June 27, 2008

Here's How My Speaking Schedule Looks



Conversation with students of MSU, Chennai, July 4th, 2008

The Michigan State University annually organizes a Summer Study Abroad Program and this time, select students are visiting South India. Their focus is on 'Culture, Politics and Globalization' and I've been invited to share my views. Technically, this isn't a "speech" as in podium et al. It's a more friendly coffee room discussion. It's informal and I like it this way. Usually turns out much more interactive and productive. The program is organized by the wonderful Swarna Rajagopal, who taught at MSU and currently heads the Chaitanya Consultancy.





New Media Course , Chennai, July 4th till Nov 4th, 2008

Right after I finish the session with MSU students, I have to tackle the T.Nagar traffic to head to the SRM University's city campus to take my first class of the New Media course. My students are the Journalism students who are pursuing their Post Graduate Diploma. This course is spread over 4 months and I teach every Friday

It's the second time I've been invited as a visiting faculty. The first time was to teach SriLankan Tamil Journalists who did their journalism course here. Thankfully, the new course is at their city campus in T.Nagar and unlike the last time, I don't have to travel 80 kms each day to teach at their main campus in Kattangalathur.




India's Premiere Entrepreneurship Event, Delhi, July 18 & 19, 2008

This is one event I'm absolutely looking forward to. With over 500 entrepreneurs, CEOs, VCs, Technologists in one place, it's an event one wouldn't want to miss. Along with Amit Somani, the Head of Search at Google India and a guy who oozes passion for product innovation, I'm organizing the Innovation BrainJam. This deserves a separate post but in a nutshell, its an exciting & pulsating shorter version of an unconference.

I'm also speaking at the event. I'm sharing the stage with Mahesh Murthy, a successful entrepreneur and investor. He is CEO of PinStorm and founder of SeedFund. We are talking on 'The Art of Marketing The Startup'.




The iCommons Summit, Sapporo, Japan. July 29- Aug 1, 2008

Imagine collecting 300 of the most passionate folks in Digital culture and free knowledge sharing from 64 countries and you can imagine the kind of energy and spirit buzzing around. The event brings together activists, change agents and new world social entrepreneurs to chart and reflect on a positive path for a more fair, more just, more creative world in the Information Age.

I'm wearing multiple hats here. As a speaker, I'm participating in the Video Lab and the Open Business sessions. As a Podcaster, I'll interview some of the best minds at the event. As a journalist, I'll cover the event for the Business Standard and The New Indian Express. More importantly, I hope to garner insights and ideas that I can bring back to India and share it with everyone.




The Asia Brand Summit, Mumbai, Sept, 25th & 26th, 2008

It's a 'by invitation' event that aims to get together CEOs and Brand & Marketing heads. About 250 from India and another 250 from various countries. It'll be a congregation of people behind some of the world's most successful and sought out brands. The theme of Asia Brand Congress is "Communicating A Brand That Connects, Engages And Inspires Audiences" and I'm absolutely convinced that the online space plays a substantial role. I've been invited to sit on the 'Advisory Panel' and hope to actively contribute to the event. More importantly connect up with leading minds and soak up on inspiration.




Web 2.0 & Beyond Conference, Mumbai, October 16 & 17, 2008

I'm speaking on 'Corporate Blogging and How can Businesses Benefit from it', a topic that I'll comfortably rattle out even if you wake me up in the middle of my sleep. It's also a topic that I'm passionate about and I hope to impress the folks on the power of conversational marketing and online community building.

If you are coming to any of these events, do touch base with me. I'm available at 98415 97744 adn Kiruba at Kiruba.com. It'll be good catching up.

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January 17, 2008

Proto.in Starts Tomorrow

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July 30, 2007

Curry 2.0 : Where Startups Pitch to an Indian Chef. Yes, a Chef!!

It's an awesome idea, I can tell you that.

Bring along a bunch of 30 startups to an Indian restaurant for dinner and give them a few minutes each to explain their business idea to an Indian Chef.

Why a Chef?

Because you'll then make the explanation really simple. You won't be using any technical jargon.

Read more about it here.

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July 25, 2007

Announcing 'OpenCoffee Club' in Chennai



This line says it all, "Place for people who love startups to hang out and meet".

The OpenCoffee Club was started to encourage entrepreneurs, developers and investors to organize real-world informal meet-ups to chat, network and grow.

Sidhartha who is one of the guys behind Proto.in, has taken the lead in organizing an OpenCoffee meeting in Chennai. Sid is also a bootstrapper having quit his cushy job in Singapore, came back to Chennai to start his own firm.

Here are the details of the meet.

When? : 3pm, Sunday, Aug 5th

Where? Subway, New no. 147, G.N.Chetty Road, T.Nagar. Landmark: Opp Murugan Idli Shop.

It's a good place to meet up with fellow entrepreneurs. So, if you are a bootstrapper or thinking of taking that dive, drop in. Got queries? Call Sid at 99400 36487 or mail him at siddharta[@]gmail.com.

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July 20, 2007

Podcast About Proto.in, Which Starts Tomorrow



OK, the D-day is here. After four months of planning and organizing, the event unfolds tomorrow at IIT Madras. It's grown bigger since its first edition in Jan and organizing it hasn't been easy.

I'm continued to be impressed with the amazing spirit of my team mates at The Knowledge Foundation. There are no monetary benefits (no one makes a single rupee) as its a non-profit organization. In spite of it, folks have put in their heart into this event knowing that they are making a difference to the entrepreneurial ecosystem in India.

