How a side event for a handful of students outgrew its own room at T-Hub, Hyderabad
What began as an idea on paper brought nearly 200 students together at AndPurpose FutureMaker Labs! 2026.
Kamna and I began discussing it soon after the Mumbai edition of the Forums. What followed were months of planning, constant improvisation, new collaborations, plenty of rejections, all-nighters, moments of self-doubt and, in the final days, a growing sense of conviction.
Through it all, we shared one question:
How can we help students discover viable, well-paying careers in impact?
What we first imagined as a side event for 30 to 40 students became a full-fledged programme at T-Hub. We hoped for 100, then 120. On the day, nearly 200 turned up!
Some students and volunteers arrived as early as 8:40 am. We even had Montessori schoolchildren in the audience! 🙂
Through workshops, panels, keynotes, AMA huddles and the QS ImpACT SDG Pitch Challenge, they listened, questioned and participated with such vigour.
With students moving in and out, people attending the main Forum became curious and started dropping by to see what was happening. At one point, I found myself doing active crowd control! We had run out of space, so some of our curious visitors had to follow the action from the lobby.
Another delightful moment was watching our speakers and panellists melt when they saw the little ones in the audience. They quickly improvised, adapted their speeches and let their playful personalities take over. It was so much fun to watch! 😁
The SDG pitches also left me awestruck. The detail and nuance with which the students presented their solutions proved that young people building for impact deserve bigger stages, stronger networks and more opportunities.
Our ambition remains just as big. We want AndPurpose FutureMaker Labs! to grow into a larger international platform that makes impact-led careers as visible and viable as other established career paths.
In some of the pictures, you can see our eyes gleaming with pride as months of work and a shared vision materialised in front of us. 🤩
A huge thank you to everyone who brought this vision to life: volunteers, participants, partners, sponsors, and well wishers! 🙏
A great deal is brewing across ecoHQ and AndPurpose. More to come.
