GISB Students organise Mumbai’s first-Generation Games as part of their Live Project 

Generation Games - Mumbai 2019 was one of the live projects for the students of Global Institute of Sports Business, Mumbai. GISB is a sports business institute offering a postgraduate sports management course that focuses on an industry-driven approach. GISB is India’s first Internationally certified and industry designed sports management program. They believe in project-based learning to help the students utilize their valuable experience from the class in real-time projects.

The genesis of Generation Games was in 2012 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was organized by Robbert Nesslar who is currently the president of the International Generation Games Association.

The event is a non-profit initiative which is open for all to host in their respective city. It stands on the key principle of getting multiple generations involved, irrespective of caste, gender, age, and abilities. The concept and philosophy of the Games has attracted partners like the Olympic Museum, International Hockey Federation (FIH), Ernst & Young, and many more to be in collaboration with previous editions of Generation Games that have taken place all over the world.

The students of GISB believed in the Generation Games ideology and took up the challenge to host it for the first time ever in Mumbai. For this, the team was divided into core verticals of event management like sponsorship, operations, marketing, and finance.

An important task was to first identify the venue to host the event, keeping in mind that it should be accessible and convenient to the public. The activities had to be designed to make it inclusive for all generations so that everyone from kids to grandparents can participate in the same activities. The sponsors for the event had to be shortlisted and the budget had to be finalized to understand the expenditures to host an event of this nature. Last but not least, the date to conduct the event had to be locked.

The Generation Games format encourages Multi-Generation participation in all games

The event was decided to take place on 7th April on World Health Day to promote health and fitness to the people of Mumbai. A month of hard work and dedication, while coping with the regular schedule of classes at the same time, resulted in a deal being sealed with Phoenix Marketcity, Kurla for Dublin Square as the venue for the 2019 edition.

The intention was to convert mall walk-ins to become our participants and in return give them a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Further, the core team managed to bring Decathlon on board as their equipment partner.

Apollo Pharmacy who was instrumental on the event day by providing a free health checkup to everyone. Punjab Grill helped us in providing their restaurant space for conducting quiz which was one of the activities of Generation Games. The quiz was hosted by dynamic quizzing company Ace of Pubs. The penultimate activity was Zumba which was conducted by fitness coach Ashish Lulla.

The Generation Games Committee also managed to get Hockey India on board to conduct a Hockey Masterclass workshop which was hosted by the Walmiki brothers, Yuvraj and Devinder Walmiki. The latter being an Olympian added a much-needed sporting buzz to the event.

The event concluded with six hours of engaging and vibrant fun which inspired people to be fit and active.

The success of the event was evident by the fact that volunteers and participants mentioned in their feedback that they are eagerly awaiting the next edition.