Jain Digest 2005 07

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 42

JAINA CONVENTION 2005 HIGHLIGHTS
In addition to print media, the marketing team work
Hotels - For the first time, JAINA Convention took the ing with technology team used the email to disseminate the con- responsibility to make hotel reservations for the attendees by vention information to the community. A convention web site including it in the convention registration. Although this was designed to provide the information on convention. Media turned out to be a very tedious job then anticipated, it was well is very important to get our message out which requires to devel- worth it as we were able to accommodate all attendees in the op a close relationship with them. Sunil Vora and Nitin Talsania convention hotels", says Ritesh Shah, vice chair of Hospitality managed the media relationship on each coast respectively. committee. Having controlled the hotel rooms, the convention
was able to meet the required room night guarantees to the Registration, Finance, & Fund Raising - For this con- hotels. vention, online registration system was developed that included
Convention Facilities & Technology Infrastructure - registration for the convention as well as tours, hotels, and youth The Santa Clara Convention center and Westin hotel were activities. Over 95 % of the attendees registered online. "what attached which made easy for people to move around thereby we did not realize, is the volume of inquiries and changes, we making the traffic smoother. Everybody mingled at the hotel would receive", says, Anil Deora, vice-chair of Finance commit- facility even after all programs were over. tee, adding, "but we were able to add more team members to handle the volume". The convention badges and registration
Of all the functions, this is a function that everybody packages were prepared ahead of the time and sorted by house takes for granted. If everything goes smoothly, then it is expectaddress as recommended by the Cincinnati convention team ed but if it does not, then everyone will notice. Ketan which helped out in making the registration process a breeze for Itchbaporia and Harshad Shah (Chair and Co-chair) worked the attendees and volunteers. They were in and out in no time, with all teams to have the facilities ready. Ketan commented, so they could spend time socializing and make room for others. "Convention center staff understood dynamic situation of our
programs and activities and accommodated them". Such Fund raising was a major task to keep the registration changes were caused by the last minute rush we had in single day cost low and to raise funds for JAINA's activities and future registration and the youth activity (e.g. JNF registration doubled JAINA conventions. Many smaller Sanghs participated in major in last two weeks with half of it onsite). The traffic flow was way to show their support of JAINA and to foster the message smooth, probably due to all those directional and schedule signs, of Unity. Kundi Kapadia and her team lead this fundraising designed and developed by Bharat Kamdar. effort including two Co-Sanghpatis for this convention.
A convention of this size needed significant technology FOOD Service - "You want to please a man, then infrastructure which included convention website, online regisplease his stomach first", this was principle used in food plan- tration system, Audio Video system, computers for onsite and ning. They will forgive you for any of the shortcomings, if you networking. "Our biggest challenge was to get the most out of feed them well. After a bidding process, a food contract was our technology contracts (which are generally very expensive) to negotiated with Jay Bharat Foods, a well known West Coast get the best at the least price", says, Devang Shah, chair of caterer to meet our budget without compromising on the qual- Technology committee. The key members of the tech team were ity or the quantity. Vegans also had delicious varieties. Attendees Dhanendra Shah for A/V and Rajal Shah for web technology. were fed varieties of Punjabi, Chinese, Rajasthani and traditional Gujarati dishes per Jain traditions. Pramod Patel and Arvind
As the famous advertisement says, "Create memory of Patel (chair and co-chair of food committee) leveraged their events, as life is all about memories". For that reason, the profesexperience with other large conventions to plan this convention. sional photographers and videographers were retained to take JAINA is thankful to the BAPS volunteers for an excellent serv- photos and videos of most of the convention. These photos and ice they provided for all four days. The Food committee team, videos (17 DVDs) are now available for your collection. These lead by Arvind Patel and Jashvant Shah, was always in the din- DVDs can be obtained online at the convention web site by ing hall, preparing for the next meal.
clicking (http://secure.jaina.org/dvdorder.jsp).
Hospitality Services - To meet our initial goal of lasting
Thanks - JAINA has continuously strived to make each experience for the attendees, the hospitality committee included JAINA Convention better than ever. JAINA thanks everyone for hotel reservations, tours, transportation, VIP Hosting, their contribution, participation and support of the convention. Emergency Medical, child care services, and information booth This was the third JAINA Convention, which was done in colsubcommittees. The key members of this team included Ashok laboration with the local Sangh. At the outset, JCNC had promSethi, Datta Shah, Trupti Mehta, Narendra Mehta, Surinderised to raise the bar for JAINA convention and they have sucJain, Sharad Desai and, Sunita Desai. The bus service was also ceeded in doing so. available to visit the Jain Bhawan in Milpitas. Many took advan- The writers gratefully acknowledges co-operation of tage of this to do Darshan and participated in Aarti. "We must Shashi Desai who contributed most of the photographs in congratulate you for the excellent service to all sadhu-shadhvis this report. This report also received help from many comfor all four days by your VIP Hosting team", commented mittee chair persons and friends too numerous to enumerPramodaben Chitrabhanu.
ate here. Jain Eucation Intemational
www.jainelibrary.org 40. JAIN DIGEST SUMMER 2005