When does The Goa Project kick off?

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The Goa Project is drawing youngsters from across the country

And you thought the beaches of Goa can only inspire revelry. This month, young 20-somethings, each of whom have “crossed boundaries and done amazing things” in their respective fields, come together for a unique social project.

Caitlin Marinelli, now a resident of India with a background in social work, put together The Goa Project with Vijay Anand, Preetham V V, Udhay Shankar and Rashmi Dhanwani, to spark collaboration between different disciplines. “The idea was born out a conversation we were having about how frustrating it was that our professional lives were so siloed, with so little opportunities to go outside our comfort zones, interact and exchange ideas with people from other fields, resulting in cross pollination of ideas,” says Caitlin. Spread across two days, the project will feature six ‘tracks’ - entrepreneurship, film, society, performing arts and music, fringe, and visual arts – each with its own set of debates, talks, workshops and more. While the mornings are occupied with talks from the likes of Vijay Nair of Only Much Louder, discussion with Mahesh Murthy on how to travel the world on a shoestring budget and an Indian passport and how farming can help you with a secondary income, in the evenings, the town’s party spirit kicks in with performances and bon fires. “This is where lasting friendships and memories are made. We don’t want people to just throw their visiting cards at each other and leave,” says Caitlin.
Venkatesh Hariharan who will coming down from Mumbai is registered for the Society track and is currently working on a pioneering project that he feels can revolutionise education by using high-quality video content for mainstream education. Similarly, Shalidtya Bora from Chennai, who will be heading a discussion in the Film track, is the programming head for PVR Director’s Rare, which releases independent films that other distributors won’t touch. “It seemed like an interesting opportunity to network, meet more filmmakers and discover new, exciting content. And besides, it’s in Goa,” he beams.