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PuneConnect 2018: Pune’s Largest Tech/Leadership/Startup Event 20 Oct: Register Today

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PuneConnect, SEAP‘s flagship event is back in a bigger format this year. We invite you to join us for the conversations on “Future of Everything”. 25 hand-picked speakers from across the country, special keynotes and four dedicated tracks for dialogues around: startups, technology, leadership, and academia/research/innovation.

As technology advances continue to permeate the business and social world and re-defines how we do business, we believe the future of work is also bound to change in a significant way and hence we have anchored the theme for Pune Connect 2018 around this.

The detailed schedule is here, and speaker profiles are here.

To attend as a delegate, register here.
If you’re a startup and would like to demo your product in the demo hall (free for selected startups), please apply here

This is an ideal event to connect with the who’s who of the Pune Startup ecosystem. You will find lots of the senior leadership from the technology industry, startup founders, successful senior entrepreneurs, potential recruits, angels and investors from all over, potential customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates, and investors from all parts of Pune’e startup and technology ecosystem – including SEAP, PuneTech, TiE Pune, PoCC, MCCIA, IPMA, HIA, IIMA’s CIIE, and SME Joinup.

Agenda

Time Session Topic Speaker Track
09:15AM-9:30AM Kick Off – By SEAP President Main Track
9:30AM-10:30AM Keynote Address On Your Markets, Get Set, Go Pune….Define the Future By Pari Natarajan Main Track
10:40AM-11:40AM Keynote Address Changing nature of the consumer and its impact on the technology selection for sustaining business Vijayaraman Subramaniam Main Track
11:50AM-12:50PM Keynote Address Leadership lessons from Mt. Everest Team Giripremi Main Track
12:50PM-01:00PM Inauguration of the Startup Stalls – – –
01:00PM-01:45PM Lunch Break – – –

Track Wise Agenda

Time Technology Track Leadership Track Academics & Research Track Startup Track
1:45PM-02:20PM Keynote Address:

Unearthing possibilities with data

by Dr. Hanumantha Rao Susarla

 Keynote Address:

How Companies Can Become Digital Leaders

By Mrutyunjay Singh

 TBA TBA
2:30PM-03: 30 PM Panel Discussion:

What are the challenges with data?

Panelist: Rohit Shrivastawa, Milind Barve, Satish Patil, Moderator: Sandeep Suryavanshi

 Keynote Address:

Lead The Change Through Social Entrepreneurship

By Ramesh Padmanabhan

 Panel Discussion:

Laying the path for Research, Academia and Industry collaboration

Panelist: Dr. Bhalchandra Puranik, Dr. Neeraj Gupta

 Workshop:

Samir Patil
03:30PM-04: 15 PM Fireside Discussion:

Blockchain and the Future of Enterprise

Pandurang Kamat, Bharani Subramanium, Moderator: Navin Kabra

 Panel Discussion:

The Changing Face Of Leadership

Panelist: Seema Gopal, Mangesh Kirtane, Dr. Kiran Bala, Moderator: S. Ramprasad

 Keynote Address:

The emerging relevance of Liberal arts to Indian Industry

by Anita Patankar

 Panel Discussion:

PuneConnect Winner Alumni what happened afterward…

Panelist: Nitin Gupta, Akshay Mehrotra, Madhukar Bhatia : Moderator: Seema Joshi
Time Session Topic Speaker Track
04:45PM-05:15PM Startup Shootout Top 5 Startups will pitch their startup in front of Jury Jury: TBA Main Track
05:15PM-05:45PM Awards Winner of Pune Connect will be announced Guest Of Honour will present the awards Main Track

Background

PuneConnect started in 2011 as a purely startup focused event, and quickly became one of Pune’s top startup events. However, after a break in 2017, we decided to expand the scope so that different parts of the industry/ecosystem (the established companies, the startups, academia, and leaders and mentors from elsewhere) could really connect with each other.

See the PuneConnect website for more information about past PuneConnects.

Fees and Registration

This event costs Rs. 1200 (Rs. 1600 after 13th October) if you want to be part of the lunch, Rs. 500 if you want to just attend second half of the event (without lunch; Rs. 800 after 13th October), and Rs. 300 for students (full day) and is free for students (half-day).

The event is from 9:00am to 6pm at the Westin, Pune.

Register here.

