Unexpected turnout at GU-hosted event!

Unexpected turnout at GU-hosted event!
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, OCT 1
Call it conferences, conventions and corporate meetings, these events in Goa have merely become fun and frolic trips for visiting delegates.
Ample proof of this was seen at the inaugural function of the 63rd Annual Conference of the Indian Commerce Association (ICA) hosted by the Goa University at the Cardium, National Institute of Oceanography, in Dona Paula, on Friday.
The Cardium, which has a capacity to take in roughly 800 people, was choc-a-bloc with many of the delegates turning up with their family members for a serious occasion. Two journalists who went to cover the event saw delegates with their wives and children occupying seats meant for them. Some of the university officials present at the event too could not explain the unexpected crowd turnout.
A very senior GU official said he saw many children occupying seats meant for delegates, who came from far. We had an initial registration of 1,200, but the crowd turnout today could have been around 1,700 which surprised us, he stated.
Delegates from Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and other States are attending the three-day event. “Since Karnataka has declared a two-day holiday – September 30 and October 1 – on account of the Ayodhya verdict some of the visiting delegates may have thought it fit to have a short weekend trip with their families to the sunny State,” the official stated.
He maintained, “Having a weekend holiday here is fine, but what is the need to bring children and wives to an event of which they wouldn’t understand a word.” The conference is expected to bring under one roof delegates comprising senior commerce and management faculty from 270 universities in India and 40 foreign universities, as well as professionals from the industrial and the service sectors in India.
The senior official said they will know only tomorrow (October 2) whether the delegates who came with their wives, children and other family members today would attend the serious technical sessions to be held at the university, NIO and the International Centre, Dona Paula.