One of the big projects RECCAA came up with in the early 1990s was to conduct a Tech fair in Kochi. An industrial fair was unheard of in Kerala then. That did not deter the team.

Until then, the main beneficiaries of RECCAA projects were its members. It was time to plan a project that would put RECCAA in the national scene. The RECCAA TECHNICAL EXHIBITION – All India Science and Technology Exhibition was named RECCAATEX. RECCAATEX 92 was conceived with two clear objectives. Firstly, it would bring science and technology to the commoner. Secondly, it would provide a forum for industries and technical organisations to interact with the consumers and receive feedback.

The team speer headed by Chandramohan and Mohan Prasad worked for one and half years to make RECCAATEX a reality. The fair was organised in 1992 at Marine Drive grounds. Sathish Babu, Vijayaraj, Francis K Paul, John K Paul, Babu T Jose, Joseph Philip. Avarachan, Mathew M Mathew, Alex, Laligro were all involved. Chilprakash jokes about his involvement being upgraded from providing hot tea and snacks to ‘hot’ drinks and snacks to the core team by the time RECCAATEX was happening!

But it was no mean feat. Being a first, challenges were unlimited. The industrial fair was conducted under the guidance of Coimbatore District Small Industries Association (CODISSIA). Chandramohan remembers he and Chilprakash visiting the CODISSIA exhibition and discussing with them in person. They were originally not convinced that an alumni association was going to do this and laughed about this. However, the team was strong in their decision. The team had the will “to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield!”.

Mohan Prasad and team visited a couple of exhibitions in Coimbatore, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai etc. to study how to organise exhibitions. Then the CODISSIA representatives visited Kochi while modular stalls were being constructed in the Marine Drive grounds (total area of 13000 sq. m and covered area of 3250 sq. m.), and got convinced that the team could get this done. It was the era before mobile phones. The team established an office, a lodge room taken on rent for Rs 750 per month in Chittoor Hotel, on the eastern side of SRV High School Ernakulam and got a phone connection there to facilitate the exhibition. Mohan Prasad jokes about two clerks manning this office – himself and Chandramohan!

RECCAATEX 92 organisation work was started with the launching function inaugurated by Sri. PK Kunhalikutty, Minister for Industries, Kerala, in BTH in 1991. A large multimedia campaign was launched to ensure participation of major industries from all over India. The media campaign was kept up right through 1991. Vijayaraj and Joseph Zacharia (Zach) were also closely involved. The team prepared a brochure and write-ups to brief and generate interest in potential participants, as few outside Kerala knew about the potential of Kochi. One article was By Prof Jussay, one by Mohan Prasad. There were many other articles, by eminent persons. Mohan Prasad was the one dealing with permissions etc.

Chilprakash was in charge of newspaper advertisements. Full page ads were given in Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi and Indian Express at zero cost to RECCAA, by getting support from other clients.

The RECCAATEX was from 9th to 19th January, for 10 days, covering on week and weekends on both ends. Exhibition was inaugurated by late E Ahamed, MP. Felicitation was by Sri. VJ Kurien, District Collector, Ernakulam. Chief Guest for the valedictory meeting was Sri PP Thankachan, Speaker of Kerala Assembly, who distributed mementos to the Organising Committee members and best stalls.

Visitors included High Court Judges, Senior Officials from Government and Industries, Politicians like Margaret Alva, Leela Damodara Menon, and college students in large numbers. Sri. Lokanath Behera IPS, who was Commissioner of Police of Kochi and an IIT graduate visited the exhibition twice, second time with his wife, who developed a curiosity after hearing the stories about RECCAA.

In the evening many RECCAA members used to gather at the exhibition ground. It was like a RECCAA get together. Chandramohan remembers Sathish Babu playing the role of a disciplinarian, ensuring that the stalls were all run appropriately.

There was no commitment in the beginning from participating teams to be present for all 10 days. There was one large stall of the Kuttukaran group, there was also stall for Chilton. These were the only assured stalls for the duration of the exhibition. Some of the other key participants were BPL, Crompton Greaves, Cochin Shipyard, Eureka Forbes, Godrej and Boyce, HMT, Kerala Electricals, Philips, Small Industries Development Bank, State Bank of Travancore, Telco, Telecom Dept., TVS Whirlpool and Yeneskay Industries.

The team used to meet daily in the Kuttukaran stall, both Francis and John used to be there. It was a very close-knit group of friends making this work. During the exhibition many of them kept work aside and was present full time at the venue.

