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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April 21, 2008

Meeting Ray Ozzie and a Dream Team of Tech CEOs

Tomorrow, the Diya hall at Hotel Leela Palace, Bangalore will have the highest concentration of Intelligence and wealth per square inch. Thankfully, the Law of Averages in the form of my presence, will ensure that it's brought down by half!

A select panel of 10 CEOs have been invited by NASSCOM for an exclusive round table with Ray Ozzie, Microsoft's Chief Software Architect. Or better known as the man who took Bill Gates' place when he retired.

The invitees are:

1. Sharad Sharma, CEO Yahoo! R&D who is also the Session Chair & Moderator.

2. Ramalinga Raju, Founder & Chairman, Satyam Computers

3. Biren Ghosh, CEO Kahani World Inc.

4. Ashish Gupta, CoFounder and Managing Partner, Helion VC

5. Rajiv Mody, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Sasken Communications

6. Anand Deshpande, Founder Chairman and Managing Director, Persistent Technologies

7. Kiruba Shankar, Blogger, Columnist, CEO, Business Blogging, Founder, F5ive Tech.

8. Mohan C M, Chief Scientist, IBM India

9. Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman and Managing Director, Microsoft India

10. Ram Narayanan, Vice President, Yahoo! R & D

The discussion is going to be on the topic, 'Is the Rise of SaaS an Opportunity for India?' To me, the coincidence couldn't have been any higher. Exactly the day before I got the invite (which was two weeks ago), I had scheduled 'SaaS' as the subject for my column in Business Standard for next week. I'll just advance it now. I shouldn't have any problem getting the best quotes!

Being a blogger, I'm the natural choice for being the guy who documents the meeting discussion. With such brilliant minds around, I'm going to be one busy 'note taker'.

The round-table with Ray brings up my memories of a similar meeting with Kevin Turner, the COO of Microsoft. It took place almost exactly one year ago.

One of the big reason why I'm eagerly looking forward to the meeting is because I'll get to meet 8 of the 10 people for the first time. The only people who I've met before are Sharad and Ravi Venkatesan. It's always interesting connecing up with new people who have accomplished a lot in their life. (which has been the motivating factor for me to start Cerebrate.)

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April 04, 2008

Speaking at FOSSmeet at NIT Calicut

The time for my lecture at the FOSSmeet at NIT Calicut is strange. It starts after dinner at 9:30 and goes on till 11:00 in the night. And guess what, this is the time that has the highest turnout of audience. The students out here are one of the most spirited I've seen.

I was here last year and the turnout surprised me.

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December 16, 2007

Speaking at Infovision and Web Innovation Summit

On Dec 17th, I'll be in Mumbai speaking at Infovision: The Knowledge Summit. It's probably the most prestigious event focusing on Knowledge Management featuring such stalwarts as F.C.Kohli, father of Indian Software Industry, Prabhakar Ragahavan, Head of Yahoo! R&D, Dr.Pandu Nayak of Google.



I'm on the panel discussing 'Web 2.0 & Mashups' and my fellow panelists include Arun Ramanujapuram (Director of Advanced Technology Group, Yahoo! Bangalore), Ashok Krish (TCS Innovation Labs), Rohit Agarwal (Founder & CEO, TechTribe Networks) and Jayanta Chatterjee (Professor, IME Department, IIT Kanpur). Coincidentally, Rohit of Techtribe and I were in the same panel at the Knowledge Summit in Delhi last month and we are speaking at the Web Innovation summit on Dec 18th.

I wish the organizers of this event had taken a little more care while putting my profile up on their website. Not only do I have a new title, I'm also working in a new company!!



The very next day, I head out to Bangalore to speak at the Web Innovation Summit. It's quite a major event focusing on latest web technologies and close to a 1000 members are expected to attend. The event is put together by TFCI (Trade Fairs Conferences International) headed by Bal Tarkad, its CEO.

