Category Archives: conference

5th Annual Small Business Summit 2010 Highlights

About 8 months ago I complied a presentation containing best tweets from Social Gaming Summit 2009 which got a good response and appreciation so I thought of doing the same for #smallbizsummit.

Here’s a crowdsourced summary(in form of tweets) of the 5th Annual Small Business Summit 2010 held at NYC on 16th March. Hope you like it

Small Business Summit 2010

View more presentations from Mayank Dhingra.

TiE-SmashUP: Networking and More

Yesterday’s TiE-SmashUP at IIT Delhi Seminar Hall was the third TiE event I attended in the last 4-5 months and like all the previous events I was happy for being there.

For those of you who might not know, TiE is the world’s biggest formal network of Entrepreneurs and Professionals. The thing I love most about TiE events is the wonderful opportunity they offer of meeting loads of interesting people from various profiles spread across different industries and hailing from different parts of the country and world.

It took me some time to realize and appreciate that the kind of audience TiE events attract is a lot different from what similar events(Startup etc) attract and that’s what sets them apart from other events in the same category. Also, as mentioned previously I strongly feel that TiE events are especially designed to make networking more easy and often, for example this time around(for SmashUP) there was a “Power Breakfast” in which you were asked to choose 3 out of 5 established VC’s/Successful Entrepreneurs and the orgaziners would try to arrange you(and 8-9 other folks) to have breakfast with one of them on a separate table. Having attended a Power Breakfast yesterday I can say it was a simple yet very effective thing. To discuss and network with 8-9 attendees and a VC/Successful Entrepreneur in just an hour couldn’t have been easier and better.

Having said all that I’d like to conclude this post by saying that if you are one of those who like professional networking with people and you haven’t yet attended a TiE event, you should give it a try.

Building Social Products in India

Last saturday saw the 2nd meet of Social Media Club’s Delhi chapter and I along with Dipankar Sarkar spoke about our experiences and learnings from Building a Global Social Product(Kwippy)  out of India.

I personally was quite excited about the talk as we generally don’t talk about products much in the regular Twitter, Bloggers and other Social Media related meets and I feel this is something that we should do often to create awareness amongst the attendees and if possible encourage people to build new products.

smcd (Pic courtesy Gaurav Mishra)

Here’s the presentation from the talk

View more presentations from Mayank Dhingra.

Talking about web products they can be categorized into two categories, “Innovation” (a completely new concept, first of its kind) and “Improvisation” ( a slight modification in an innovative idea and/or a slight modification in its implementation). From what I’ve observed most social web products in India belog to the “Improvisation” category with focus on the Indian market. Be it a social network, a platform to share pictures or microblog.

Though there is nothing wrong in improvising on someone’s concept and building a product for the local market but I guess most of the products in this segment fail to add any substantial value to the concept or it’s localised execution. Also, what  makes me wonder is why there aren’t many popular Indian web products in other categories particularly Global products based on an Innovative concept(from India) and Global products based on Improvisation(from India) of some innovative concept.

I feel there’s a lot of scope in both Made in India, for India and Made in India for World categories and I would keep a close watch for products in these two categories and now that I have moved out of Kwippy(will detail out in a seperate post) maybe work on something myself sometime soon 🙂

TiEcon Delhi 2009: Of,By and For Entrepreneurs

It isn’t often that you get a chance  to listen to the likes of Alok Mittal and Pramod Bhasin and TiEcon is one of those very few platforms that offers you a chance to not only listen but also to interact with successful entrepreneurs and connect with them.

On 18th and 19th of September I attended my first TiEcon at Delhi’s Taj Palace. Being a first time attendee I wasn’t really sure of what to expect from the event which looks as serious(boring?) to a 26 year old as it can be but thankfully I gave it a try, for it was well worth it.

Five minutes into the registration I happened to bump into Amit Agnihotri (Director-Exchange4media) and there was no stopping to meeting new and interesting people. As mentioned in my previous post I was invited to the conference as a blogger and as it turned out we were to register(and enjoy some privileges) as press which included reserved seats in the second row, dedicated room with continuous beverage supply etc.

press badge

Day 1 had quite a few interesting and relevant panel discussions on

  • Starting Up – Is there ever a right time?
  • Biggest “Marketing” Bang for the Buck
  • Smart Innovation

It helped that the panel members were experienced entrepreneurs and professionals from big brands like Pepsi, Samsung and Microsoft.  The session on Smart Innovation led by Prof Anil Gupta was particularly interesting. It was wonderful to learn about various innovations happening in the country at the grass root level.

In parallel to the main sessions/panel discussions there were small ‘Guru Sessions’ happening in another hall. These sessions had 2-4 VC’s or Successful entrepreneurs answering questions to a small bunch of 25-30 people. These session due to their small size were more personal and gave the attendees a very good chance of networking with the speakers.

