Over 13 league competitions, seven hands sprint workshops, three spotlight talks and three cultural shows will be part of a national-level techno-cultural festival Pleiades-26 being hosted by KLE Technological University (KLETU) in Hubballi from Friday to Sunday.

The festival will also coincide with the 141st birth anniversary of the institution’s visionary founder B.V. Bhoomaraddi.

The three-day extravaganza aims to bring together students, innovators, artists and industry leaders from across India on a single dynamic platform and is expected to witness a footfall of over 8,000 participants and visitors. The prize pool exceeds ₹5 lakh, a release from KLETU said.

Leadership coach Army Veteran and storytelling specialist Col. Rajiv Bhargav will lead the session titled “Storytelling: Crafting Ideas that Inspire, Influence and Impact” giving the start to the festival on Friday.

Prominent speakers during the festival include CEO and Co-Founder of boAt Aman Gupta (Friday) and industrialist and founder of Bollant Industries Srikanth Bolla (Saturday).

Popular stand-up comedian Vivek Samatani will perform on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the spotlight talks will be held at Dr. Prabhakar Kore Sports Arena at 11 a.m.

On Saturday, two parallel sessions, one by Sukanta Bhatt on building structured problem-solving capabilities at KLE Tech Auditorium and the other by Sunil Saumya on exploring the transformative potential of artificial intelligence in everyday decision-making and professional life at Deshpande Foundation auditorium, will be held simultaneously.

And, on Sunday, there will be workshops by TEDX and keynote speaker and LinkedIn sales beacon Sinchu R. Raju and founder of MundeBanni Vasant Shetty.

On all the three days, cultural shows will be held at 5 p.m. at the Gymkhana Grounds, featuring Symphony (an orchestra-meets-electronica experience) on Friday, a live performance by celebrated Bollywood singer Monali Thakur on Saturday and Spectrum on the grand closing night.

The festival’s Pavilion zone will offer walk-in access to curated experiential spaces, including a Startup Street, Fashion Gallery and Merchandise, Premium Vehicle Display, Financial Literacy Zone, InfraTelecom exhibits, Higher Studies counselling and a dedicated Mental Health and Mindfulness zone, the release said.