RECCAATEX was the biggest tech fair that happened in Kerala. There was pan India level participation and a large variety of stalls with representation from all across industries. Many of the stalls were taken by industries from Coimbatore.

But Kerala was not yet ready for this. Social environment in Kerala was not conductive to industries, and public was not familiar with the concept of tech fair hence people did not turn up. Advertisements in papers did not help. Thinking on the feet, diluting the concept of technical exhibition, a part of the ground was used for circus shows and stall of for exhibition of household and ladies’ items, there was even a stall for a political party. Then people started turning up! There were about 100 stalls, in all.

There was issue of people who took up stalls were not paying. There was a road in the exhibition layout. Devadas remembers doing rounds in his bike to ensure that people who take up stalls do not leave before making payment. Computers and other equipment of some had to be retained in order to make them pay.

Anyway, the fair made reasonable profit, of about six lakhs. The industrial fair was considered respectable enough for Tata Motors (Telco) to launch their first Indian made car in Kerala in 1992. After RECCAATEX, RECCAA gained good name and fame. People used to have stickers on cars with RECCAA. The profit generated from the industrial fair was used to purchase an office space for the chapter opposite the Ernakulam Town (North) Railway station, Mather square.

In reality, considering the huge effort by a lot of people and all personal money spent on expenses, the fair was a not much of a profit.
Sri PP Thankachan, then Speaker of Kerala Assembly was so impressed by RECCAATEX that he asked why RECCAA could not start an Engineering College. Back in 1992 there were only 5 Engineering Collages in Kerala. He offered all support, provided RECCAA was willing to take this up. K P Paul, father of Francis K Paul and John K Paul, offered 15 acres of land, free of cost, in Trissur, adjacent to the railway station. Making an engineering college a reality appeared humungous at the time, considering the bandwidth availability, hence RECCAA team had to let it pass. In hindsight, given the track record of RECCAA/NITCAA, this could have been realistically achievable and would have made a huge difference.

Soon after the completion of the exhibition, others wanted to bank on RECCAA’s experience in conducting exhibition. A trade union wanted RECCAA’s guidance in conducting in their exhibition. Against the original decision to keep a distance from political organisations, the spokesperson of the team ended up saying Yes to this, and the RECCAA team had to support it. The team named it CITEX. Chandramohan, Charles(late), Jayaprakash were the representatives meant to support this, it was mostly handled by Chandramohan who supported them in executing a successful exhibition.

Learning from the mistakes, or so was the perception, RECCAATEX 2 was planned. Organisation work started in 1994 with the launching by Joseph Thomas IPS, Chairman GCDA in Rotary Balabhavan. Joseph Thomas who later agreed to surrender a small piece of GCDA land for developing a bell mouth for the public road leading to RECCAA Valley at a reasonable price. Chandramohan had to leave to Mumbai for this PhD by then. Mohan Prasad was leading from the front. Prof. Jussay asked Chilprakash to be involved at this stage. The team functioned from the office in Mather Square for RECCAATEX 95, with staff.

RECCAATEX 95 was conducted from Jan 19 to 29, at Marine Drive, on the western side of High Court (the location now has flats and government institutions). Chief Minister, Karunakaran agreed to inaugurate the exhibition, but due to his last-minute change in schedule, exhibition was inaugurated by Dr. Unnikrishna Pillai, Principal REC. Valedictory address was delivered by Justice KT Thomas, former Supreme Court Judge.

As in the case of first Exhibition, there was wide participation and there were new participants like FACT, Police Dept, Medical college Calicut, KSEB etc. There was a police band performance during the exhibition. The seed capital for initial expenses was raised through Bank Loans, on personal security of the Office Bearers.

Mohan Prasad’s mother expired on the second day of RECCAATEX 95, and he was in the sad and unfortunate position to hold a committee meeting of the fair at his home.

Despite the heartache and hard work of many, people of Kerala were not interested… It was break even or slight loss. It was a disappointing realisation that such fairs will not work in Kerala. RECCAA stopped conducting tech fairs with this lesson, however unfair that might be. 
While the Tech fair was rejected by public in Kerala, CODISSIA has been conducting industrial fairs in Coimbatore, and they even had 10 acres of land and permanent stalls, but Coimbatore is an industrial belt. This was an opportunity that Kochi missed big time.
It is still a bright fact that these were the only prominent industrial exhibitions to be conducted in Kerala state until today, other than the small industrial fairs conducted at district level by the department of industries.