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Rekindling The IT gold rush

Nirshan Perera

Hi-tech titans freely dropped pearls of wisdom. Thousands of budding businessmen mobbed them like rock star fans. And for three short and blessed days the dark clouds that have been looming over Silicon Valley for the past year broke.

The ninth conference of The Indus Entrepreneurs punched the pause button on the hi-tech recession last weekend as a record-busting 2,569 people poured into the Westin Hotel in Santa Clara, California, to rekindle the IT gold rush of yesteryear. Three thousand more attendees logged on to TiEcon's live Web cast from places as remote as Australia and as local as Los Angeles.

The high turnout and indefatigable spirit evident in the thronging hallways impressed even the TiE folk. "There was an unmistakable air of confidence in people despite the realities," remarked conference organizer Bakul Joshi. "With the richness of education, plenty of reasons to get inspired, and as always, good networking, there was a wonderful fresh breeze of ideas flowing."

This spell of intense optimism was cast at the very beginning of the event by TiEcon's stellar slate of keynote speakers. Cisco chief John Chambers, Hewlett-Packard head Carly Fiorina and TIBCO Software founder Vivek Ranadive all set the tone for TiEcon 2001 in their addresses. And the tone was definitely upbeat, NASDAQ be damned.

At Saturday's main event, Chambers and Fiorina spoke at length about a bright and booming IT future, with an emphasis on productivity, reinvention and rolling with industry change.

Ranadive continued the sunny prognosis on Sunday by looking back on his own experiences of starting a company in the turbulent 1980s. Entrepreneurship is alive and well, even in the bleakest of times, he observed.

This recurrent theme obviously rang true for many conference participants, who hobnobbed and networked as if the VCs were still handing out blank cheques.

The great energy that TiEcon 2001 generated was certainly it's biggest achievement, Joshi, a founding TiE member, noted. "The satisfaction is tremendous right now," he said. In addition to the 25 per cent increase in conference participation over last year, almost 20 per cent of this year's attendees were from out of town, he noted.

TiEcon 2001 was bigger and better in other ways as well: It showcased 80 companies this year and 80 top-notch speakers. For the first time, it also included an industry-specific programme on opening day, Friday, that allowed 800 participants to drill down into their unique business interests.

More than 200 volunteers put in a lot of thankless hours over the past seven months to make TiEcon 2001 a success, Joshi said. In particular, the organisers worked feverishly to incorporate the suggestions of conference-goers in previous years.

"Number one, the participants wanted more networking, so we made sure to provide more room for that," he said, counting off the many improvements. "Number two, we went ahead and established these special interest groups, which were heavily requested.

"Number three, a lot of people asked us for some type of programme where emerging companies could make presentations. So we came up with the company spotlight, with 10 companies represented and a panel of VCs to tell the audience which company they might fund."

Another first this year was the Saturday evening entertainment provided by Indian pop sensation Bali Brahmbhatt and comedian Moin Akhter. For many, the songs and chuckles over a three-cuisine buffet dinner were a welcome respite from the business speeches.

"That was just plain fun," Joshi noted. "We wanted people to unwind after a hard day's work."

So what's on tap for next year?

"It's too early!" he gasps. "Give me at least three weeks, then I'll answer that."

TiEcon 2001: The Complete Coverage

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