The inauguration of the event was held on February 14, 2009 which was presided over by Dr A Sivathanu Pillai, Director DRDO, CEO & MD BrahMos Aerospace; and Dr M Ponnavaikko, Honorable Vice Chancellor of Bharathidasan University; Prof M Sankaran, Director, BIM Trichy and the conference Chairman, Dr David Jawahar, Head, CECMAR (Centre for Contemporary Management Research), the body which organizes Athenaeum. Dr. Sivathanu Pillai in his keynote address expressed that global leadership can come in Indiaas way if we have competitive knowledge base and achieve product excellence.

The research papers in the conference were presented during the two days in separate sessions chaired by academicians like Dr MJ Xavier, Professor Great Lakes institute of management, Director of the Kotler – Srinivasan Centre; Dr Seethalakshmi, Director – Centre for Academic Excellence & Research, Anna University; Dr Punniyamoorthy, Professor and HOD, NIT Trichy; Dr Kaliyamoorthy, Professor & Director at Alagappa Institute of Management; Dr KK Ramachandran, Director of School of International Business and the Vice Principal of GRD College; Dr Godwin Prem Singh, Coordinator and facilitator for administrating Indira Gandhi National Open University at Bishop Heber College and Dr Selvam, Head of Commerce & Financial Studies Department, Bharathidasan University.

Two panel discussions were held during the event on aCorporate Social Responsibility: Rhetoric or Realitya on February 14 and aBuilding India: Vision & Missiona on February 15 with personalities from the industry and the academia expressing their views. The Panelists for the discussion on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) were Professor Venkatesh Athreya, Programme Director, Technical Resource Center on Food Security, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation; Mr DSL Prasad, Regional Level Coordinator & General Manager (Regional Services), Southern Region, Marketing Division, Indian Oil Corporation Limited; Mr KU Warrier, Vice-President, L & T a ECC Division & Mr R Meenakshi Sundaram, Senior Manager a Eye Camps and Outreach, Arvind Eye Care System. Building India was discussed by Thiru AM Kasiviswanathan,IAS (Retd.), Hon’ble Chairman, Tamilnadu Public Service Commission; Mr M Palanisamy, Chief General Manager, Reserve Bank of India & Mr N Peter Palaniswami, Managing Director, NanayaSurabi Development Financial Services (NDFS).

The valedictory function was presided over by V Ananthakrishnan, Executive Director, BHEL. He stressed on the importance of future managers with sound value systems and told the students to be rightly equipped to cope with the harsh realities of the corporate world.