When a team from Shell Pakistan visited the College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering on the 17th of February, one thing was pretty much clear: the biggest hurdle the teams aiming to participate in the Shell Eco Marathon was finances.

Teams argued that in this 'time of recession', companies weren't willing to sponsor such undertakings. There were voices that 'we need some start-up capital at least', and even those that said that Shell should arrange some seed-money for the teams. All perhaps justified, but when developing a products, engineers (or for that matter anyone else) would want their product to be one which appeals to the consumers.

While in the long term the vehicles that the teams are working on must be appealing to the masses, we must realize that currently, the aim should be making these vehicles appealing to the big firms and organizations, so much so that they realize the potential of these products. It is perhaps with this in mind that Shell Pakistan is looking to organize the media launch event, for teams to bring their products to the spot light.

While a direct injection of capital to the teams might have calmed them down, what Shell Pakistan is doing is much better. They are giving the teams to market their products, while also highlighting the need for conservation (and obviously promoting their own brand as well).

They have been kind enough to let the teams some statistics from a similar event from last year. With those, when I have got across them... :-)