PuneConnect 2018: Call for Startups: Apply Now

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PuneConnect, which earlier was a purely startup focused event is now returning this year in an even bigger, expanded format. The event is now a technology and startup event with 4 different tracks—startups, technology, leadership, and academia. So, startups showcasing their products at this PuneTech will have a much more diverse audience to pitch to, and the potential to find prospective customers, mentors, employees, co-founders, and investors.

The startup track of PuneConnect is now in its 7th edition, and is one of Pune’s most important events for startups. Early stage startups get a chance to showcase their products and services to larger companies in Pune, senior and juniors from the technology industry, VCs and angel investors from all over the country, and others from the ecosystem. PuneConnect 2018 is on 20th October 2018, at Westin, Pune. It is a full-day event where selected startups will be provided with a table in the demo hall.

This event is free for startups selected by PuneConnect. If you are unsure of whether this event is appropriate for you or not, please go ahead and apply, and our selection committee will figure out whether you’re a good fit or not. Please apply right away. The last date to apply is 1st October 2018.

Any startup company that has a product that they would like to demo, should submit a proposal at http://db.puneconnect.com/pc/combo-form/. (The product must be ready/working on the date of the event.) A panel of selectors drawn from experts in the industry will select the most promising startups who will be allowed to set up a demo at PuneConnect, in Westin, Pune, on 20th October 2018.

There will be a special quota for students – i.e. startups whose founders are still students will be given special consideration, so if you know someone in this category, please forward this info to them.

Benefits to selected startups include:

  • Exposure to Pune’s top companies (potential customers and potential mentors)
  • Exposure to Pune’s software developer community (potential employees and potential co-founders)
  • Exposure to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors who are being invited to the event
  • Press and media coverage before and after the event

PuneConnect started in 2011 and is usually held in late October/early November every year (except for a gap in 2017). For the last few years, we’ve been selecting about 25-30 startups for demos out of 150+ registrations that we receive. Click here for more information about past PuneConnect events.

Media Coverage: In past PuneConnects, Economic Times, Indian Express, The Financial Express, the Financial Chronicle, Business Standard, and the top Marathi newspapers Sakal and Maharashtra Times all have carried detailed articles about PuneConnect and the companies.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM, SME Joinup, CIIE Ahmedabad, and MCCIA Pune – basically all the important players in Pune’s startup ecosystem. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Apply now. It costs nothing. Please apply right away. The last date to apply is 1st October. (Note: this is just a call for applications for the demo hall. A separate announcement will be sent out for registrations for attending the event as a delegate.)

PuneConnect 2016: Pune’s Largest Startup Showcase Event 19 Nov: Register Today

Events, Featured, , , , , , ,

PuneConnect, one of Pune’s most important events for startups, is now in its 6th year. The mega event allows selected early-stage startups from Pune to showcase their products and services to the world at large, specifically to larger companies in Pune, VCs and angel investors from all over the country, and others from the ecosystem.

Register today to be a part of this show.

25 of Pune’s most promising startups have been selected from a huge pool of applicants, and they will be joining some of Pune’s established startups and companies in showcasing their products at the Westin, on 19th November from 9:00am to 5pm.

This is an ideal event to connect with the who’s who of the Pune Startup ecosystem. You will find lots of startup founders, successful senior entrepreneurs, potential recruits, angels and investors from all over, potential customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates, and investors from all parts of Pune’e startup and technology ecosystem – including SEAP, PuneTech, TiE Pune, PoCC, MCCIA, IPMA, HIA, IIMA’s CIIE, and SME Joinup.

Agenda

  • 09:00 am – Registration
  • 09:30 am – Welcome Note by SEAP President
  • 10:00 am – “Session on entrepreneurship and investing in an Idea” Mr. Kuntal Shah Partner, SageOne Investment advisors LLP
  • 10:45 am – Panel Discussion on “Scaling Up” with:
    • Shachin Bharadwaj, CEO, Sminq (earlier Founder of TastyKhana)
    • Shridhar Shukla, MD, kPoint
    • Ajit Patil, Co-founder, SmartCloud Infotech
    • Monish Darda, CoFounder and CTO ICERTIS
    • Moderated by Gaurav Mehra, Partner, Kaizen Private Equity
  • 11:45 am – Key Note- Technology and Start- ups Dr. Gopichand Katragadda, CTO Tata Sons
  • 12:30 pm – Startup Stall Visits | Networking
  • 01:30 pm – Lunch Break
  • 03:15 pm – Startup Shootout
  • 04:15 pm – Awards Ceremony- Chief Guest of the Award Ceremony, Hon. Shri. P.P. Chaudhary, Minister of State Law and Justice & Electronic and IT (Govt. of India) and Guest of Honour of the Award Ceremony, Dr. Omkar Rai Director General STPI

In addition, an “IAN Pitch Session”, by Indian Angels Network, will run in parallel, for invited startups – from 10am to 1pm. Please get in touch with Nidhi Saraf, nidhi@indianangelnetwork.com if you’re interested.