I've put together events and know a thing or two about event management. I've been involved in the backstage of the preparations and should say that Bal is the most creative and aggresive guy I've seen to push the event to greater heights. Lots to learn from him.

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December 13, 2007

Can Managers Truly be Entrepreneurial?

That will be the crux of the discussion during the CEO Conclave that I will be moderating tomorrow at Great Lakes Institutes's annual big show. The topic for the conclave is "Entrepreneurial Managers ? Making Managers Entrepreneurial".

The students at Great Lakes have convinced an impressive line up of CEOs for the event.

N.Srinivasan, CEO, India Cements
A.Mahendran, CEO, Godrej Sara Lee
N.K.Ranganathan, CEO, Grundfos Pumps
Abhay Kumar, CEO, Shasun Chemicals
G.R.K.Reddy, CEO, Marg Constructions

If you notice, none of them are from the IT industry and that's a welcome change. The last few CEO conclaves that I have been moderating have been too IT and specifically Internet centric and I could do with a change. It'll be interesting to see how traditional companies deal with the aspect of encouraging managers to be entrepreneurial. To me, it sounds like an oxymoron. I'll make sure to ask some tough sticky questions.



Here's what their invitation card to the event looks like. I checked with the organizers and I'm told that anyone interested enough to attend the event can come. The venue is Image auditorium, MRC Nagar, R A Puram. The CEO conclave starts at 1:30 PM.

However, you may not want to miss the morning sessions. Once again, an impressive lineup.

Thomas Anderson, Associate Dean from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago
Y.V.Reddy, Governor, Reserve Bank of India
Shailesh Rao, Managing Director, Google India
Mahesh Bhupati, Tennis champion
N.R.Narayana Murthy, Infosys

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November 20, 2007

Moderating the Internet Panel of CxOs at IIM Kozhikode

A few days ago, I was invited by Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode to moderate a panel discussion called 'Brainstorm' at their annual technology summit, AIMS 2007. When the invitation came in, I nearly turned it down. It clashed directly with BarCampBangalore, an event that's cemented on my calendar.

Then I took one look at the list of speakers and that half titled my decision. The other decision that fully turned me in favor was the fact that I could still catch Day 2 of the BarCamp.

It's looked like a decent compromise until a ticketing goof up put end to my BarCamp plans. But that's for another post.



From left to right, Yours truly, Lil Mohan (MD, Intel WiMax), Hitesh Oberoi (COO, Naukri.com & Info Edge) and Murugavel Janakiraman (CEO, BharathMatrimony.com).

I had known Muruga very well. In fact, he was on the panel at SearchCamp too. I had heard of Hitesh and had very high respect for him for spearheading Info Edge's spectacular IPO success. Lil Mohan was a last minute replacement for another panelist but he turned out to be the best amongst the lot.


Everyone listening intently to Muruga talking about his experience in growing BharathMatrimony.com.


The panel discussion was originally supposed to take place at 2:30 PM but my flight got delayed and hence they postponed it to 9:30 in the night. We had a near houseful even that late in the night. That's the beauty of campus life. Most students crash at around 2:00 in the morning and the night life had just begun.

Quiz: Trace me in the snap above!


Once I had the panel warmed up with my questions, I turned it over to the audience to quiz the panelists. I moved off the stage and started to mingle along with the students, something that I always do as a moderator. A good sign of an active panel discussion is when there are still lots of raised hands for questions even when its well past the end time. Personally, I felt it was a pretty decent show.

I was quite impressed with the Abakus team who pulled off AIMS2007 wonderfully. I wasn't there long enough to catch the other programs, but from what I could see, it was a thoroughly professional show put in by the team. Kudos, especially to Rahul Gaitonde.

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November 06, 2007

Staring at a Hectic Week

Take a look at my 'packed like Sardines' schedule next week.

