For VISTA 2022, organisers in India decided to introduce a new stage to cope with the huge demand and engagement from VISTA participants.
The extra element to the competition was a quarter-final, a concept that proved successful and is likely to be a feature of future competitions too. With the help of market leader Brendon Paul Dacruz, let us tell you why…
“In India, the engagement and support for VISTA is really high,” says Brendon Paul Dacruz. “We have a lot of people who want to be involved, and we promote the competition heavily in our competence development centres and workshops.
“However, up until the semi-finals, the competition is all theoretical based and we felt there was room to add some more practical components earlier on. And that is where we got the idea of holding a quarter final.
So the answer was obvious right?
Originally, 177 teams from India registered for the VISTA World Championship in 2022. From here, the top-rated 20 teams were invited to take part in the quarter-finals held in Bangalore. Much like the main competition semi-finals, teams were asked to complete tasks in four workstations, with the top eight teams winning a place in the regional semi-final.
This isn’t just a one-off idea from India but just the latest initiative from the market. The region has a solid track record for introducing its own novel ideas to the VISTA format. Previously, in the intermittent years between global VISTAs, India holds its own national competence development competition – KITEC.
This ensures the feeling of VISTA and the competence level stays high, plus the tehcnicians get the continued recognition they deserve all year round, every year.
The Indian market has also introduced the concept of ‘Hero Awards’.
“We always say, VISTA is not about winning and losing – it’s about competence development – and the Hero Award is about acknowledging teams that perform exceptionally well for their circumstances,” explains Brendon.
“For example, one of the Hero Award winners this year was a team with less than six year’s experience between them yet they finished in the top 10. Efforts like that deserved to be acknowledge and rewarded.”
So when it came to VISTA 2022… what about the winning region team?
177. 20. 8. 1. The journey one team had…
From the 177 registered Indian teams, there could obviously only be one that graced the coastal town of Gothenubrg in Sweden. Team Iron Knight’s determination, knowledge and teamwork secured their spot at the top table with world’s best.
They competed across eight stations on the final competition day before securing a solid finish worthy of celebration at the gala dinner.
There’s no doubt that Team Iron Knight are hugely impressive. They may not have won the 2022 title, but to be number one in India when competing against 176 other teams – that is certainly a brilliant achievement.
