VIVUM'21 - Against All Odds

Between 7-14 August, TSIB’s student-led VIVUM'21 is taking place. With over 800 participants and 20 events this year, it is the largest school fest in India. The Grade 12 students who organise the event strive to ensure all participants and viewers are captivated, providing them with something fun and entertaining during this pandemic. At its heart, the annual VIVUM is a fundraising event, where receiving organisations are chosen by the students. This year students highlight the charitable purpose to raise as much money as possible to benefit exposed and vulnerable communities because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We reached out to the VIVUM’21 team to get to know more about the event.

The snake is a symbol of striking, and this year we wanted to show that we would strike back stronger, uniting against all odds – The VIVUM’21 team

The theme for this year’s VIVUM is ‘perseverance’. “As a student community, we have gone through tremendous challenges in the past year and have experienced phenomenal growth”, says VIVUM team. The student group in charge of selecting causes and charities, recognise the immense efforts of healthcare workers in India, “which is why 100% of the proceeds from VIVUM'21 will be going to healthcare and will be used to help front line workers to battle the COVID-19 situation more effectively”.

The mascot of this year’s VIVUM is a snake, inspired by the universal healthcare symbol. It was chosen by the organising team to showcases the theme this year clearly and explicitly. “Through the snake, we pay homage to all healthcare workers across the world who have worked tirelessly during this pandemic to help us all”, says the Grade 12 organisers. “Additionally, we used the idea of snakes moulting and shedding their skin to show how we shed our troubles of last year and emerged stronger”.

Other than aiming to successfully host this year’s event, and to fundraise a significant amount for their selected good cause, the VIVUM’21 team also wants to create awareness among their viewers. Moreover, the team also would like to inspire the future generations of VIVUM organisers. “We hope that the current Grade 11 can host VIVUM in person, as that is the pinnacle of this great event, and hope to build a strong foundation and platform for our juniors, so they can continue this great legacy”, says the VIVUM’21 team.

The VIVUM events will be live-streamed on YouTube this year, hosted by members of the VIVUM organising team. Streaming a large number of events online is a significant challenge, as there are needs to manage audience polls and hosts feeds, as well as the event videos simultaneously. “In order to encounter this challenge, we have designed a process to minimise human interaction and automate the stream as much as possible”, explains the VIVUM’21 team, who has acquired professional streaming hardware that will be operated by a core team on the TISB campus. This will enable the VIVUM streams to be of professional quality and ensure that viewers get the best possible experience.

This year’s VIVUM events are a wide range of activities. The activities can be categorised into 11 sections, with over 25 individual events:

1. Music – solo and band categories
2. Poetry/Rap Battle – slam poetry and rap battle
3. Hiss-terical (Standup Comedy)
4. Sports – football, basketball, badminton, tennis, table tennis, cricket, volleyball, hockey, miscellaneous
5. E-sports – Minecraft: Build Battle and Capture the Island, Chess, Scrabble and FIFA
6. Dance – Dance Off, ABCD/Step Up
7. Short video contest (Reels) – #vivum21dancechallenge
8. Game of Trojans (Gameshow)
9. Drama – Serpentine Soliloquies, William Snakespeare, Improv Competition
10. Snake Pit (Entrepreneurship)
11. Fashion – Quiver Masquerade, Project Runway, Front Row, Artiste

Each category has exciting events lined up to create an unforgettable experience for all participants and viewers. “We also have some incredibly inspiring and experienced judges who will definitely make our events a resounding success”, says the organising team, who has scheduled all the activities on the VIVUM’21 website, where you will also find more information.

For the purpose of strengthening and aiding healthcare workers, and providing assistance and relief to vulnerable communities, this year’s team offers a range of VIVUM’21 hoodies, t-shirts and pants. The merchandise team has also designed exclusive limited edition products. Moreover, there are raffle tickets available for 50 INR with prizes, such as AirPods, JBL Speakers, and Alexa EchoDot. The orders can be placed via the email that has been shared to TISB email addresses.