Whoever knows me knows how much I love planning events. Planning events has been my passion from the childhood days 🙂
When I was younger (read 6th grade) we had summer break and my parents were surprised how quickly i got all the kids who lived near by and all my friends together and prepared a full cultural show which had a mix of skits, dances and even Ads 😉 I will post the photos of that event as well here some time later.
Later on I did not get enough opportunities to celebrate personal events other than our 10th Anniversary and Anya’s first Birthday.
To see the photos click here
I have been an active participant in all the school functions, dances and celebrations. I love to decorate and plan things out much in advance.
When I went to engineering college, we arranged all sorts of cultural events with dances and choreography and fashion show and both me and my husband Vipul (then boyfriend) were always planning events to make our college days fun!
To see the photos click here
When I went to Google me and some of my friends planned and organized Google’s first Indian Independence day celebration and it was a huge success. From then each year Google celebrates Indian events like Diwali , Holi etc . I feel fortunate to be a part of Google’s first one.
At LinkedIn I organized multiple Indian events and we had so much fun while doing that.One of the Diwali events I organized I remember my parents were visiting us in the US and I got standing ovation from LinkedIn’s CEO Jeff Weiner and everyone else in the hall and that was a really proud moment for my parents. I saw tears of joy in their eyes. It made all the efforts worth it.
When I moved over to ten-x (my current company) last year was the first time we had Diwali celebration and everyone loved it! We all dressed up in indian attire , made rangoli, had mithai and indian buffet and just has a good time.
I feel our indian culture is so awesome and full of fun and colors so why not share the happiness with people. Why not give them a taste of India 🙂 There are so many indians in Bay area (silicon valley) and we all miss our homes back in india especially during festival time. This brings them back together, remind them of their roots and be proud of the indian culture. Feels good to be able to do that.
One thing I realized having done all this in companies is that you make great friends from different departments and these are the friends or people you are in touch with for the rest of your life. I left LinkedIn but I never left them 🙂 All these efforts, getting everyone together and set up some thing, arranging for meeting rooms where we can practice, arranging food , drinks and making sure people take it seriously needs lots of dedication and efforts and yes some people felt thats all that i did during those days but only the people who were involved first hand knew how much hard work there is to manage both your full time job, project deadlines and do this on the side. I remember during our practice sessions we used to come as early at 7 am or leave late. I never regretted it and nothing can beat the contention and feeling of satisfaction after a successful event.
I am sure many of the event planners out there who love their job will resonate with me 🙂
babylovebitten 