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Leading Web Development for Anantya Techfest

Pushkar Kirange
2025-12-10

Leading Web Development for Anantya Techfest

Leading the web development team for Anantya Techfest 2025 & 2026 was one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my college life. Managing a team, making architectural decisions, and ensuring the website could handle thousands of concurrent users taught me lessons that go far beyond code.

The Challenge

A techfest website needs to:

  • Handle sudden traffic spikes during event announcements
  • Provide seamless registration experiences
  • Display real-time event updates
  • Maintain excellent SEO for event visibility
  • Be responsive across all devices

Technology Choice: Next.js

We chose Next.js for several reasons:

1. Performance

  • Server-Side Rendering (SSR) for faster initial page loads
  • Image optimization out of the box
  • Automatic code splitting

2. SEO Benefits

  • Pre-rendered pages for better search engine indexing
  • Dynamic meta tags for social sharing
  • Fast page loads improving SEO rankings

3. Developer Experience

  • TypeScript support
  • Hot Module Replacement
  • Easy deployment on Vercel

Architecture Decisions

Static Generation Where Possible

We used Static Site Generation (SSG) for:

  • Event information pages
  • About sections
  • Sponsor pages

Server-Side Rendering for Dynamic Content

SSR was used for:

  • Live event schedules
  • Registration status
  • User dashboards

Optimization Strategies

  1. Image Optimization: Lazy loading and Next.js Image component
  2. Code Splitting: Dynamic imports for heavy components
  3. Caching: Aggressive caching for static assets
  4. CDN: Leveraged Vercel's edge network

Leading the Team

As team lead, I learned to:

  • Delegate tasks effectively
  • Conduct code reviews
  • Make quick technical decisions
  • Balance perfectionism with deadlines
  • Communicate with non-technical stakeholders

The Results

2025 Techfest

  • Peak Traffic: 5,000+ concurrent users
  • Uptime: 99.9%
  • Registration Processing: Seamless experience
  • Page Load Time: Under 2 seconds

2026 Techfest

Building on our learnings, we improved:

  • Performance by 30%
  • Mobile experience
  • Accessibility features
  • Real-time updates using WebSockets

Key Learnings

  1. Scalability Planning: Always prepare for 3x expected traffic
  2. Testing: Load testing is crucial before launch
  3. Monitoring: Real-time error tracking saved us multiple times
  4. Team Collaboration: Clear communication prevents most issues
  5. Iterative Improvement: Each year we learned and improved

Challenges Overcome

  • Last-minute feature requests: Learned to say no or propose alternatives
  • Browser compatibility: Thorough cross-browser testing
  • Mobile responsiveness: Mobile-first approach from day one
  • Time constraints: Prioritizing features based on impact

Conclusion

Leading this project taught me that building software isn't just about writing code—it's about understanding user needs, making informed decisions, and leading a team towards a common goal. The experience prepared me well for professional software development.

As Head Web Developer at OWASP PCCoE, I continue to work on impactful projects. Connect with me on LinkedIn