Background

PuneConnect started in 2011 and is held in late October/early November every year. In 2011 we showcased 12 startups, and had attendance of about 250. In 2012, we showcased 21 startups, and had to close delegate registrations at 600 because of space limitations. Since 2013, we have been showcasing about 30 startups out of approximately 150 applicants each year. See PuneConnect website for more information about past PuneConnects.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM, SME Joinup, CIIE Ahmedabad, and MCCIA Pune, IPMA, Hinjewadi Industries Association, and IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE (which will soon have an Pune presence) – basically all the important players in Pune’s startup ecosystem. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Entries to other prestigious events: Companies featured in PuneConnect have been selected to be on TV (e.g. an episode ETNow Channel’s Starting Up show), or in national-level conferences (e.g. one organized by Zinnov), where they got to demo their products to companies from all over India, or for mentorship programs (like the TiE Pune Nurture Initiative), or even got funding (e.g. AppSurfer, a company from the first PuneConnect that got Rs. 1 crore in funding on the SuperAngels show) – all as a result of being featured on PuneConnect.

Fees and Registration

This event costs Rs. 1200 if you want to be part of the lunch, Rs. 600 if you want to just attend the event, Rs. 300 for students (full day) and is free for students (half-day).

The event is from 9:00am to 5pm at the Westin, Pune.

Register here.

PuneConnect 2016: Startup Showcase Event for Pune’s Startups: Apply Now

Events, Featured, , , , , , ,

PuneConnect, Pune’s startup show case event, is now in its 6th year, and is one of Pune’s most important events for startups. This is an event for startups to showcase their products and services to larger companies in Pune, VCs and angel investors from all over the country, and others from the ecosystem. PuneConnect 2016 is on 19th November 2016, at Westin, Pune. It is a half-day event where selected startups in Pune can find customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates, and investors amongst Pune’s established companies, successful senior entrepreneurs, and angels and investors from all over.

This event is free for startups selected by PuneConnect. If you are unsure of whether this event is appropriate for you or not, please go ahead and apply, and our selection committee will figure out whether you’re a good fit or not. Please apply right away. The last date to apply is 8th October.

Any startup company that has a product that they would like to demo, should submit a proposal at http://db.puneconnect.com/pc/combo-form/. (The product must be ready before 19th November.) A panel of selectors drawn from experts in the industry will select the most promising startups who will be allowed to set up a demo at PuneConnect, in Westin, Pune, on 19th November 2015.

There will be a special quota for students – i.e. startups whose founders are still students will be given special consideration, so if you know someone in this category, please forward this info to them.

Benefits to selected startups include:

  • Exposure to Pune’s top companies, potential customers and potential mentors
  • Exposure to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors who are being
    invited to the event
  • Press and media coverage before and after the event
  • Winners of the event get automatic entries to other country-level events (e.g. those organized by NASSCOM)

PuneConnect started in 2011 and is held in late October/early November every year. For the last few years, we’ve been selecting 30+ startups for demos out of 150+ registrations that we receive. Click here for more information about past PuneConnect events.

Media Coverage: In past PuneConnects, Economic Times, Indian Express, The Financial Express, the Financial Chronicle, Business Standard, and the top Marathi newspapers Sakal and Maharashtra Times all have carried detailed articles about PuneConnect and the companies.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM, SME Joinup, CIIE Ahmedabad, and MCCIA Pune – basically all the important players in Pune’s startup ecosystem. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Entries to other prestigious events: Companies featured in PuneConnect have been selected to be on TV (e.g. an episode ETNow Channel’s Starting Up show), or in national-level conferences (e.g. one organized by Zinnov), where they got to demo their products to companies from all over India, or for mentorship programs (like the TiE Pune Nurture Initiative), or even got funding (e.g. AppSurfer, a company from the first PuneConnect that got Rs. 1 crore in funding on the SuperAngels show) – all as a result of being featured on PuneConnect.