Nov 14 & 15: Speaking at The Knowledge Management Summit, Delhi
Nov 16: Speaking at NASSCOM's Emerging Companies Forum, Delhi
Nov 17: Moderating a panel at IIM,Kozhikode
Nov 18: Speaking at Barcamp,Bangalore
Nov 19 & 20: Covering the NASSCOM Product Conclave, Bangalore
Nov 21: Teaching at Madras Advertising Club, Chennai

And amidst these, I have lined up half a dozen business meeting and another half dozen interviews with CEOs for 'The Kiruba Show'.

Unusually packed.

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October 11, 2007

Conducting a Workshop on Social Media for Entrepreneurs at IIM Bangalore



It's 3:50 early in the morning and I'm off to catch the first flight to Bangalore. I'm heading straight to the Indian Insititute of Management, Bangalore for their huge annual business fest called Vista '07. With a budget exceeding Rs.1 Crore, it better be called Huge.

I've been invited to take a day long workshop on how Entrepreneurs and CEOs can leverage the power of Blogs, Podcasts and Wikis.

I'll also be quite active in getting a lot of high profile interviews for The Kiruba Show, where I have conversations with CEOs of Indian IT industry. Expect some good action there.

I'll be in Bangalore for the next three days. If you want to meet up, shout out at Kiruba at Kiruba.com or 098415 97744.

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October 10, 2007

Speaking at The Knowledge Summit



The new version of Knowledge Management India website launched today and it's way better than the old version. It's in time for their really big annual event called the 'KM India 2007 : Knowledge Summit'.

One of the reasons I'm excited about it because I've been invited to speak at the event and share my learnings about Unconferences. I'll be teaming up with the wonderful Raj Datta, General Manager - Knowledge Management, Mindtree Consulting to speak on the topic 'Creating Knowledge through Conversations: Social Networks, Unconferences, Knowledge Cafes'.

I absolutely adore the topic and I've been a firm believer in the concept of Unconferences as a learning methodology. The success of SearchCamp which took place over the weekend is another example why it's an awesome to get the crowd involved in the learning and sharing process. It'll be an awesome opportunity for me to distill all the learnings I've had in conducting nearly half a dozen major unconferences so far. I can't wait for the session.

The program schedule looks a killer. Awesome speaker list too.

The event is taking place at Le Meridien, New Delhi on November 14th till 16th.

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August 25, 2007

Speaking at Chinmaya Mission

Chinmaya Mission runs a magazine called Chinmaya Udgosh and its editor, Prasanna, wanted to conduct a workshop for all its writers from across India. With the help of Sanakarnarayanan, ex-journalist at Indian Express, they have lined up trainers from the media industry. Here are the topics. I look forward to learning from the team.

Content Diversity for an Editorial Team - Bharath Kumar, IT Editor, The Hindu Business Line

"The Value of Double Quotes" - Ramnath, Chief Reporter, Economic Times

Developing Your Own Style - Me

Avoiding Assumptions - Swahilya, Chief Reporter, The Hindu

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August 03, 2007

Conducting a Workshop on New Media for PR Heads

I'm in Mumbai right now to conduct a workshop on 'Integrating New Media Tools in Communication Efforts'. This workshop is part of the 3rd Annual Corporate Communications Conference conducted by Marcus Evans.

I'm addressing about 50 corporate communication heads of companies. The diversity has been good : IT, Fertilizers, FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, Advertising, Manufacturing, Banking, Automotive, Media, Insurance.

It's lunch time now and my 3.5 hours workshop begins at 2:00 pm. Polishing my final presentation ideas.

After having gotten used to the chaos and interactiveness of unconferences, the normal traditional conference looks uncomfortably stifling. While some presentations have been good, some have been downright boring. Can be easily judged by the number of yawns.

I requested the organizers to change the seating of the participants for my workshop. Instead of normal theatre style seating, I asked them for a 'U' shaped seating..the type you see at board room meetings. It's important for participants to see each others face instead of their backs. Instead of a talk, I've planned group discussions and real life case study analysis. It'll be interesting to see how much I can get these General Managers, Presidents and Directors of companies to open up and get really participative. Love the challenge.

