Category Archives: Events

IdeaCampPune – 17 May

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When – 17th May 2008 (Updated!)

Where – “Aryabhatta”, Persistent, Nal Stop (Up-Updated)

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos, and interaction from attendees. As per the BarCamp rule, there are no spectators, only participants. We only need 3 things – a place to hang out, wi-fi connection, ideas and food.

If you have no idea what a barcamp is, check out the wikipedia page on barcamp

Ideas

Often our ideas remain ideas and we are not sure whom to discuss them with. You may have a great idea, but the real challenge lays in finding its appropriate application. Cohesive and divergent thinking is what is required to build ideas from scratch to working prototypes. In the process we need to discuss with people from different walks of life to identify how our ideas can make a difference in their lives. Can our ideas make money for anyone?

About IdeaCampPune

This is a self-organized gathering to share ideas and see them shape by applying divergent thinking. The objective of the camp is to get people from different roles like designers, entrepreneurs, financers, creative minds, technology evangelists, product managers and marketers together to bandy ideas from everyone’s viewpoint. Ideally by end of the gathering we should have ‘proof of potential’ for our ideas.

Potential Ideas

There is no restriction to what ideas you come up with except that it should make business sense and is useful to at least a group of people. You can share with the community how your idea solves an identified problem or serve any observed need.

You can queue the ideas continually on this page and in case we get more ideas flooding, then the participants will decide which ones to discuss.

Topics I would like to hear about

Head over to IdeaCampPune’s Page and look at what people have listed so far. Click on the edit link at the top of the page and add your own topics. (You’ll be taken to a register/login page. There, on the left-hand-side, fill “c4mp” as the wiki password/invite key, and fill in some username and e-mail address to register.)

Schedule

9:00-9:30 am Event kick-off
9:30-10:30 am Brief introductions
10:30 – 1:00 pm Ideate, collaborate and build
1:00 – 2:00 pm Lunch
2:00 – 5:00 pm Ideate, collaborate and build
5:00 – 6:00 pm Summarize – present what you have built and discuss what do we want to do next with the developed ideas
6:00 – 7:00 pm Happy hour – Evening snacks, socialize

Sponsors

If you have money please sponsor this event. We need more such events in Pune.

Planners

1 Harshada Deshpande harshada11@gmail.com, http://designecology.blogspot.com/
2 Vishal Sethi vishal.imt@gmail.com
3 Hrridaysh Deshpande hrridaysh.deshpande@gmail.com

Volunteers

Head over to the IdeaCampPune Page and yourself as a volunteer to get involved.

Events: Pune OpenCoffee Club meeting & Startup “lunch” combined today

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The Pune OpenCoffee Club and the Pune Startup “Lunch” events are being combined into one event to be held today (Friday, 4th April) at 5:30pm on the terraces of Bookeazy on BMCC road. (No, there will be no lunch at 5:30pm.)

The Pune OpenCoffee Club (POCC) is an informal club for people interested in the Pune startup ecosystem to meet regularly for discussions, exchange of ideas and networking. The Pune Startup Lunch is gathering where people interested in working for startups can meet founders of startups to get an idea of the possibilities.

Mukesh Singhal of Canaan Partners will also attend to mingle with entrepreneurs. He is also interested in meeting with startups on Saturday. Send him an e-mail at msinghal@canaan.com if you are interested.

The event is free and open for all. You should attend if you are:

  • A founder of a startup
  • Interested in starting a startup someday
  • Interested in working for a startup
  • Generally interested in the Pune startups ecosystem

Details of venue and directions are here. See here to get an idea of who have already confirmed attendance attending.

Pune OpenCoffee Club Meeting – 4th April (for Startups)

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If you are a Pune-based entrepreneur (or think you’d like to be an entrepreneur someday), consider joining the Pune OpenCoffee Club. There is a meeting of the POCC on Friday. Main agenda is for the members to get to know each other. Also a couple of VCs will be attending – they also want to get to know Pune entrepreneurs.