For those who don't know about Proto.in, this podcast would be a great listen.

Tomorrow's event will see participation from 23 22 startup companies carefully chosen from a list of 120 nominations. Each startup will get exactly 6 minutes of stage time to demonstrate their product to a select group of venture capitalists, angel investors, technology influencers and media professionals.

The event has attracted 22 venture capitalist firms, including Canaan Partners, Reliance Technology, Greylock Partners, Silicon Valley Bank, Clearstone Ventures and others representing over $1.5 billion in fund size for India investments.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), and TeNeT of IIT Madras are supporting the event.

In this episode, I have a conversation with Vijay Anand about Proto's objectives and its future plans.

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July 16, 2007

The Mint Covers Proto.in



"The second edition of Proto.in, a networking event for venture capitalists and technology start-ups, gets underway in Chennai on 21 July 2007. The event debuted in January this year and saw 27 startups showcase their ideas and product prototypes. The response from venture capitalists was muted though - just 7 or 8 VCs showed up at the event. This year there are 25 VCs.

Co-organizer Vijay Anand, who has been involved with Proto since its inception, spoke to Namitha Jagadeesh of Mint about the objective of the event, and what one can expect at the two-day show."

An excellent read for those wanting to get a quick bird's eye view of Proto.in.

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July 11, 2007

Why PROTO's 2nd Edition Will Be An Important Event



The 2nd edition of Proto.in will open in exactly 8 days. It's the event where 20 of the best startups from India (& Malaysia), selected from over 100 contenders, will get exactly 6 minutes of stage time to present to an impressive line up of Venture Capitalists, Angel Investors, Media Professionals, CEOs & Technology Influencers.

Proto.in has grown impressively in its 2nd edition. I'm not saying this just because I'm part of the organizing team. Take a look for yourself.

* The line up of VCs & Angels is one of the best I've seen. You must take a look at the list. It's almost the Who's who. If you are an entrepreneur or technologist looking for connections, you should be brain-dead to miss this opportunity.

* The event saw over 100 nominations from startups.... and this within 6 months of Proto.in's first edition earlier this year. Many said its too early and there may not be that many startups. We've proved otherwise. An indication of a strong entrepreneurial growth in India. Take a look at the breakup of the nominated companies by categories.



* The event has been sold out. We can accommodate about 200 members as audience and all the seats have been sold out at least a month before the event. We had to expand by opening up the adjacent halls with live video feed, a la TED. Guess what? We sold out those extra 100 seats as well.

* We hired a professional PR agency to help us with media and its paid off. Proto.in has been covered by Red Herring, Economic Times, Business Standard, The Hindu, The Financial Express, Business Line, MoneyControl.com, IT Magazine, EFY and BusinessWorld magazine.

* We held road shows in Bangalore and Delhi. Mumbai & Pune roadshows had to be called off due to the rains. Road shows take lots of effort, time and money but judging by the turn out of entrepreneurs and media, it was worth it.

* The event is supported by leading industry bodies : TiE, NASSCOM, TeNeT, IAMAI. They have been helpful in reaching out to influential members and that's paid very well. Connections matter and how!

* There's definitive signs Proto.in will be a Pan-Asian event in the coming years. This time, the Malaysian government had shown interest and there are over 15 Malaysian companies that were nominated for Proto. This will only get bigger.

* Proto.in's progress has been very well documented at the Proto Blog by the lead man, Vijay Anand. A good way to know the turn of events leading to the big day.

* And oh, the Proto.in tshirts were put up on Myntra (a nominated company) on an experimental basis and the number of Tshirts sold surprised us. We bought a few ourselves. I put them on, not withstanding my shoulder pain, so you can take a look.



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June 23, 2007

A Nice Article in The Hindu Explaining Proto.in

The Hindu has a fantastic write-up about Proto.in, a startup showcase event that a bunch of us at The Knowledge Foundation are organizing. Prince Frederick has done a good job in explaining what Proto is all about.

Yesterday, while at the Web 2.0 Event in Mumbai, I had a chance to meet up with many entrepreneurs and a few VCs and there were quite a few who wanted to know what the event is about. This is exactly the sort of article that I would want to forward to them. If you wanted to know about Proto, the article recommended reading.

Quoting a para from the article.

Start-ups from across the Asia-Pacific region have been invited to participate. It is based on the concept called 'elevator pitch'. "At Proto.in, you are in the same situation as when you run into Bill Gates on the elevator. Gates is squeezed for time and it is difficult to catch his attention once he gets out of the elevator. So, you can pitch your business idea at Gates only as long as both of you travel together on the elevator. At the most, you get a minute and a half with Gates. At Proto.in, you are definitely better off," says Anand.

Here's the photo that accompanied the article.


From left to right: (Me, Vicky, Vijay Anand, Ravi Shankar, Syed Razik, Aswin Anand & Jay)

Earlier, Red Herring, a prestigious biz magazine in the US & worldwide, had a wonderful coverage as well.

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April 03, 2007

Planning Proto.in Second Edition



Proto.in is clearly India's biggest entrepreneurship showcase event. The planning for the second edition has already begun in earnest and the team met up today to brainstorm on how to raise the bar even higher. It was one of most productive meeting with a lot of ideas flowing in. It was also one of the most debated meetings with a lot of decisions contested and mulled over. The whole idea is to make the event a lot better than the first edition. The event is scheduled for July 21 & 22 at IIT Madras.

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