OK, time to quickly grab lunch and jump into the action head first.

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July 16, 2007

Workshop on Maximizing Internet for Business Success

Only Success, an organization that specializes in self empowerment organized a two day hands-on workshop called 'Internet Money Magix' on maximizing the Internet for business success. Praveen Sherman, Director and Chief Trainer, invited me to conduct a half day workshop on how people can make best use of social media to help aid businesses.



My workshop was on the second day and that was a good thing. The ice had been nicely broken on day one and the audience were very exuberant and interactive. More importantly, very eager to learn.



I always prefer hands-on workshops to just talking sessions. Workshops are always interactive and gets the folks involved in the learning process. The venue had WiFi and most of the participants had laptops. We went through the process of creating blogs, podcasts, Google Adsense and Adwords. My session was for three hours and I found the time not enough. That's a good sign of crowd interactivity as there were a lot of questions thrown across.



As a speaker, you get an inkling of how well the session went judging by the number of people who want to come and get your business cards or ask questions. Ask any speaker about the 'high' and they'll vouch for it.



Right after my session was on 'Product Marketing' by Shalin Jain (seen in blue striped shirt). Shalin is a young entrepreneur who founded TenMiles Corporation, a company that specializes in software products. The topic couldn't have found a better speaker.

Praveen Sherman( in white shirt) is the Director of OnlySuccess. I've heard a lot of good things about the 'Born To Win' program conducted by Praveen. It's a powerful self-transformational program that uses NLP - Neuro Linguistic Programming to impart positive attitude and self-confidence. I really wanted to attend this program in June but the event date clashed with PodWorks. The next program takes place at the end of the year and looking forward to the experience.

Another program I'm looking forward to is the 'Superb Kids' program for my daughter.

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July 13, 2007

Speaking at the Annual Corporate Communications Conference

One of the first things that I look at when I get an invitation to speak is to look out for fellow speakers. The invitation mail mentioned the following names..

S.Narendra, Ex-Information Advisor to the Prime Minister of India
Meenu Handa, Director of Corporate Communication, Microsoft
Jayant Bhuyan, CEO, India Brand Equity Foundation
Paresh Chaudhry, Head, Corporate Communications, HLL
Dr.Ajit Pathak, National President, Public Relations Society of India
Dr.Pragnya Ram, President, Corporate Communiations, Aditya Birla Group

You can't get bigger than that.

I could feel a curl in my stomach. My heart began to beat a notch higher.

Foretelling signs that my talk would turn out good. I've always done well when I'm tensed before a talk. It makes sure you put in your best preparation. Honestly, I love the challenge and am looking forward to it.

At the event taking place at Le Royal Meridien, Mumbai on August 2nd & 3rd, I'll be conducting a half-day workshop on 'Integrating New Media Elements into Communication Efforts', mainly touching on how companies can use blogs, podcasts, wikis, social networking, RSS, Interactivity and virtual communities to build that all important transparency into conventional corporate communications efforts.

Over the next three weeks, I will be researching and talking with companies to understand what worked and what didn't. There are many examples from US companies but I'm specifically looking for India examples. If you can help me with an example of how a particular company did good in PR using new media effectively, I'd love to hear. I will credit and attribute you at the event. Thanks.

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June 21, 2007

Speaking Today at IAMAI's Web 2.0 Event



Today morning, I'm speaking at a panel on "WEB 2.0 MARKETING PERSPECTIVE: REALITY CHECK " at the Internet And Mobile Association's Web 2.0 event in Mumbai. The panel has some real stars and so is most of the speaker roster for the event. Only IAMAI can pull off a Who's who list.

Later in the night, I hopefully get to attend the sell out ContentSutra Meetup. More Schmoozing. Gotto remember to pick up those bunch of businesscards.

Talking of marketing, can't help but show this wonderfully done video.


