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TiE to Discuss Survival in Trying Times

Som Chivukula

Why would people want to spend $400 attending a business conference in Silicon Valley during an economic downslide?

This was what was bothering Jnan Dash in December. As content chair for TiEcon 2001, the flagship event of The IndUS Entrepreneurs, Dash was responsible for ensuring that the convention was a big success.

Last year, it was another story: The economy was still promising and over 2,000 people had attended the event. Building on that success, the TiE brass had begun planning a bigger event, and booked the Santa Clara convention center and the nearby Westin Hotel for the conference.

And then the downturn in the economy began -- and almost immediately the question arose about getting people to attend the event. And more importantly, how did one make the convention relevant?

Dash's solution: Discuss survival strategies for difficult times. The convention would also have an A-class line-up of speakers who would not only give advice but also discuss their company's performance under adverse conditions.

"Our whole objective at TiEcon is to make the conference compelling," Dash, a senior executive at Oracle Corporation, noted. "In the slow economy, we want to turn this negative, where people are rethinking their businesses into a positive, by showing value."

For starters, he asked how do keynote addresses by Cisco Systems CEO John Chambers, Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina and TIBCO Software CEO Vivek Ranadive sound.

"John Chambers is a world-class manager," he said. "So is Carly Fiorina. Who better to listen to and learn from?"

"We have always planned for a great line-up of speakers," he added. Last year, Netscape co-founder Jim Clark's address kicked off the event. Past keynotes have been delivered by Marc Andreessen, now chairman and co-founder of Loudcloud, and Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation.

With two American speakers for the 2001 event, TiE continues to be connected to the mainstream. "We have never wanted to confine ourselves to speakers from the Indus region," Dash said. "It comes down to answering, 'Who's the best'?"

The A-class speakers are not just restricted to the keynote address. Stalwarts such as Sabeer Bhatia, Umang Gupta, Mike Moritz, C K Prahalad, K B Chandrasekhar and Vani Kola will address different topics.

Venture capitalists Mike Moritz, Geoff Yang, Jim Goetz and George Zachary will discuss validating ideas, funding and valuation in The Journey of an Entrepreneur on June 23.

"These people go through that everyday," Dash observed. "The speakers are the who's who of Sand Hill Road."

Executives from Peoplesoft and Adobe will talk about reinventing businesses during times of uncertainty in a parallel track.

TiEcon 2001 will also focus on the basics of business and entrepreneurship. Value creation, sustainability, exit strategies and rules of the game are some other topics.

"We have a market perspective from the VC point of view, investment bankers who will discuss the best bets for the future and differences in entrepreneurship from the '80s and '90s to now," Dash noted.

Sunday's discussions include the human side of entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship of the past and present, and a session on businesses headed by women.

The speakers will help serve the bottom line, Dash says, which is to build excitement about entrepreneurship. "The conference is all about content," he said. "We have to provide the best value for money and make it interesting for anybody attending. In a downtime, the men are separated from the boys."

Dash and a group of volunteers have been meeting many times for the last few months, deciding on topics and speakers who best suit them. "Most of the selection takes place through personal contacts," Dash said. "We didn't have a bunch of names and assign them slots."

Did anyone turn down the request to address the convention?

"Not really. But I really expected more difficulty," he said. "There were some who couldn't come because it runs into their vacation time. But we're happy with what we've got."

Register for the conference at :www.tiecon.org

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