Sneham 2023 TO 2025 Activities

The Sneham IT Association is a dynamic organization with various planned and ongoing activities. It has established a strong presence in the IT community through events, sports meet, trade shows, health initiatives, and social service activities.

The Association organized its Annual Sports Meet 2023 on June 18, 2023, at Buhari’s Blue Lagoon. This event gathered 150 participants, showcasing the association’s dedication to promoting physical activity and teamwork within its community. The sports meet not only provided a platform for friendly competition but also strengthened bonds among its members through various athletic events.

Following this, the association hosted IT Connect 2023 at the Chennai Trade Centre on September 9th and 10th, 2023. This major event featured 75 stalls and attracted 1,500 dealers. More than 7,500 walk-in visitors attended, emphasizing the significant influence of the Sneham IT Association in the IT sector.

For the Diwali 2023 celebrations, the association demonstrated its commitment to member engagement by distributing gifts to 275 members. This tradition of gifting during the festive season reflects Sneham’s focus on fostering unity and spreading joy among its members.

In addition to social and business activities, the association also prioritized health and wellness with a Health Check-Up at Thyrocare. Held on December 9th to 17th, 2023, this initiative saw 140 members and their spouse undergo health screenings, reflecting the association’s dedication to the well-being of its members.

Looking forward to 2024, the association distributed diaries to its members, ensuring they stay organized and connected with association activities throughout the year.Another noteworthy contribution to community service was the Beach Clean-Up event on June 23, 2024. With 15 members participating, the event shows Sneham IT Association’s commitment to environmental responsibility.

Lastly, the association along with Sneham&CONFEDhonoured two deceased members, Senthilkumar (Dhanalaxmi Computers) and BalaRaghu Nathan (Lifestyle Computers), paying respects to their contributions and celebrating their memory.In a show of support, they also provided ₹1 lakh from in cash to their families as a gesture of solidarity during this difficult time.

One of the key highlights of the association’s calendar was the Zone Meeting held on August 17, 2024, at the SVS Club in Chennai. Representatives from various regions, including Thiruvannamalai, Thirupattur, and Krishnagiri, participated in the meeting, to discuss and strategize future initiatives and activities.

Snehamhas successfully provided insurance coverage to 242 nominated members, ensuring financial protection and support

Looking ahead, the association has set ambitious plans for 2025, including the organization of a Sports Day in January 2025. Additionally, the association plans to expand its presence with the purchase of property in Chennai, signalling growth and stability for the organization.

In terms of member engagement, the association continues its tradition of celebrating key festivals with its members. For the upcoming Diwali season, the association has made arrangements to distribute sweets to 285 members at the Annual General Meeting (AGM), reinforcing the spirit of unity and festivity within the group.

The association also actively participated in broader IT community events. For instance,at the Coimbatore CONFED Summit, where 46 members attended and Sneham received the Gold Performer Award, recognizing the association’s excellence and active participation.

The association has achieved notable success in sporting competitions. At the CONFED Badminton Tournament 2023–2024, the association emerged as winners in two segments, showcasing not just its members’ professional capabilities but also their sporting talents. Additionally, in the CONFED Badminton Tournament 2024–2025, the association continued its winning streak, securing runner in one segment.

Through these activities, the Sneham IT Association has solidified its reputation as a dynamic and engaged organization, committed to supporting its members, promoting professional development, and contributing to the larger IT community. With its strategic growth plans, active participation in events, and recognition through awards, Sneham continues to play a key role in fostering collaboration and unity among IT professionals.

The Road Less Travelled

No Internet ! No Mobile Phones ! Even getting a landline connection was considered to be a privilege back then.

Yet a group of friends doing computer business ( IT as a term was coined much later) thought of forming an association over a breakfast meeting at HOTEL PALM GROVE.  The ideas flew in from all directions.  The same set of friends who were competing fiercely in the market place to garner orders were discussing about larger good.  It looked funny.  It looked impossible. 

But the “larger good” somehow got entrenched within the body and soul of those small group of friends and decided to give it a shape.  It is a no-brainer that the association name had to do something with friendship and friendship alone.  Not much of deliberations happened.  A simple term in TAMIL was triggered and thus SNEHAM was born.

SNEHAM - an association for computer dealers across the city to mainly discuss challenges faced by its members – be it personal or business and try and use collective-wisdom to find appropriate and workable solutions.

An association was formed to create and nurture the market place to be ethical and may-the-best win the order.  The market place was to be maintained where every player gets his piece of cake and eat it too.  Whoever wins – the others are happy for the win together. 

Knowledge was the king by then.  Knowledge was not available at the click of the button. One had to seek and acquire knowledge. Painstaking effort indeed.  Computer dealers were given a great deal of respect for the knowledge they acquired by reading manuals and catalogues and sharing the same with end customers in their own language. However, the association was formed to share the knowledge amongst its members to expand the market base.  The objective of Larger-good was always the foremost in every gathering that used to happen in those days.

The dealers who chose to become members of SNEHAM during those days only had one objective in their mind :  What new can I learn when I attend the monthly or quarterly meeting.

Networking did take place.  Printer dealers educating about various types of printers available. Computer dealers educating other members about new configurations and its benefits. One can go on and on.

In Nutshell SNEHAM those days did not have the easy-connect that todays SNEHAM enjoys.  Information travels at the speed of light today. But the spirit with which SNEHAM was born is still maintained and some of the founder members of SNEHAM will have some funny anecdotes to share with the current team for them to get to have the feel of what SNEHAM was in its initial stages.

Some anecdotes could be funny.  Some of them could be path-breaking.  Some of them could be the benefit that the SNEHAM delivered to any of its members.  Come, lets talk to some of the founder members and see what do they remember about the initial stages of SNEHAM and capture them here to see how the road-less-travelled was travelled in those early days.

 

ARVIND R – COMPACT UPS :  Arvind was recollecting and shared that he usually attended the meetings for the best vegetarian tiffin items served @ HOTEL PALM GROVE.  He never used to miss the meetings only for enjoying the tiffin.  During member mobilisation drive, Arvind was asked as to what could be the returns on the 1000 rupees subscription paid by one of the members.  Arvind replied mentioning that the member should say what he can contribute the association and the dealer got annoyed and refused becoming a member. Subsequently when the particular dealer was searching for a specific product he was connected to the right dealer and he appreciated the importance of becoming a member and he voluntarily sent across the subscription payment. 

KRISHNA KUMAR: SLSP: / MOOLCHAND OF MAHAVEER COMPUTERS/ RATNAKUMAR OF CCS / KUMAR OF UMS SYSTEMS / SIVAKUMAR OF USAM COMPUTERS also will be sharing their anecdotes going forward and those updates shall take place here.  

There were also other senior members and the list is pretty long and shall be updated during the course of time in this place.

The seed which was sowed several decades back has now grown into a big tree with more than 350 members and various welfare activities are being carried out on a regular basis for the benefit of the members.

Some of the welfare activities that took place between 2021 and till date includes – SPORTS DAY EVENT, PULSE OXIMETER AT FACTORY PRICE, FREE COVID VACCINATION , THYROCARE TESTING FOR ALL THE MEMBERS, GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE to resolve issues and help members and so on and on.

Now, on the 21^st of May 2022 , SNEHAM IT CONNECT EXPO is being held at RANI MEYAMMAI HALL from 8 AM to 8 PM with all the leading vendors exhibiting their products.

 

Now SNEHAM has become a professional association working towards the welfare of its members with an active office bearers’ group of around 30 odd IT professionals.

Watch this space to follow the growth story of SNEHAM…….