Setting a Guinness World Record — a true story
You must have heard stories of team work where a team has shared vision, and worked together with a common goal and purpose. I am sure you would have also heard many team work stories in sports, as well as corporate success. I am a absolute believer of team work and am known to be a delegator. I delegate work combined with proper authority, independence, and accountability. But what we achieved as a team in year 2018 was easily one of the two best team work successes we ever achieved. Let me try to verbalise efforts and the sentiments that went into this mammoth record setting event.
World’s Largest Human Image of an Abacus in History!
It all started in the month of February 2018 when the core members of my company got together and decided to attempt the Guinness World Record. Now sentiments were at its peak and ideas were being thrown as to what should be the attempt. Either we could break an existing record or set a new one. Obviously the advantages of breaking an existing record were obvious as there was a precedent, a confidence that it has been done by somebody and we just had to be better. Setting a new record was a challenge and needed lot of planning, strategising, and an abundance of creativity as it would have never been attempted earlier and we were taking the risk. Obviously, entrepreneur as I was, we decided to take up the tougher challenge and set a new world record — in the words of Guinness World Record it was an inaugural attempt.
63 feet x 18 feet (20m x 6m) giant abacus was to be created with the help of nearly 2,500 students. A metallic frame was to be created to form the wire-mesh where students would be standing. Each Abacus bead was to be filled by 7 children. There were 65 large beads and 13 rods. 66 meters of frame was to be filled in with students. Besides there was colour coding of these children’s dressing that day as the Abacus had yellow, red, and black colours in it.
In total there were close to 2,500 children gathered for this event. Since this was a national event wherein every child was to be given a Guinness certificate, it was tough to shortlist only 2,500 students from the nearly 200,000 students studying at various training outlets across the country. And every child details were collected, certificates ordered from GWR head office, UK. The biggest challenge was to bring all these students to a common city (Ahmedabad), assemble them a day prior to the attempt day and do the rehearsal. Another challenge was that since the ground was a soccer stadium, no food and water was allowed to be taken and served on the playground. So once the students and volunteers were separated from their parents, they would be without anything to eat or drink. VVIPs, press, media, organisers, volunteers, team members everyone were on the ground to witness history being created. Without the help of volunteers, the students were to go to their respective positions on the Abacus and stand their without moving till the entire Abacus image was filled in and the drone captures the full image, etc.
It was a sunny morning during monsoons which made the day even more humid and hot. All of us were praying that this being an outdoor event, there should not be any rains. It appears that the collective prayers were heard and the day turned out to be extremely sunny, hot, and humid. Due to some unavoidable circumstances beyond our control, the entire event was delayed by approximately 60–90 minutes which resulted in the children standing for extended hours in the scorching heat…and without water! It was tough on some children and parents and all were tensed. The best part was we were able to quickly complete the abacus structure, take some drone pics before parents rushed inside the soccer grounds and took their children. Well, to be honest, it was chaotic and a tensed atmosphere but thanks to the patient children, understanding parents, security guards, organising team members, and God, everything finally ended well and we were able to take the required picture and videos of the image.
The crux of this episode was the manner the team worked. Right from the planning stage on paper to creating the metallic frame to gathering these students to calling the press and media, the VIPs, and the parents, to the execution on grounds, it was a thoroughly planned and successfully executed event. Children were asked to wear different colour coded caps, and T-Shirts so that the colours of the abacus were visible.
The main challenges:
Assembling the students prior to the formation. Nearly 2,500 students being asked to wait as per their colour codes.
The video had to capture everyone entering the formation, forming the abacus, as well as leaving the formation once the pics and videos are taken. These students had to have number tags to keep a count of the students forming the abacus image.
Children standing inside the marked abacus beads had to be stable and not move around till the entire abacus was formed. Now this, naturally, was a tough ask specially when the children were so young.
There were about 150 volunteers, and about 300 VIPs, besides the management and organisers. Imagine the situation on the ground where everybody wanted to chip in their wisdom and give some contribution 😁
All in all, it was an event which was a super success. It was LIVE on social media platforms, witnessed by so many countries. Team effort was at the peak and the enthusiasm of partners, parents, and children was a marvel to watch. Every participating child and associate were issued a Guinness World Record certificate. It was an unprecedented event — an inaugural attempt, and I cannot end this story without thanking the Guinness World Record coordinator, a friend of mine, Mr Vivek Nair, who was calm and patient and guided us in the whole process. A huge round of applause and thank you to all the parents, children, franchisees, and my team without whom this successful attempt at the GWR would not have been possible.
