Building TechKotha Episode 3: 40 Days of Chaos, Community, and One Unforgettable Day

How a simple announcement on April 19 turned into the biggest TechKotha yet.

Introduction

On 29th May 2026, as I looked across a packed RCCIIT auditorium filled with students, speakers, organizers, and community members, I felt something that is difficult to describe.

Relief.

Not because the event was successful.

Not because nearly 200 people had shown up.

But because, after 40 days of uncertainty, last-minute changes, logistical challenges, and countless conversations, TechKotha Episode 3 had actually happened.

For most attendees, TechKotha was a one-day event.

For me, it was a 40-day journey that started long before anyone walked through the auditorium doors.

This is the story behind it.

It Started With an Ambitious Goal

When we announced TechKotha Episode 3 on 19th April, we knew we wanted it to be bigger than the previous editions.

TechKotha had already grown steadily.

Episode 1 brought together around 120 attendees.

Episode 2 crossed 140 attendees.

For Episode 3, we wanted to take a significant leap forward—not just in attendance, but in quality, reach, and impact.

The goal wasn't simply to organize another technical event.

We wanted to create a platform where students could interact directly with industry professionals, learn from people actively building products and companies, and connect with like-minded individuals from colleges across the region.

The vision sounded straightforward.

The execution was anything but.

The Reality of Organizing an Event

People often see the final product.

They see the posters, the speakers, the audience, the photographs, and the stage.

What they don't see are the hundreds of decisions made behind the scenes.

The weeks leading up to TechKotha were filled with questions that never seemed to end.

Would sponsors come through?

Would the speakers be available?

Would enough students register?

What if too many students registered?

How would refreshments be managed?

Would the budget be sufficient?

Could multiple organizations coordinate smoothly?

Every problem that got solved seemed to create two new ones.

There were days when everything moved smoothly and days when it felt like everything was falling apart simultaneously.

At times, my phone became a project management tool, support desk, planning board, and crisis center all at once.

Yet somehow, things kept moving forward.

The Challenge of Growth

One thing became clear very quickly.

The interest in TechKotha was much larger than we had anticipated.

Registrations continued climbing week after week.

At first, every milestone felt exciting.

Soon, excitement was replaced by responsibility.

More registrations meant more logistics.

More attendees meant higher expectations.

A larger audience meant less room for error.

When hundreds of students trust your event enough to give up an entire day of their lives, that trust becomes a responsibility.

Instead of celebrating registration numbers, I often found myself thinking about whether we could truly deliver an experience worthy of that interest.

Building the Speaker Lineup

One of the most rewarding parts of organizing TechKotha Episode 3 was assembling the speaker lineup.

We wanted every session to answer one simple question:

"Will students walk away having learned something genuinely valuable?"

That led us to an incredible lineup:

• Biswarup Banerjee — Become a Builder

• Rishiraj Acharya — How I'd Learn ML in 2026 (If I Could Start Over)

• Sathya Lakshmi Srinivasan — From Idea to Impact: Building a Tech Startup as a Student

• Soumyaraj Bag — System Design in 30 Minutes

Each speaker brought a unique perspective.

Some shared startup lessons.

Some shared career advice.

Others broke down complex technical concepts into something students could immediately understand and apply.

Speaker coordination sounds simple on paper.

In reality, it involves scheduling conflicts, repeated follow-ups, travel arrangements, session planning, and a surprising amount of uncertainty.

The fact that experienced professionals trusted a student-led initiative enough to dedicate their time to it remains one of the things I appreciate most about this event.

The Final Week

The final week before TechKotha was easily the most stressful part of the journey.

This is where every unresolved issue suddenly becomes urgent.

Things that looked settled no longer felt settled.

Deadlines became real.

Deliveries had to arrive.

Materials had to be finalized.

Volunteers had to be coordinated.

Schedules had to be confirmed.

Even seemingly small issues became significant because there was no longer time for mistakes.

One challenge that particularly tested us was arranging refreshments.

What initially looked straightforward became surprisingly complicated and remained unresolved much longer than I would have liked.

As the event approached, sleep became optional and notifications became constant.

Yet despite all the chaos, the team kept pushing forward.

When the Weather Decided to Test Us

Every event has a moment where something goes wrong.

For TechKotha Episode 3, that moment arrived during lunch.

As if managing nearly 200 attendees wasn't enough, one of the strongest storms Kolkata had seen that month arrived right when we were distributing food.

The sky darkened.

The winds picked up.

What should have been a routine lunch distribution suddenly became a logistical challenge.

Food had to be moved quickly.

