Road to Cambrian Diwali 2015: Shubharambh
Last Friday, a few of us got together to formally kick off the preparation for CIC Diwali 2015. In the coming months, the activity will pick up pace culminating in the largest event of the year on Nov 7th at the Seven Trees Community Center from 2 pm to 6 pm. This blog and our website launched last Diwali and we have been using it to communicate as often as possible. This year, we will have frequent behind the scenes looks at how such a large event comes together, purely by volunteer efforts. Stay tuned to this blog for frequent updates on the road to Cambrian Diwali 2015.
Cambrian Diwali 2014
2014 was a big year for our community since the number of families exploded and the size of our Diwali event literally doubled. We had to scale rapidly and learned a bunch of things in the process. Participants from last year were also kind enough to share their feedback and we want to make sure we are addressing as many concerns from last year as possible, while retaining the best parts. For those not familiar with how Cambrian Diwali works and to everyone else who is curious, here is a brief timeline of how things will unfold.
Feb-Mar 2015: Visit multiple possible venues and finalize venue. This year, we have been fortunate to book the main hall at the Seven Trees Community Center for our Diwali celebration. This was possible due to the tireless efforts of Latha, Sonal and Krithika.
May 2015: Planning kicks off. We will look at how we want to do things different from last year. Some broad ideas and themes will emerge in terms of what needs to change. For example, this years event is scheduled in the afternoon. We will not have dinner as part of our event. This will help us address a lot of feedback from last year. We also started looking at other broad issues as total event time, parking, childcare, and more.
We will identify the core teams needed to drive the various components of the event and then solicit volunteers and coordinators for as many activities as possible. One of the key goals for this year is to have as many new people participate in event organization as possible.
June 2015: Once the coordinators are identified, we will put some structure around the performances and then solicit sign ups for choreographers, volunteers and participants. Parents please note- event participation is very popular in the community and slots will fill up rapidly. We will communicate in advance to get folks prepared.
July/Aug 2015: Summer time. Nothing major will happen unless choreographers can pull their crew together. Sponsorships will have to be locked in.
Sept 2015: We will start planning the flow of the event with slots, timing and such. Event magazine (Cambrian Khabar effort will start) We will have meetings periodically with coordinators. Coordinators will choose the cadence of their meetings with their teams.
We will also open the event ticketing. The CIC Diwali event tends to get sold out within a day or two. We will give ample advance notice before we open up ticketing. But be aware that tickets will sell out fast.
Oct 2015: Rubber meets the road. Everything comes together. Much more on this later.
We will add details as we move along.
If you are interested in helping out in any way possible - let one of us know. We will formally open things up soon but you can always let us know you are interested.
Exciting times ahead!