The Break Up
Uploaded by geertdesager

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April 11, 2007

Live TV Experiences

I was on a program called 'Bloggers Block' on Headlines Today channel tonight at 9:00 PM. It was a live telecast. Some fascinating experiences.

* I was informed that the OB van (outdoor broadcast unit) and the crew would come in to my house at 8:30 pm, half hour before the show to set up the unit.

* The time clicked to 8:45 and no sign of the van. I almost gave up when I got a call saying that the crew is having trouble with the cops for having parked the van on the road. This incident happened right outside my apartment. By the time I hurried downstairs, the problem had been sorted out. Relief. 12 minutes to go.

* We take the van to another side of the apartment but trees and electrical lines pose a problem. We finally open another gate to get the van inside. All this in a semi-panic mode. 8 minutes to go.

* Meanwhile the camera men rush inside my home to set up the camera and the lighting. 5 minutes before going live, the camera man gets a call from the studio that they are not getting the live video feeds. Panic mode heightens. The crew does a bit of tinkering with the wires and things get ok. 3 minutes to go.

* I then quickly realize I hadn't changed my dress. Was still wearing a slightly crumpled tshirt. I must've created a record in shirt changing.

* I rush back and sit in the chair. One of the crew members plugs in a collar mic. He then plugs an ear piece into my ear from a walkie talkie kind of a device. This is where I get to hear the anchor. A guy in the studio did a voice test. It was too low. I say so. He turns up the volume real high. Nearly cracked my ear drum. I say so. He tones it down. Before I could say its ok, I can hear Zaka Jacob, the anchor start the program.

* My wife rushes out to my neighbours home with our digital camera to record the video from their TV. A paltry 128 MB memory card doesn't take you far. Just 5 minutes of video recording possible. That's hardly sufficient for a 30 minute program. She manages to take a few shots.

* There was a lot of hissing noise from the ear piece. Too late. I strain myself to hear the debate going on at the studio. Can't make out everything.

* Then suddenly the anchor goes like this, "Let's ask Kiruba who is from Chennai. Kiruba, what do you think about the issue?". Your mind desperately seeks to assimilate whatever little information you were able to decipher from their conversation. I pick up bits and pieces and I then proceed to answer what I felt was appropriate.

* On one occasion, when Zaka (the anchor) asked me a question, I heard it but didn't know it was directed at me. There was a few seconds of silence before I realised that the silence was there because I wasn't speaking. I then quickly proceeded to answer.

* I thought I spoke pretty ok. Ideas flew in smoothly and I managed to keep my answers to the point. I liked the way how I put my views across. Don't know what others felt. If you got to watch the program, I'd like to get your feedback.

* I don't think the topic deserved a 30 minutes program. It was a simple set guidelines for bloggers that was set. No rules. No censorship. Just guidelines.

* Try staring at a camera continuously for 30 minutes. That's what I did.

* Surprisingly, I didn't feel nervous. Sitting in a studio and having a conversation with an anchor is one thing but sitting in front of a camera and speaking to a person you can't see is another. Add buggy audio. And then add Live TV. But it was rather cool.

* Zaka Jacob did a good job in guiding the discussion.

* Overall a very fascinating experience. A big thanks to Sharavathy from the TV Today's Chennai office for putting me on the show.




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Live TV Debate Tonight on 'Bloggers Code of Conduct'

Headlines Today is having a debate about the brouhaha over the 'Bloggers Code of Conduct' at 9:00 PM tonight. The rough draft of the code suggested by Tim O'Reilly has met with mixed reactions. While some think guidelines are helpful, many feel its an infringement on their rights.

Headlines today has invited Pavan Duggal, a Cyberlaw expert, Kajal Basu, a journalist blogger and me for a debate. While I've read the code last week with only a passing interest, I'm suddenly catching up on it in detail. Ah, the things that TV makes you do.

And its going to be live TV, which means you get to see my goofups straight on.

