SEM 2010 Media Launch

The SEM 2010 Media Launch was, quite frankly, a disappointment!

There were no big multinationals as Shell Pakistan promised. There were no potential sponsors. There was no media either!

The only media personnel that were there either didn't cover the event well, or didn't cover it all. The top two dailies of the country got it horribly wrong. Dawn's report today (18th) is full of inaccuracies that include the 'fact' that Petroleum Minister Naveed Qamar visited the stalls of the team. He left immediately after his terse speech without visiting the stalls. The News didn't make such errors, but that was more because of the lack of coverage than anything else.

So, now to the event itself...

15 teams from NUST, GIKI, UET Lahore, UET Taxilla and Air University set up their stalls. In fact, the students were there from around ten am. The event itself was to begin no earlier than 3.30 pm.

In fact, Kaar took center stage right from the beginning as we were the team whose work showed at the stall. The showcase item was the wooden replica of the body, which was painted in bright colors, but which, more importantly, would be used for the final construction with fiberglass composites.

Among the 15 stalls on display were the following:

Teams Aqua and Panache from GIKI, Teams PakWheelers, Bekaar (ours obviously), Zaafir, Rumy and Fursaan from EME College NUST, Teams Wolverine, Innovators, Synergy and Team UET from UET Lahore, Team Bolt from UET Taxilla and Team Hexa-K from Air University.

Later on in the show, both the teams from GIKI stole the limelight as they brought in their vehicles, which are in an advanced stage of development.

And yeah, just as a formality, among those present were the Dutch Ambassador to Pakistan and some high ranking guy from Malaysia (ok, so I have forgotten their names). Students from NUST PNEC and GIKI, who participated in SEM 2009 in Germany last year also gave lots of tips to the participants.

Lots of people said lots of things...