modi (Managing Partner at Shiva Engineering & Vice President at Stanford Seed, South Asia), Mr. Abhishek Rungta (Founder and CEO, INT), Mr. Sidharth Pansari (Director of Primarc and President, CREDAI Bengal) along with Mr. Samarjit Guha (Director, Future Hope) as the moderator.

Mr. Abhishek Modi talked about team building. He said, “Your team is your biggest investment. Team building was my biggest challenges and now it is my biggest strengths”. He also stressed on the importance of having ‘empathy and personal connect’ with one’s team as an entrepreneur.

Mr. Abhishek Rungta advised students to be ‘lifelong learners’. Adding humor to the conversations, Mr. Sidharth Pansari described entrepreneurship with cricket and marriage. ‘Business is Swayamvar’, he said and spoke about how ‘perseverance’ helps one to get success in business.

The 2nd panel on Management consisted of Mr. Sayanta Sengupta (Presenter, Star Sports), Mr. Joy Moitra (Senior Director, Consultancy Services), Ms. Ankan Banerjee (Assistant Professor & Coordinator, IISWBM), Mr. Arabinda Sahu (Ex Senior Vice President II & Circle Head, Axis Bank) along with Mr. Samarjit Guha (Director, Future Hope) as the moderator.

Mr. Sayanta Sengupta specifically shared his experience being a presenter on social media as well as television. He talked about ‘time management, maintaining calm and asking appropriate questions’. Mr. Ankan Banerjee enlightened students about the various career opportunities in the sports sector namely sports marketing, sports technology, data analytics in sports, events management, sponsorship, infrastructure and more. Mr. Joy Moitra spoke on the changing scenario of working conditions. “There are a lot of opportunities and technology is a big provider in that”, he said. Stressing on how ‘now people do banking at home’, Mr. Arabinda Sahu explained the concept of relationship management in bank and explored career opportunities in the sector.

The afternoon panel was on digital marketing. The panel consisted of Mr. Mitul Das (CEO, UrsDigitally), Mr. Kaustuv Mukherjee (Managing Partner, Platform Play Venture), Ms. Luna Chatterjee (Social Media Influencer), Mr. Aji Mathew (CEO & Co-Founder, TechShu & DMU), along with Ms. Priyanka Talukdar (Creative Director, QA).

Mr. Kaustav Mukherjee talked about how prompt engineering is going to become future career for many. “There is need to have a human driving the prompts – Prompt Engineering, is a course that will be taught in universities soon”, he said. Mr. Mitul Das stressed on how “AI needs to have contextual and emotional intelligence”. Ms. Luna Chatterjee advised students on content creation. “Don’t just scroll but observe what appeals”, she said. Mr. Aji Mathew talked about how data is doubling now every 12 hours. He also spoke on how “AI transforms data into wisdom and action”.

The 4th panel of the day was on tourism and hospitality. It had panellists like Mr. Hemant Mediratta (Founder, One Rep Global), Mr. Rummy Anand (Managing Director, HMC), Ms. Sandhya Joshi (Senior Manager – Learning & Development, The Oberoi Grand), Mr. Raphael Rodrigues (General Manager, Holiday Inn Express), Mr. Manav Soni (Chairman of Eastern Region for TAAI) and Ms. Mandira Mitra (Tourism Manager, Madhya Pradesh Tourism).

Mr. Raphael Rodrigues advised students to “understand the plethora of the talent industry that this industry has”. Mr. Manav Soni stressed “this is the only industry with very minimal amount of retrenchment”. Mr. Hemant Mediratta described the hospitality industry as ‘people business’. “If you like engaging with people, that’s the quality we require and also there has to be a service attitude”, he said. Mr. Rummy Anand highlighted how the tourism and hospitality industry prepares you for any other industry, “The kind of skills that you hone in this industry are usable in other industries also”. Ms. Sandhya Joshi explained how the industry ‘changes you’. She also said, “If you truly enjoy making a difference to somebody, this is the industry for you”. Mr. Mandira Mitra shared her experience as manager of Madhya Pradesh tourism and how she got the opportunity to help the tribal community of the region.