CyberJournalist.net has created a wonderful model Bloggers' Code of Ethics, by modifying the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics for the Weblog world. Recommended read.

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April 10, 2007

Meeting Micorsoft's COO, Kevin Turner



When I got a call from Microsoft to inform me about their global COO's visit to India, it all sounded familiar. Last year, I got a call informing me of their CEO, Steve Ballmer's visit. It was for an event called IndiMix and they had wanted to shoot a video of me pitching for the event . The video never got published. They invited me for the event but when I got to know I'd be part of at least 5000 other people, I let it pass. You achieve nothing in such big crowds. As you can guess, I had good reason to brush off the recent call.

But I was wrong. The call came from D'Souza, a passionate web evangelist at Microsoft. Evangelists are good people, way better than sales folks. I have known D'souza earlier when he had invited me to speak at a few Microsoft events. He wanted to meet up with me in person.

When we met up, he handed out a personally written invitation (in calligraphy) signed by the General Manger of Microsoft India, inviting me for a round table discussion with Kevin Turner at Mumbai. And I quote a line from the invitation..."We are trying to bring together the key web influencers in the country to enrich our understanding of the space - thereby adding value to the offerings that we bring to the market in the future".

As if I wasn't impressed enough, he said it was a round table discussion with ten other invited folks. Good. So, it is NOT going to be 5000 folks. Just 10 of us with Kevin. Makes for a better chance for a meaningful conversation and hopefully I get to add value to the discussion.

I'm looking forward to meeting up with Kevin Turner and I won't hide the awe. The awe is understandable when you get to read his profile. As the COO, he is responsible for all sales & marketing initiatives. He heads deptartments that has 35,000 employees (that's half of MS' 70,000 employees) and responsible for generating revenues of $44 Billion.

And he is just 40. His photograph lies about his age. Damn! He is just 7 years older than me. Sigh!

In addition to Kevin, I'm looking forward to connecting up with the other invited members. I heard a few names and I was impressed. I should get to know the entire list by today.

Should be fun.

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April 07, 2007

The NIT Trichy Visit - An Overview

I was at NIT Trichy to talk on 'The Business Side of Blogging' to the MBA students. Here's a quick recount of the trip and the talk.



I've heard a lot about NIT Trichy (previously REC Trichy) over many years but got to visit for the first time. The hospitality of the students was fantastic. They had taken full care of my transportation and accommodation. Satadal Payeng was at the railway station at the wee hours of the morning to pick me up. Satadal, btw, has a nice 2 wheeler blog and within a month, has started earning $100 a month.

We made the 20 kms journey to the campus where I was put up at their guest house.



There were about a 100 students in the seminar hall. Considering it was a four day holiday weekend, I was surprised so many chose to stay back in the campus.

The MBA dept has been in existence for 29 years and is only the second engineering college in Tamil Nadu, after Anna University, to start a management course. It's reputation can be gauged by the fact that every single student has got jobs in campus placement.

I was quite impressed with the course fee. It's Rs.1.2 lakhs fees includes the full two years course fee, hostel and even mess bill. All inclusive. Compare that with Rs.5 lakhs that a few MBA colleges charge for a year.

BIZZDOM is their first intra-departmental fest and it looks like its going to turn into an annual event.

After the customary talk by the Director, HoD, the lighting of the lamp and a premature coffee break, my two hour talk began. As expected, the students were a bit rusty but soon opened up. My usual empty promise of cadburys for the first few questions never fails to work!



I was particularly impressed with a bunch of no-nonsense questions that the students asked. I liked their attitude to challenge the basics. There were some very good questions that were raised and that helped in making the session a lot interactive.

See that big audio speakers in the picture above? Those are some of the best I've seen. Very good audio clarity. The mic had a small problem and I used the opportunity to chuck it and mingle with the crowd. I've learnt the trick that if you want the crowd to participate in the discussion, its important to have a level playing field. I guess, that helped. Not so for my throat though. Two hours of speaking aloud kinda drained me out but the session was fun.