Apply now. It costs nothing. Please apply right away. The last date to apply is 8th October.

(Paid) PuneConnect 2015: Pune’s Largest Startup Showcase Event 28 Nov: Register Today

Events, Featured, , , , , , ,

After 4 successful years, PuneConnect has quickly become one of Pune’s most important events for startups, and it is now back with PuneConnect 2015, the mega event for Pune’s startups to showcase their products and services to the world at large, specifically to larger companies in Pune, VCs and angel investors from all over the country, and others from the ecosystem.

Register today to be part of this show.

30 of Pune’s most promising startups have been selected from a huge pool of applicants, and they will be joining some of Pune’s established startups and companies in showcasing their products at the Westin, on 28th November from 9:00am to 2pm.

This is an ideal event to connect with the who’s who of the Pune Startup ecosystem. You will find lots of startup founders, successful senior entrepreneurs, potential recruits, angels and investors from all over, potential customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates, and investors from all parts of Pune’e startup and technology ecosystem – including SEAP, PuneTech, TiE Pune, PoCC, MCCIA, IPMA, HIA, IIMA’s CIIE, and SME Joinup.

Agenda

  • 08.30a.m Registration
  • 09.00a.m Welcome Note, Also, Start-up Showcase (Demo Room) Open
  • 09.15a.m Keynote
  • 10.15a.m Panel Discussion
  • 11.15a.m Break: Go see the startups
  • 12.00p.m On-stage Startup Shootout
  • 1.00p.m Networking LUnch
  • 2.00p.m onwards: VC Round Table for selected startups

Background

PuneConnect started in 2011 and is held in late October/early November every year. In 2011 we showcased 12 startups, and had attendance of about 250. In 2012, we showcased 21 startups, and had to close delegate registrations at 600 because of space limitations. Since 2013, we have been showcasing about 30 startups out of approximately 150 applicants each year. See PuneConnect website for more information about past PuneConnects.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM, SME Joinup, CIIE Ahmedabad, and MCCIA Pune, IPMA, Hinjewadi Industries Association, and IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE (which will soon have an Pune presence) – basically all the important players in Pune’s startup ecosystem. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Entries to other prestigious events: Companies featured in PuneConnect have been selected to be on TV (e.g. an episode ETNow Channel’s Starting Up show), or in national-level conferences (e.g. one organized by Zinnov), where they got to demo their products to companies from all over India, or for mentorship programs (like the TiE Pune Nurture Initiative), or even got funding (e.g. AppSurfer, a company from the first PuneConnect that got Rs. 1 crore in funding on the SuperAngels show) – all as a result of being featured on PuneConnect.

Fees and Registration

This event costs Rs. 1000 if you want to be part of the lunch, Rs. 500 if you want to just attend the event, and is free for students with a college ID card.

The event is from 9:00am to 2pm at the Westin, Pune.

Register here

PuneConnect 2015: Startup Showcase Event for Pune’s Startups: Apply Now

Events, Featured, , , , , , ,

PuneConnect, Pune’s startup show case event, is now in it’s 5th year, and is one of Pune’s most important events for startups. This is an event for startups to showcase their products and services to larger companies in Pune, VCs and angel investors from all over the country, and others from the ecosystem. PuneConnect 2015 is on 28th November 2015. It is a half-day event where selected startups in Pune can find customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates, and investors amongst Pune’s established companies, successful senior entrepreneurs, and angels and investors from all over.

This event is free for startups selected by PuneConnect. If you are unsure of whether this event is appropriate for you or not, please go ahead and apply, and our selection committee will figure out whether you’re a good fit or not. Please apply right away. The last date to apply is 8th November – end of this week.

Any startup company from Pune or nearby areas, who has a product that they would like to demo, should submit a proposal at http://db.PuneConnect.com. A panel of selectors drawn from experts in the industry will select the most promising startups who will be allowed to set up a demo at PuneConnect on 28th November 2015

Benefits to selected startups include:

  • Exposure to Pune’s top companies, potential customers and potential mentors
  • Exposure to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors who are being
    invited to the event
  • Press and media coverage before and after the event
  • Winners of the event get automatic entries to other country-level events (e.g. those organized by NASSCOM)

PuneConnect started in 2011 and is held in late October/early November every year. In 2011 we showcased 12 startups, and had attendance of about 250. In 2012, we showcased 21 startups, and had to close delegate registrations at 600 because of space limitations. In 2013, we showcased 27 startups, out of 104 applications, and had to close registrations at 1055 due to space limitations. In 2014, we showcased 30+ companies out of 150+ registrations. Click here for more information about past PuneConnect events.

