All About Forum 2021 – The Online Edition

What started in 2016 as a company event, with all 300 Extentians under one roof, became a tradition that each member of the Extentia family eagerly awaits – The Extentia Forum! Typically, hosted in February or March every year, the Forum is all about a revealing look at the past year and our vision and plan for the current as well as next year. It includes individual speeches, panel discussions, and several videos that are played throughout the evening.

Now, what made Forum so special this year, you ask? The level of enthusiasm among each Extentian including the new Extentians who joined us remotely in the past year and the overall feel-good vibe that the Zoom call oozed! For each one of us, it was an experience like never before.

Forum Photoshoot

Starting with a virtual photoshoot where we all dressed in black or white (again, following the tradition of wearing our black or white Extentia t-shirts for the event), Extentians crowded the Zoom arena, beaming with excitement and happy vibes. It was one of the most well-attended company photoshoots that captured more than 500 smiling faces, frame by frame!

Our Hosts for the Evening

We, at Extentia, strongly believe in cultivating a culture of growth and innovation, and what better than finding fresh hosts from the many young Extentians full of confidence with the ability to take the stage? We had Asher Greatorex, a member of our HR team, and Snehal Kalmegh, one of our many talented developers, host the evening for us, and what a show these two put up!

Engaging Speeches Through the Evening

Individual talks by Extentians who have completed a specified period with us – the milestone speeches are always one of the most appreciated segments of the evening. This year, we had speeches from those who have joined us virtually in the past year, sharing their experiences with us. Both the new joiners and the milestone speakers shared experiences and anecdotes from their journeys at Extentia – an experience that exemplified the spirit of Extentia being a family.

Panel Discussions

The first panel, ‘Rendezvous with new Extentians’ revolved around anecdotes from the group who joined Extentia in the year of remote working – ranging from their personal and professional stories, their unique skills and interests, as well as their expectations in a post-pandemic future. The second panel called ‘The stickiness factor’ was made up of senior members of Extentia and they discussed sticky situations, encouraging sticky Extentians, and creating sticky customers among other related topics.

The Fun Factor!

What’s an evening without some fun? While our hosts kept the audience hooked with an Extentia trivia quiz in between the segments, Suhas Bhosale and Abdullah Shaikh -- Extentia’s in-house ‘shayars’, known for their humor and wit, took us all on a laughter ride with a special act of prose and poetry, tailored around Extentia’s development and design work.

Speeches by the Extentia Leaders

Once again, Chetan Shetty, our COO who is also an avid storyteller mesmerized us with his encouraging opening note, and Naazneen Boocha, our Chief Delivery Officer gave us all reasons to look forward to each new day at work with her captivating talk filled with gratitude and motivation. A special segment by Bhaskar Menon, our Director – Customer Success familiarized all new and old Extentians with our customers and key projects – giving us all an opportunity to look at our business a little more closely.

Like every year, we concluded the evening with the most energetic speeches of all, one by Umeed Kothavala, our CEO – the key takeaway of which was, a thought-provoking activity that he made us all do. He asked us to list down three people we are grateful for and three people who are grateful for us (this idea could only come from Umeed!).

With this year’s Forum, we are energized for the rest of 2021 and continuing to deliver confidence to our partners and customers across the globe in 2022. Here’s to already looking forward to Forum 2022!

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