Thousands of students and parents trooped into Netaji Indoor Stadium over three days in quest of answers to their career-related queries under one roof.

Eduquest, an education extravaganza sponsored by the Camellia Group and organised by Careergraph (The Telegraph), Prostuti (Anandabazar Patrika) and Saraswati Online.com with IFIM as associate sponsor, drew in the crowds from June 6 to 8.

“Eduquest provided information on every subject from BTech to MBA to law as well as niche subjects like aviation, which is not available at other education fairs. The fair also provided students with the opportunity to interact with stalwarts like actor Soumitra Chatterjee, designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee and industrialist Harsh Neotia,” said an organiser, explaining why Eduquest was a hit.

With over 140 participating institutes — national and international — the fair recorded a 20,000-plus footfall over the three days.

The crowd started trickling in on Saturday morning and gained momentum as the day wore on. By evening, almost every stall was packed with students and parents eager to get their queries answered.

Eduquest recorded the largest footfall on Sunday with the attendance crossing the 10,000-mark.

Most of the students visiting the fair made a beeline for colleges offering BTech courses, followed by management studies. Many students also dropped in with queries about pursuing doctoral programmes in management.

“Most of the queries at our stall were for our BTech and dental course. That could be because there are over 10,000 students who have qualified in the West Bengal Joint Entrance Examination, who need to be placed in colleges,” said Preetam Mukhopadhyay, a senior executive (marketing) with JIS Group.

The one-stop-destination for educational needs drew people from as far as Sodepur, even on a sweltering Saturday afternoon.

“My son got a low rank in the Joint Entrance, I came to check in which colleges he would get admission. This is so much better than having to go to each college individually,” said Sikha Biswas, from Sodepur.

The sessions with the celebrities added the star touch. On Saturday, would-be filmmakers and fans thronged the seminar room to listen to Soumitra Chatterjee talk about his life as an actor.

On Sunday, aspiring designers and their eager parents learnt from celebrity designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee what it takes to rise from rags to riches.

On the final day, industrialist Harsh Neotia was swamped with questions like “what’s the formula for success”, “how can an entrepreneur make it big”, and “what’s the importance of education in making it big”.

Stalls by the Kolkata Institute of Management (KIM), Kingfisher, KUONI, Bangalore Management Academy, Amity, Mumbai Business School, Punjab Technical University, Institute of Engineering and Management and the Camellia Group were the most crowded over the three days.

“After Plus 2, students have a large number of options and so a larger number of queries. With a fair mix of seminars and representations, this fair had the definite proposition to help them decide their future course of action,” said Partha Sarathi Ganguli, the CEO of Saraswati Online.com, that deals with overseas education.