If you thought the event was all about successful people sharing entrepreneurship gyan with young entrepreneurs or wannabe entrepreneurs, you couldn’t be more wrong. While learning a thing or two from seasoned entrepreneurs would definitely be on the agenda the real deal was NETWORKING. Acting on the feedback from last TiEcon the TiE folks had smartly booked a separate hall(or two?) for just networking and there were other small sessions happening in parallel to the main panel discussions. So sitting through a session which you aren’t finding interesting for whatever reason is not mandatory and there are about 5 other halls where you can go and randomly bump into someone and get talking.

In just a matter of minutes you can sense the fact that TiEcon 2009 was designed to facilitate networking and to be honest it did the trick. A look around any hall will confirm the same, you could see numerous 2-5 people groups scattered across the Taj Palace(even in the Lobby) interacting and/or exchanging business cards. I too tried a bit to meet some new people and ended up collecting some 40 odd business cards(gave lesser cards than that).

business cards collected at TiEcon

The exchange of follow up mails has begun, let’s see where things  reach eventually.

All in all TiEcon Delhi 2009 was worth every bit of energy and effort spent. Shall look forward to the next years conference.

Block your calenders for TiEcon Delhi 2009

If you are an aspiring entrepreneur dabbling with questions like

What exactly is entrepreneurship all about?
What is the right time to start up your own venture?

or if you’ve already started up your venture and want to know

How to scale your business?,
How do really go about the whole funding business ? etc then TiEcon Delhi 2009 is the place for you to be.

tiecon

TiEcon is one of the biggest conferences in India on entrepreneurship and is aimed at inspring and educating entrepreneurs on various aspects of entrepreneurship and the relevant growth opportunities.

TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs), the organization behind TiEcon Delhi 2009 is a global not-for-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship. With 53 chapters across 12 countries TiE’s mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally through mentoring, networking, and education. Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiE’s focus is on generating and nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs.

What differentiates TiEcon from other conferernces/events aimed at entrepreneurs is the fact that

1) TiEcon is at a much bigger level:

Some Numbers for Tie:

  • 2,500 experienced entrepreneurs and business executives as charter members.
  • 11,000 aspiring entrepreneurs and professionals as members.
  • More than 500 events with over 70,000 attendees worldwide.

Given the scale at which TiE operates and the fact that the Shri P Chidambaram(Home Minister) would deliver the inaugural address for Tiecon Delhi 2009 it’s easy to imagine the scale of the event. The scale is also wide as unlike most other conferences aimed at entrepreneurs there aren’t really any restrictions on the size or kind of startups. For ex: There will be sessions on security and renewable sources of energy

2) Platform to meet the policy makers:

Another aspect that puts TiEcon in a different league is the fact here you can get a chance to interact with the policy makers for your segment/industry of interest.  This in itself is a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to interact and connect with people who decide various policies. For ex: A couple of speakers from government include Mr. Dinesh Rai, Secretary, Ministry of Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) and Mr. Deepak Gupta, Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.

3) Exposure to other sectors/industries:

While the most an attendee can get to learn at a typical startup event is within the realm of that industry(tech mostly) but in an event like TiEcon one gets a great chance to learn more about other segments like Energy, CleanTech and Education.

4) Attendees:

Here’s a screenshot of some of the attendees/delegates.

Delegate TiEcon

You can find the complete list here

While I’ve shared just four reasons I am sure there will be a many more reasons for you to attend TiEcon Delhi 2009. Here are the details for TiEcon Delhi 2009

Dates: 18th and 19th September 2009
Venue: Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi
Agenda: http://www.tiecon-delhi.org/agenda.asp
Registration:  http://www.tiecon-delhi.org/registration-group1.asp

The folks at TiE invited us(bloggers) to share more about TiE and TiEcon for a pre-event round table yesterday and were kind enough to offer free invites to attend the event

You can connect with TiEDelhi (Delhi chapter of TiE)

First Google Analytics Conversion Univeristy Conference in India

I along with a few friends from Twitter attended the Google Analytics Conversion University Conference at Gurgaon. This was the first such conference by Google Analytics in India and we were lucky enough to be a part of it. The agenda of conference included introduction of GA for begineers, sharing more about their partnership programs, advanced features, adsense/adwords integration, webmaster tools and website optimizer.

The conference had about 100 attendees(or less?) from mostly, sem/ppc background. Folks from Digital Agencies and SEM companies formed the major chunk. Interestingly enough about one third of the attendees were from outside Delhi/NCR, with people from Mumbai and Kerala forming a considerable chunk. Most of the speakers too were from outside of Delhi with Jesse coming straight from Mountain View to present at the conference.