Details from Anjali Gupta (anjali at NOSPAM bookeazy dot com):

Dear Pune OpenCoffee members,

Thank you for your enthusiastic response in bootstrapping the Club. In the last few weeks over 50 members and 20 startups have joined POCC on http://punestartups.ning.com

Who’s here?
Pringoo, Komli, Mithi, Mangospring, Zmanda, 42, ThinkingSpace, TechZemplary, Coriolis, Josh Software, Niyuj, Indyvation, Mobikon, 5 Colors, Business Gateway, Spring Computing, TastyKhana, Lipikaar, and BookEazy.

We’ve planned our first networking meetup on 4th April, 5:30pm – 7.30pm (Friday) at BookEazy.

We’ve also invited a few guests who have expressed interest in meeting POCC entrepreneurs at the meetup.
– Mukul Singhal, Canaan Partners
– Niren Shah, Norwest Venture Partners
– Startup mentors and incubators will also be attending

Do invite entrepreneurs, founders, investors/advisers or those interested in starting up or joining startups.

For event details and directions to the venue, please visit:
look here

Don’t forget to confirm your participation here to help us plan:
RSVP link: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/428897/
RSVP over email: anjali at NOSPAM bookeazy dot com

Feel free to add your feedback and comments on the POCC forums.

Look forward to meeting everyone.

Best regards,
Anjali

Pune needs more of a tech “community”. So please join.

Upcoming Event: Seminar on CRL’s Supercomputer (4th fastest in the world)

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A presentation on CRL’s EKA supercomputer will be held next Thursday evening. Considering that it is one of the fastest supercomputer in the world, and considering the qualifications of the speakers (see below), it promises to be an interesting talk.

Details

When: 27th March 2008, 6.30 to 8 pm.
Where: MCCIA, Crossword Building 5th Floor, Hall 4 & 5, Senapati Bapat Road
Price: No entry fee.

CRL’s EKA Supercomputer – Architecture and Applications

Computational Research Laboratories (CRL) has recently designed and built a high performance computer (HPC) system called EKA (Sanskrit word for “one”) which has been rated fourth fastest in the world and fastest in Asia. This rating was announced in the recent Supercomputing 2007 conference held in Reno, Nevada in USA. Of the top ten supercomputers in the world, this is the only computer funded by private sector and is available for usage on commercial terms. CRL is a fully owned subsidiary of Tata Sons Limited. The Tata group has always contributed to scientific research in India and EKA will strengthen this cause with appropriate public-private partnerships.

The senior team from CRL will cover salient aspects of EKA — architecture and applications.

About the Speaker – Dr. Rajendra Lagu

Education
B.Tech, Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, 1978, M.Tech, Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay 1981, Ph.D., University of Florida, Gainesville, USA, 1985

Experience

  • Member of Technical Staff, Computational Research Labs, Pune, June 2006-present
  • Project Director, Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay, June 2000-May 2006
  • Adjunct Professor, School of Management, IIT Bombay, June 2000-May 2006
  • Group Software Manager, Mastek Limited, January 1995-May 2000
  • Assistant Professor, IIT Bombay, June 1986-May 1990

About the Speaker – Dr. Sunil Dattatraya Sherlekar

Education

  • B. Tech (Elect. Engg.), I.I.T Bombay, April 1978
  • M. Tech (Computer Sc. & Engg.), I.I.T Bombay, July 1982.
  • Ph.D., I.I.T. Bombay, Sept . 1987

Experience

  • Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Graduate Engineer Trainee, June 1978 – Nov 1978.
  • CSRE, I.I.T. Bombay, Sr.Research Asst, Dec 1978 – July 1979.
  • Computer Centre, I.I.T Bombay, Sep, 1979 – Oct 1982.
  • Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Head, Embedded Systems ( R& D), June 2002 – date.

Awards

  • Fellowship of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, 2007
  • IEEE Test Technology Committee award for contributions to the Asian activities of the committee.
  • UNESCO / ROSTSCA award for young scientists for contribution to the field of Computer Sc. & Informatics, 1989.

About the Speaker – Mr. N. Seetha Rama Krishna

Education
B.E (ECE), 1986, MBA (Dual) Indira Institute, Pune

Experience
21+ years handling Complex IT infrastructure & Data Centre solutions to verticals like:

  • Space, Defense, Research, Academic
  • Energy, Industry, Public Sector, Finance.
  • E – Governance (Govt), Medical Informatics.
  • Executed several turnkey & consultancy projects in all above mentioned areas.
  • Currently working with Computational Research Laboratories Ltd (Wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons) from May 07.
  • Earlier was working with C – DAC.

