TiECon 2005, the annual conference organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs, hopes to take note of the changes in the global market, with outsourcing becoming a force to reckon with, making talent available cheaply farther afield.

As Raj Jaswa, president, TiE, Silicon Valley, put it, "No more can Silicon Valley entirely access the market with talent within."

According to Ramneek Bhasin, marketing and public relations chair, for TiECon 2005, 'Energizing the Global Entrepreneurial Spirit,' the theme for this year's conference, did not suggest there was a need to encourage entrepreneurs; on the contrary, it was an effort to take the pioneering spirit the TiE fostered to the next level.

Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage

To this end, the conference, to be held on May 13 and 14 in Santa Clara, California, would allow many entrepreneurs to spend time discussing their chances of getting funding from big names in the field of venture capital, including Doug Leone of Sequoia Capital, Sanjay Subhedar of Storm Ventures, Bob Williams of Bay Partners and Steve Krausz of US Venture Partners.

The first day would be devoted to panel discussions and keynote speeches by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who would speak on the inevitability of outsourcing in the world economy; Dr Eric Schmidt, chief executive officer, Google; Daniel Rosensweig, chief operating officer, Yahoo!; Bruce Chizen, CEO, Adobe Systems; and Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, salesforce.com. Not only his columns, Friedman's recent book, The World is Flat also deals with the issues of outsourcing.