A classic case of event mismanagement

KOZHIKODE: Both Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Chief Minister Oommen Chandy failed to turn up for the closing ceremony of the Gender Fest, which was also supposed to be the stone-laying ceremony of the Gender Park. Eventually, Sheila Dikshit had to lay the stone via video conferencing. Bundles of brochures of the festival were dumped at various newspaper offices during the last days of the festival. Women representatives who came to participate in a programme on the opening day of the fest, protested at the venue. The reason, though the organisers had arranged their transportation to the venue,after the programme, they were told to return on their own. An art workshop organised as part of the fest faced criticism from the participants themselves due to poor organising. A newspaper report published by Express had reported that not even 50 per cent of the dignitaries announced in the brochures had turned up for the event. The event also faced criticism from many quarters for having actresses to inaugurate most of the programme and having one as the face of the fest.