The students have done a good job in organizing the event but coming from a bunch of soon-to-be MBA graduates and that too from a premier institute like NIT, I had expected more. The event started half-hour late and when you land there early, the wait seems much longer. Punctuality is a direct indicator of professionalism.

The biggest irritant was when my speech was interrupted by the organizers to read out the bio of the second guest speaker who had just walked in. And it couldn't have happened at a worse time. I was mid way narrating a passionate story to illustrate a point and the interruption punctured the poignancy of the moment. I'm sure the organizers didn't mean harm but these are subtleties you would expect them to know.




The second session was on 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People', yes, based on the bestselling book by Steven Covey. Mr.Srikant, a professional trainer and a seven habits evangelist was the speaker. I have always wanted to read this book ever since it started topping the New York Times bestseller list many years ago but never got to finish it. ( in spite of it sitting on my book shelf). Srikanth spiced up his talks with examples from his own life and how it influenced him. He gave a nice overview and it motivated me to start reading the book again, hopefully finish it this time and apply the learning in life.

It reminded me of the Business Book Readers Meet that we used to have. We were four friends and each one of us would choose a business book to read. Once a month, we would meet at the Loyola college grounds to give a brief synopsis and key learning from the book. This way, it gave a satisfaction of having kinda read four books and actually gives you the motivation to finish reading some of those book. Gotto restart that nice business book meets.

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April 04, 2007

Speaking at NIT Trichy



The students of Dept of Management Studies at National Institute of Technology, Trichy (NITT) are organizing an inter-departmental management meet called BIZZDOM'07. An event that aims to inculcate management thinking amongst enthusiastic engineers. Nice to see an initiative that gets the MBAs and engineers together.

The meet is scheduled for the 6th and 7th of April with the management games scheduled on the first day followed by the guest lectures on day 2. The organizers have invited me to talk to the students about how being passionate about an area of interest can actually turn into a paying business proposition. They're particularly interested in the business side of blogging and podcasting.

There's definitely something about me and NITs off late. This is the second NIT I'm speaking at in as many months. Last month was NIT Calicut. Trichy should be fun.

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March 12, 2007

Learning By Doing



I totally believe in the principle of learning by doing. Getting one's hands dirty is the best way to get started. Realized that when me and a bunch of friends had an informal Tinker Meet on Video blogging, where everyone tried making a video. Not only was it educational, it was also fun.

So, when Sidharth Rao, CEO of WebChutney and Rajesh Barnwal, Editor of AlooTechie approached me with an idea to conduct a workshop on Podcasting, I was quite interested. The event takes place on 25th of this month at Delhi.

IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India) has come forward to support the event and MakeMyTrip is helping foot my flight expenses.

Teaching has been a passion for me and if its a workshop, it gets even better.

If you are in Delhi and want to learn a thing or two about Podcasting, this session might be useful to you. I'm looking forward to sharing the experiences from producing 'The Kiruba Show' and the lessons I have learned from other podcasting professionals.

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March 05, 2007

Speaking at NIT, Calicut

I've always enjoyed speaking at colleges more than at corporate events because of sheer energy and enthusiasm. It's fun and I always have a ball. When the students at National Institute of Technology, Calicut, invited me to speak at their annual FOSS event, I gladly accepted. Besides, other than Munnar, I've never been elsewhere in Kerala. So, it was an opportunity to tick another place on my map.


Now, what is a blogging session doing at a hardcore FOSS event? Well, it beats me too until I got it clarified with the organizers. It turned out that most of the tech guys were interested in blogging and even though it wasn't a perfect fit, they wanted to fit it in.



Well, this is the hall where my talk was scheduled to be held. It was the last talk of the day. And it was scheduled at 9:30 PM. Yup, at night. Right after Dinner. The right recipe for a super low turnout. I mean, who would turn up after a heavy meal for another talk??



