As Tide Talks prepares for its sixth event Friday at 6:30 p.m., its founders are working on an expansion overseas.
Tide Talks India, founded by cousins Koushik Kasanagottu, a senior at The University of Alabama, and Rahul Sanskrut at Vasavi Engineering Complex in Hyderabad, India, will follow a similar format to its American counterpart.
“The idea briefly began this summer when my cousin visited me in the U.S.,” Kasanagottu said. “He and his friends recently held an event at their college called ACUMEN, which is an engineering research competition. After the successful event, they got positive response from the community and wanted to expand the event into a movement. They wanted to give more students a stage to discuss their passions and ideas, and Tide Talks India was born.”
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In January, the cousins approached the Tide Talks team to discuss logistics.
“Communication was a big issue,” Kasanagottu said. “India and U.S. run on a different time schedule. When it is morning for us, it is night for them. [That’s an] 11.5-hour time difference. If they had any questions or needed help, we were sleeping, so they had to wait a long time before we could answer them.”
David Phelps, founder of Tide Talks, shared marketing strategies and foundational documents with the India team, and though Tide Talks India remains its own entity, the two plan to occasionally brainstorm ideas.
“Our main role will be a source of encouragement and experience for Tide Talks India,” Phelps said. “We do not seek to control or manage their team, but rather offer our journey when needed. They are incredibly talented and deserve the freedom to create their own events that will be relevant within their specific community. We expect to learn from them as well and be inspired by their progress.”
(See also “Tide Talks sparks conversation“)
Tide Talks India will not focus strictly on undergraduates, and its first event will be held later this month.
In Tuscaloosa, Tide Talks VI will soon be underway. Since the Ferguson Center is closed for construction, Friday’s event will be held in Russell Auditorium. “We’re doing some things differently this Friday,” Kevin Pabst, director of design and future president of the organization, said. “We always strive to innovate and not replicate, so we try and do something new with each event. We’re trying out a new flow and layout, given the new venue, and hopefully this will be the most visually exciting Tide Talks yet.”
The last Tide Talks of the semester will be held in April. Because most of the executive team will be graduating seniors, a whole new team has been selected for the next semester’s events. Most of them have been shadowing the team over the past few weeks and attending meetings, dress rehearsals and speaker sessions.
“Our primary goal is to achieve the maximum reach we possibly can, to make sure we’re connecting all parts of campus,” Pabst said. “We want to improve the overall flow of the event, working to create an entertaining, energetic and thought-provoking, inspiring night. Basically, our mission is to feed the mind, body and soul.”
(See also “Tide Talks I – Thaddeus Fitzpatrick“)
