TiECon Delhi from Sept 18 to Sept 19

TiECon Delhi is about to happen at Taj Palace Hotel, SP Marg, Chanakyapuri, Delhi, Sept 18-19, sessions from 9:00am onwards and networking dinner/cocktails at 7:30 pm on 18th Sept, 2009 (Website: www.tienewdelhi.org ) .

Dont Know what’s TiE ? Never heard of TiECon ? Then read right on…

Is it worthwhile to show up at TieCon and pay Rs.8500/ (Rs.8000/- online) for a 2-day event ?

That’s the question I’ve always been hit by, when I see a banner for a event like this– no matter that I’ve already paid-for and attended dozens of events like this after over a decade in the industry.

I’m therefore going to throw up the possibilities– for folks that’re thinking OR for folks that cross out such a conference the moment they read the price-tag.

Also, I’ll touch upon some background information about what is Tie ? And why it may be a good idea to spend Rs.8500 even if you’re already a solution architect at a top tier company earning better than your peers and as far away from being a struggling entrepreneur as anyone can imagine.

Also, even if you’re wondering about not getting discounts or waiting tll next time– it may just be the best possible value for money to show up at the venue with your credit card and ready to pay your way in.

What is TiE ?

Ever heard about how Sabeer Bhatia found Hotmail ? And how he now wants to help ther Indian startups as a mentor and investor ? Or about how a Indian called Raj Jaswa built a outsourced non-label chipset company of silicon valley in the 1980s by doing deals with Taiwanese chipset manufacturers… and set the stage for many totally new ways of doing hardware and chipset businesses, which werent common earlier ?

And if you’ve heard of these and even if you havent heard of these, then surely there would be a part of you which would say that some things happen mainly because of the technology markets and entrepreneurial ecosystems that exist in the silicon valley– and there would be a part of you that would wonder just how difficult it would be to hop right in and become a part of those ecosystems.

TiE stands for “The Indus Entrepreneurs”– and TieCon is TiE’s annual convention.

TiE is a NGO which as founded to promote entrepreneurs from the Indian subcontinent– and it has people like:–
— Sabeer Bhatia- founder of Hotmail.com.

— Kanwal Rekhi (one of the early Indian success stories in silicon valley- in the 1980s, he built a networking company was acquired by Novell- and as one-time CTO of Novell he was one of the first Indian success stories in the Silicon valley).

— Vinod Khosla– if you’ve heard of Java, you’d have heard of Sun Microsystems- but not many know that Vinod Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems at age 25– and after that went on to found and also finance many more companies in different areas; some of which shook their respective areas even more than Sun Microsystems or Java did.

— Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande– he’s InfoSys Founder NR Narayanmurthy’s brother-in-law who founded and funded optical networking companies before the world had heard of optical networking– and the speed at which some of these companies grew– and the prices at which they were acquired– would make everything seem small.

And definitely, when one hears such stuff it’s obvious that the views one would hear from the horse’s mouth would be far different from what the cost-cuttng middle-managers of mature companies growing out of India say.

If you are a entrepreneur, you have to attend this.

And, If you are a currently working professional– wondering if this is worth Rs.8500/- (or Rs.8000/- online) you should go there to see and hear– what’s cutting edge- and what the guys who shaped the technology landscape over the last few decades are saying– and hear them, even ask them first-hand– “Next is what ?”.

I just got home from a pre-event Blogger-meet– and I was listening to some prominent and senior guys discuss the benefits– and some ways to promote the TiECon 2009.

Suggestions came… including: Lets give out a 20% discount ? Lets give out free passes ? Lets do…But then, there was also voices which said– hey… for a entrepreneur or a potential entrepreneur.. lets instead offer:

Best Lucky draw prize for any attendee- whether a professional who’s currently employed or for someone who has already taken the entrepreneurial plunge would be “15 minutes with Mr.[name of a world famous entrepreneur]”–

and that’s when Mr.Ashish Gupta and Mr.Mahendra Swaroop chipped in and added– “with the number of sessions and networking events and accessibility… if the topic is of mutual professional interest a person can easily spend as much time as they want speaking to their favorite mentors or entrepreneurs”; though ofcourse that’s something that cant be promised as a lucky draw prize.

So folks, if you’re interested show up– buy yourself a pass– and check out TiECon Delhi 2009 at Hotel Taj Palace on dates 18th Sept 2009 and 19th Sept 2009.

Also, please feel free to contact TieDelhi at
+91-120-4066500 (Tie Office) email: info@tienewdelhi.org
or RSVP Krithi +91-98101-27290 krithi@tienewdelhi.org

THIS POST/ARTICLE IS COPYRIGHTED NALIN SAVARA 2009 and may only be reprinted or re-used with author’s written permission.

Also, please feel free to comment on this post.
if you have any questions/comments/suggestions or criticisms for the author of this post (Nalin Savara), please feel free to write to me at nsnsns(at)gmail(dot)com and I will do my level best to respond promptly to each comment or each mail I receive.
This article is also mirrored on my DelhiVoice blog.

ps:
As mentioned earlier, I attended a pre-event blogger-meet, where I had the pleasure of listening to Mr.Ashish Gupta (Organizing Chair TieCon) and Mr.Mahendra Swaroop, President Indian Venture Capital Association and chief mentor at Smile Interactive, and where we had the chance to understand some of the benefits and possibilities. The Photos below were taken at the same gathering.

Photo-1:

Photo: (Left to Right: Ms.Mary Joyce, Mr.Mahendra Swaroop, President IVCA, Mr.Ashish Gupta Country Head Evalueserve, Co-Chair Organizing Comittee TieCon 2009, Mr.LD Sharma )

Photo-2:

Photo: (Left to Right): Gerard (gerard@the-practice.net), Ajay Jain (Blogger, President of IBNMS www.ajayjain.com )

Photo-3:

Photo: (Standing Tall: Akshay (akshay@the-practice.net )