TiECON Chandigarh 2017 strives to create an energizing entrepreneurial environment for startup founders to get inspired & take off. It brought together diverse, innovative & dynamic ventures to showcase an expert ecosystem & ignite entrepreneurial minds. The event witnessed participation of top notch entrepreneurs, mentors, innovators, investors, startups, educationists, journalists, policy makers & more.
Dedicated to the virtuous cycle of wealth creation and giving back to the community, TiECON Chandigarh focused on generating our next generation of leaders & entrepreneurs. Over 800 participants attended this two day summit.Businesses stand on five pillars: mentoring, networking, education, incubating and funding. TiE was established in 1992 to achieve these five milestones for ambitious entrepreneurs and is currently the world’s largest entrepreneurial organization out there.
Day-1 at TiECON ChandigarhThe day began with the an opening plenary session by I.S. Paul, Chair TiECON Chandigarh & chairman Drish and with Mahesh Murthy, Founder, Pinstorm setting the context for the sessions next.
After an impactful beginning, the audience had the opportunity to attend three consecutive session in the 10am-11am hour. ‘Extraordinary Times Require Global Entrepreneurs’ had eminent speakers on the panel like Dana Kursh Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Israel in India and DNV Kumara Guru, Director External Relations & HR, ISB (chair). Consecutively, there were session on ‘Funding Opportunities for All’; ‘Opportunities in Rural India’; Opportunities in Block-chain and IOT’.
Keynote speakers in the next hour were Richard Rekhy, CEO KPMG India, Arvind Gupta, Head Digital India Foundation who spoke about how big opportunities lie ahead of Indian startup founders in the coming few years. He said, “A startup entrepreneur faces challenges in Acquiring customers, Retaining customers, Managing customers, and Monetizing customers. Financial institutions are focusing only on high value customers, because acquiring customers are expensive. What if they can acquire customers for ₹1, using Aadhar, like Reliance for its Jio launch? What if banks can acquire rural customers using Aadhar? Wouldn’t that lead to disruptive ideas in financial domain?” He bought out some extremely interesting observations.
Simultaneously, there were session on ‘Leadership lessons for Women’ by Aparna Jain, CEP Zebranetworks and ‘India’s new wealth creators or value creators’ which had three speakers on the panel.
Leadership lessons were also delivered by Anurag Batra, Chairman & Editor-in-Chief BW Businessworld and Sanjeev Aggarwal, Sr. MD Helion Ventures. The audience also keenly responded to ‘Fintech Mantra’ and ‘Protecting Intellectual Capital’ sessions.
Soon after the next addressal was by Smt. Kirron Kher who talked about aligning entrepreneurial efforts with the government’s vision.Next in line Ravi Mantha, a prolific investor spoke about his ideas on the investment environment in India. Having invested in more than 20 startups so far, he sounded positive for the future prospects. His session, ‘India, a land of opportunities’ was well-received.
There were panel discussion on education too, where educationists and researchers like Summer Walia, Diector CEED chair made an appearance. The conference also saw startup pitches in the 4pm -6pm session, where Chandigarh Angel Network members were present as the jury.
The audience also listened attuned to some of the greatest entrepreneurial journeys by Dr. Velumani, MD Thyrocare, Anshu Gupta, Founder Goonj and asked close questions in the Q&A that followed. The action-packed day came to an end with networking dinner and a stint by stand-up comedian Angad Singh Ranyal at 9 pm.
BW Reporters
Soumya is a young writer and journalist, with bachelors in Multimedia and Mass Communication. She is an alumini of the Asian College of Journalism, and finds politics and sustainability intriguing beats to work with.