Volunteers had to adapt immediately.

People who had already spent weeks working behind the scenes found themselves carrying refreshments through strong winds and rain, trying to ensure attendees remained completely unaffected by the chaos unfolding outside.

I still remember watching volunteers run back and forth while trying to keep everything on schedule.

At that point, there wasn't time to panic.

There wasn't time to complain.

The only option was to solve the problem and keep moving.

What could have become a major disruption ended up becoming one of the strongest demonstrations of teamwork I witnessed throughout the entire event.

Attendees probably remember the talks and networking.

I'll probably remember watching volunteers fight a storm because they were determined not to let the event fall apart.

Looking back, it feels symbolic.

For forty days we had been navigating obstacles, uncertainty, and unexpected challenges.

The storm was simply the final test.

And somehow, despite everything, TechKotha kept moving forward.

Event Day

Then came May 29.

The interesting thing about event day is that all planning suddenly stops mattering.

At that point, preparation is over.

Execution begins.

Once attendees start arriving, there are no more drafts, no more revisions, and no more planning meetings.

Everything happens in real time.

And then people started showing up.

Not just from RCCIIT.

Students arrived from colleges across Kolkata, across West Bengal, and even from other states.

At one point during the event, I paused and looked around the auditorium.

The seats were occupied.

People were engaged.

Questions were being asked.

Conversations were happening.

The event we had imagined weeks earlier was finally real.

The Moment It All Felt Worth It

The most memorable moments weren't on stage.

They happened during breaks.

They happened after sessions ended.

They happened when students approached speakers with questions, exchanged contacts with people from other colleges, discussed ideas, and formed new connections.

Those moments reminded me why TechKotha exists.

The purpose was never just to host talks.

The purpose was to build community.

For a few hours, the auditorium became exactly what we had hoped it would become—a place where builders could learn from builders.

And that made every stressful day leading up to the event worthwhile.

The People Behind the Event

While I served as Lead Organizer, TechKotha Episode 3 was never a one-person effort.

Events of this scale are built by teams.

A huge thank you to our speakers:

Biswarup Banerjee, Rishiraj Acharya, Sathya Lakshmi Srinivasan, and Soumyaraj Bag for taking time out of their schedules to share their knowledge, experiences, and insights with our community.

Thank you to our co-hosting organizations, ACM Student Chapter RCCIIT and RCCTechz, for believing in the vision and helping make it a reality.

Special thanks to my fellow organizers:

• Rajarshi Mondal

• Smaranika Porel

for carrying the responsibility of planning and execution alongside me throughout the journey.

And most importantly, thank you to my entire team at GDG on Campus RCCIIT.

From registrations and logistics to promotions, photography, design, refreshments, sponsorships, speaker management, and solving countless last-minute problems, every single member played a role in making TechKotha Episode 3 possible.

Many of the most important contributions were invisible to attendees.

But without them, this event would never have happened.

What Success Actually Looked Like

By the end of the day:

• 575+ registrations had been received.

• Nearly 200 attendees participated.

• Students represented 25+ institutions.

• New friendships, connections, and opportunities were created.

• Attendees were already asking about Episode 4.

Those numbers were encouraging.

But the real measure of success wasn't attendance.

It wasn't ratings.

It wasn't growth.

It was hearing attendees say they learned something useful, met someone new, or left feeling inspired to build.

That's what mattered most.

Looking Back

Now that the event is over, the stressful moments have started turning into memories.

The endless messages.

The late-night planning.

The sponsorship calls.

The logistical headaches.

The uncertainty.

The pressure.

At the time, each challenge felt enormous.

Looking back, they have become part of the story.

TechKotha Episode 3 taught me lessons about leadership, communication, teamwork, responsibility, and resilience that no classroom ever could.

More importantly, it reinforced something I strongly believe:

Communities are not built through one big moment.

They are built through consistency.

Through showing up repeatedly.

Through improving every time.

Through continuing even when things become difficult.

What's Next?

The funny thing about organizing an event is that the finish line rarely feels like a finish line.

Within days of TechKotha Episode 3 ending, people had already started asking about Episode 4.

That's probably the biggest compliment we could receive.

TechKotha Episode 3 may be over, but the journey isn't.

Forty days of preparation resulted in a single day that I'll remember for a very long time.

And somewhere in a notebook, document, or group chat, the planning for the next chapter has already begun.

Until then, thank you to everyone who believed in TechKotha, contributed to it, attended it, and helped make it what it became.

— Rishi Paul
Lead Organizer
GDG on Campus RCCIIT