Well, a LOT of people. I couldn't have been so wrong. The hall was nearly packed full, the highest turnout any event got. Boy, was I surprised. I later learnt that that late night sessions have the highest turnout and there was a reason why they slotted my talk there.

The participants were super. Highly interactive and a great sport. There's something that a hall full of eager youngsters gets you going. I had a ball. I didn't realize how quickly my one and half hour talk went. My talk easily would figure in my personal all time top 10 list.



The entrance of NITC.



A shadowy entrance to the campus.



That's the view out of our guest room balcony. We opened the door and stared straight into the woods. Awesome. That's Atul Chitnis with whom I shared the room at the guest house.



I've heard a lot about Mamachan's, a tiny hotel just outside the compound wall of the campus. This budget friendly joint which allows students to have 'accounts', is famous for its Chilly Beef. and it didn't disappoint. At all!



As you can see, we polished off many plates. and many glasses of 'sharjah', a special iced concoction of banana, milk and boost!



It was two days of packed sessions from morning till night. And simultaneously in three different halls. Honestly, it was way too hardcore and I easily got bored on second day. Many of the sessions were sparsely attended. And I saw many doze away. Can't blame the kids. It got too heavy, especially the post lunch sessions.



Saw this old board discarded inside the woods of the campus. NIT earlier used to be called REC.



The Calicut Airport reaches out to meet you. Literally. The airport seems to be built on a hill top. As the plane descends to land, the runway surprises you by coming in much earlier. And oh, you also need to walk on the tarmac from the aeroplane to the airport. No transit buses. In the picture is Shreyas, who travelled from Bangalore with me, along with Tejas and Atul.



On the second night, the organizers had arranged for an informal midnight session. As expected, it was technology that dominated but it was fun as everyone loosened up. The topics ranged from unconference, girls, drugs and more technology. And yeah toilets. The NITians were proud in having the cleanest and best hostel toilets in India. You should have seen them beam with pride! :)

I'd give a big thumbs up to the spirit and the enthusiasm of the students. The organizers, all students, showed phenomenal passion and zeal. The hospitality was near perfect. There was always someone to take care of our needs.

NITC has one of the best facilities that I have seen around. True, the net connectivity wasn't great but how many colleges can boast of free WiFi for the entire hostels. And yeah, the best toilets!!

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March 01, 2007

March is a Speaking Month

This month looks like a fairly packed schedule on my speaking calendar.

March 2nd



National Institute of Technology, Calicut (formerly REC, Calicut) is organizing Kerala's biggest FOSS event. Big enough for the Chief Minister of Kerala to bestow his presence there. I know about FOSS as much as the Chief Minister does and that's not why the institute had invited me. They'd like me to talk about the unconference model and blogging. A sort of a mini-blogcamp is being set up within FOSS event and they'd like this to be conducted in a more unconferencish mode.


March 5th

My last session on Digital Media will take place this Monday. This is the 5th straight year I'm teaching at the Madras Advertising Club. I love teaching at the AdClub 'coz its unlike other colleges. The students are far more creative and enthusiastic.


March 24th


This came as a surprise. Cognizant is organizing a technology unconference for all its employees and considering the size of the company, the event is going to be massive. This is the first time I'm seeing a company organizing an uncon internally. Seen Saber conduct a HackDay before at Bangalore but never an uncon. I'm invited to open the second day of the event and looking forward to it.

March 25th

AlooTechie and WebChutney, one of India's most creative digital marketing agencies is organizing a hands-on workshop on Podcasting at Delhi and they have invited me to conduct the workshop. A lot of marketing executives are expected to attend. A few weeks ago, I was invited by Pepsi to Gurgoan to talk to their entire marketing top brass and it was a fantastic experience. If that was any indication, this workshop is going to be quite a rocker.




Polaris Software runs an internal educational program called Nalanda University. They'd like to know more about the power of wikis and its various uses. It'd be interesting to share all the learnings from cool folks I met at WikiCamp.

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