Other Upcoming Events: Startup Lunch, OpenCoffee Club and VC Circle.

Tech Community Building: Startup Lunch, OpenCoffee Club and Bloggers Meet

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Startup Lunch, Pune

[A StartupLunch] is roughly the same as the SpeedDating concept. The startup founders are seated on one side and the candidates get to say hello and have a quick conversation to talk about what the background of the founder is, why he started the company and what sort of person he is looking for, while asking questions to the candidate about the reason to join a startup and what his/her passions are and ten minutes later the same process continues with the next founder. Within an hour, you would have met/spoken to most of the startups, and by the end of the day would know whom to get in touch with for your first/next job.

Something like this would be really useful, especially in Pune, because most job seekers are not aware of the startups that exist in the area, and where to find them. The Startup Lunch is an attempt at fixing this.

More details

Register here if you are looking for a job. And register here if you are a startup. Jaspreet Singh (jaspreet.singh _at_ druvaa.com) from Druvaa has taken the lead in organizing this in Pune.

VC Circle Growth Capital Forum

VC Circle is holding a day long event targeted towards the venture capital, capital investments and entrepreneural community. Basically, companies seeking funds to grow, and people with money who are willing to give it out.
Snapshot of the Event
Venue: Le Meridien, Pune
Date: April 4, 2008
Time: 10.30 am-5.30 pm
Registration fee per attendant: Rs 3,000 inclusive of all taxes.

The confirmed list of speakers:
George Thomas, Partner, India Value Fund

Nikhil Khattau, MD, Mayfield Fund
Srini Vudayagiri, Managing Director, Lightspeed Venture Partners
Cyrus Driver, MD, Helix Investments
Gaurav Mathur, MD, India Equity Partners
Deep Kalra, CEO, MakeMyTrip
Niren Shah, MD, Norwest Venture Partners

Kartik Parija, MD, Zephyr Peacock
Shantanu Surpure, Managing Advocate, Sandhill India Advisors
Subba Rao, Chairman, Robo Silicon
Abizer Diwanji, Executive Director, KPMG
Shiraz Bhugwadia, Director, o3 Capital Partners
Kuntal Shah, Co-Founder, Axis Holdings

More details

Pune OpenCoffee Club

The Pune OpenCoffee Club is an attempt to establish recognized, open and regular meeting places where entrepreneurs can meet with investors, advisor’s, (and anyone else) in a totally informal setting.nurture the startup eco-system through Community participation

Pune OpenCoffee Club was started by Santosh Dawara, co-founder of Bookeazy.

If you are interested, please sign up

Bloggers Meet

Pune Bloggers Meet organized by Vineet in conjunction with IndiBlogger and Microsoft last weekend was attended by over 50 people.

There was quite a diverse crowd:

There are lots of interesting and enthusiastic people in Pune.

Upcoming Events: Pune Bloggers Meet, VC Forum

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Pune Bloggers Meet, March 15, 4pm

Indiblogger is arranging a bloggers meet in Pune (sponsored by Microsoft). To get an idea of what the meet is likely to be like, see reports of their previous blogger meets at Hyderabad and Bangalore.

So far, it appears that about 30 bloggers have confirmed attendance (although I suspect that the final number is likely to be higher). I know that a bunch of bloggers from Mumbai are coming down to Pune specially for this, and it appears that some are coming from Kolkatta and Bangalore too.

VC Circle Growth Capital Forum, Pune, April 4, 10:30 to 6

VC Circle is holding a day long event targeted towards the venture capital, capital investments and entrepreneural community. Basically, companies seeking funds to grow, and people with money who are willing to give it out.

VC Circle is a news website tracking India’s deal economy – venture capital, private equity, investment banking, mergers, acquisitions, corporate law, and entrepreneurship. VC Circle was founded in November 2005 by Sahad P V. a journalist with 10 years of experience in Business Today (Assistant Editor), India Today Group, Business Standard (staff writer).

A similar event in held in Bangalore in November 2007 attracted over 100 attendees. Speakers were mostly from the venture capital and growth capital investments communitiy. To see a list of speakers at that event see here. The speakers and other details for the Pune event haven’t been announced yet.