KDY 2014 leaves attendees inspired

The audiene at Kyoorius Designyatra, along with enlightening and interactive sessions, was treated to musical performances by Karsh Kale and the band Dharavi Rocks

Sarmistha Neogy | Goa | September 15, 2014

Kyoorius Designyatra 2014, which took place on September 12 & 13, in Goa, started with quite a bang. In its ninth year, the conference was themed around the thought 'What If?' which brought together renowned speakers from around the world to explore what it takes to create something new and unprecedented. Through their inspiring presentations, the speakers not only redefined conventions, but also used radical approaches to push people to think beyond the clichés. To make the sessions interactive, people were also asked to tweet with #KDY14 and the hashtag trended on all days.

Rajesh Kejriwal

Rajesh Kejriwal, Founder, CEO, Kyoorius, said, “We try and make every Designyatra as unique as possible. Our main aim is to see that the overall three-day experience for an individual should be fulfilling. As not only have they paid for it, but they have given us the most valuable thing: their time. So, it is our duty to give them the best. My attempt would always be to spread awareness about designing, because, in my opinion, 'the design industry' still has a long way to go as companies fail to realise how design also forms a potential strategic tool to make an organisation profitable.”

The audience, consisting of more than 1,500 delegates, including designers, chief marketing officers, brand managers, students and young professionals, enjoyed the power-packed events.

Kunj Shah, Senior Creative Director, Ogilvy & Mather, shared his experience. “I am actually very glad that I came. Even though Digiyatra wasn't that great, I am feeling inspired at the end of it all. I have been in the advertising field for more than 15 years now, and you do tend to think sometimes that certain things are not possible. These sessions actually break those notions for you. As you see, people are doing things in different ways and making things possible, then why can't I? Coming from the advertising background, design for me is generally brand designing. But today, I got to understand how vast this domain is,” he said.

There were a lot of students from design schools in attendance. An NIFT graduate, it was Monica Singh's second outing at Designyatra. She is a designer with Taamaa, a Gurgaon-based lifestyle brand which also designs the Kyoorius trophies. Students from Ecole Intuit Lab, a Graphic Design Institute in Mumbai, were seen enthusiastically interacting with seniors from the industry. “It is a great opportunity for us to get to know new people and actually witness from close quarters how this industry works. I would consider this as both an exposure and a learning experience for us,” said Henal Parekh, one of the students.

The musical performance by Karsh Kale and the Dharavi Rocks band enthralled the audience, ending with a standing ovation.

“With music and crowd, the experience is always good. There was a social angle in bringing in the Dharavi Rocks band. We wanted to highlight how hard these kids have worked to attain such mastery at such a young age. I am really impressed with how the crowd appreciated their performance. It is like an experiment – it can either do well or fall flat – but a much needed one to bring in diversity.”

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