Given the professional and business oriented audience, the content was strictly focussed around getting most out of GA and eventually how you can use it to get more/spend less $$. The thing about analytics is that everyone knows it but not everyone does it, so the conference was a good reminder that you need to actually checkout the data being captured and use it to drive results.

Jesse made his point by saying “Not having goals on GA is like being a 35 year old guy who doesn’t have a job and doesn’t know what to do with his life, no goals” . So if you too haven’t configured goals in your GA, it’s time to do it and if you don’t know how to go about it, ping  me.

Tracking Bounce Rate, Outgoing Traffic, Custom Segmentation etc were some other things that I was reminded to spend some time on. BTW Are you tracking them ?

The best thing about Google Analytics(other than the fact that it works) is that its FREE, free not just for individuals but free for enterprises. Isn’t that cool ? Another great thing is that you as individual get access to the same set of features that an enterprise gets, i.e. it’s not that the free version has lesser features than paid enterprise ones.

Is it a good question to ask if Google Analytics is free, how does  Google benefit ?
Vivek, one of the speakers mentioned that amongst other things GA drives more money to adwords. Fair enough

All in all, GA conf @ Google’s gurgaon office was a fun event with great learning and networking opportunity.Good food and free wi-fi were nice addons.

You can also checkout people’s tweets by searching for hashtag #gacu

Thanks to the guys at getgaready for organizing it.

Conference Goodies

1) GA Tooth Brush: Yes, a Tooth Brush that reads “promoting good website hygiene”

GA tooth brush2) GA Thumb/Pen Drive:

GA Thumb Drive

3) GA Tee-Shirt:

GA Tee Shirt

Update: Here’s Tatvic’s presentation on Conversion Tracking from the conference

View more presentations from anilv13.

Google Analytics Conference in Gurgaon: 8th August

Hey Guys,

Wanted to share the news that there’s going to be a Google Analytics Conference under Google’s “Conversion University” in Gurgaon next month.

converation_university

The speakers for the conference include

conference_speakersYou can checkout the complete list here.

The event is completely FREE of charge. You can Register on the website and your attendance will be confirmed by email a week before the event. The invite is non-transferable and there will be no spot registration.

Here’s the agenda for the conference

conv_agenda

Date: 8th August

Place: Gurgaon

Venue:  Google India Pvt Ltd, 8th and 9th Floors, Tower C Building No.8, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon, India.

Map:
http://www.getgaready.in/venue.html

Checkout  http://www.getgaready.in/ for more details

Crowdsourced Social Gaming Summit 2009 Summary

Got to know about Social Gaming Summit 2009 from Twitter and was hooked on it immediately. The tweets didn’t come often but were pretty interesting none the less. Here’s a summary ala Twitter Style for those who missed the action in real and on Twitter.

You can also download the presentation here. Let me know how you found it

Proto.in, Be There.

The stage is almost set for the fifth edition of India’s biggest startup event “Proto.in“. This time’s proto would be held on the 23rd and 24th of January 09 at Bangalore.

About Proto(from their site):

Proto.in, Today, is about giving entrepreneurs a platform to express their visions and showcase their imagination, with a working prototype, for the world to see. It’s about increasing partnership, collaboration and mindshare among a distinguished, qualified and well-connected audience. Proto.in provides a unique platform for promising startup talent to communicate their creativity and innovation potential. As a meeting place for the smartest entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and professionals, Proto.in stands true to its mantra “Create, Contribute, Collaborate.”

Proto is about celebrating entrepreneurship, and encouraging it where it matters the most – at the startup level!

1. To Showcase Innovative technology products borne out of India
2. To Encourage, grow and create entrepreneurial awareness
3. To create a community of startup entrepreneurs, who can grow in strength and numbers, drawing wisdom from each other.
4. To act as a bridge between well-established companies, veteran entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, analysts, journalists, professionals and grass-root entrepreneurs.

I’ve said this before that Proto is THE place to be for all startup junkies, entrepreneurs and wanna be entrepreneurs. This edition of Proto has some really interesting sessions/camps including

Shotgun Startups – Teams of technologists, programmers, designers, and product architects compete with each other to build a product in 24 hours, and get them voted by the audience at Proto.in, with one emerging as the winner.

Pitchcamp! – The first pitch that you make, be it an investor, partner, employee or client about what you do, makes all the difference to that first impression. Pitchcamp will be a workshop for startups to help them sculpt their pitch that will sell every time.

Innovation Jam – Ideation is a simpler process. With the success of the process that started last time, at this proto.in, here’s a chance for the entire audience to participate, in chipping and brewing fresh ideas off of their head. If you have a creative block, this will ensure that its flushed out.

Registrations open on Monday, go book yourself a seat. Checkout their blog for more and for any queries Vijay is the man.