Media Coverage: In past PuneConnects, Economic Times, Indian Express, The Financial Express, the Financial Chronicle, Business Standard, and the top Marathi newspapers Sakal and Maharashtra Times all have carried detailed articles about PuneConnect and the companies.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM, SME Joinup, CIIE Ahmedabad, and MCCIA Pune – basically all the important players in Pune’s startup ecosystem. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Entries to other prestigious events: Companies featured in PuneConnect have been selected to be on TV (e.g. an episode ETNow Channel’s Starting Up show), or in national-level conferences (e.g. one organized by Zinnov), where they got to demo their products to companies from all over India, or for mentorship programs (like the TiE Pune Nurture Initiative), or even got funding (e.g. AppSurfer, a company from the first PuneConnect that got Rs. 1 crore in funding on the SuperAngels show) – all as a result of being featured on PuneConnect.

Apply now. It costs nothing. Please apply right away. The last date to apply is 8th November – end of this week.

Internet of Things: Challenges and Opportunities Jürgen Mössinger

Event Report, Live Blogging, Technology, ,

(This is a liveblog of SEAP’s event where Jürgen Mössinger of Bosch talked about “Internet of Things: Challenges and Opportunities”)

About the Speaker

Jürgen Mössinger is the Head of Business Unit at Robert Bosch Engineering and
Business Solutions, India. He has an extensive background in embedded SW, IT and product development. He has been with Bosch since the last 19 years. Jürgen headed several positions in platform and customer product development for control units and was the spokesperson of the AUTOSAR Consortium in 2008. Currently he is heading a business unit at Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, responsible for products, services and solutions in the areas of Consumer Goods, Industrial Technology, Energy and Building Technology and Automotive Electronics. Beside the classical areas, Juergen is working on Smart Home, Smart City and Connected Industry (Industry 4.0).

About Bosch

Bosch group is a 40+ billion euro company with 280000 employees and 225 manufacturing sites. Automotive technology is their biggest sector, but they’re also in industrial sector, energy and building technoloyg, consumer goods – all over the world.

About the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the term given to small computing devices embedded in anything an everything around us which will all be collecting data about their environment and which will be connected to the internet – allowing for data collection and analysis at a scale never before seen, and of course fine-grained control of the environment.

Things, in the IoT, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters, automobiles with built-in sensors, or field operation devices that assist fire-fighters in search and rescue. Current market examples include smart thermostat systems and washer/dryers that utilize wifi for remote monitoring.

Opportunities and Challenges in IoT

Here is a random collection of interesting points made during the presentation:

  • By 2020, 50 Billion devices will be connected to the internet. This forms the basis of IOT
  • IoT will be everywhere. Huge potential: Smart Cities, Smart Homes, Smart Industry, Smart Wearables, Logistics (e.g. transport fleets, tracking)
  • More than two thirds of consumers expect to buy IoT devices for their homes by 2019, and nearly half expect to buy wearable technology
  • The wearables market is expected to have reached $1.5 billion in 2014
  • By 2020 there will be over 100 million light bulbs and lamps worldwide that will be connected to the internet wirelessly
  • Just 1% improvement in an industrial setting via use of IoT can result in billions of savings in operational costs
    • $30B fuel cost saving in aviation industry
    • $66B fuel cost saving in gas powered fleets
    • $63B productivity improvement in healthcare
    • $90B reduction in capital expenditure in oil and gas exploration and development
    • $27B productivity improvement in rail industry

Examples of IoT usage in Smart Homes:

  • Appliance Information available on the cloud/smartphones
  • Appliances operate automatically / efficiently
    • Through the use of scheduling or historical patterns or sensors
  • Control House from Anywhere:
    • Customer is aware and fine-tunes the settings from anywhere

What all does IoT need?

  • Sensors: heat, temperature, light and various other things
  • Long battery life; can’t go around the house changing/charging batteries all the time
  • GPS
  • Local Network, Global Network
  • Software to tie it all together

IoT means Big Data:

  • 4.5 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook every day
  • Youtube users upload 100 hours of new video every minute
  • By 2019 we’ll have 9.2 billion mobile phones
  • iTunes receives about 100 billion app downloads in one quarter
  • Huge in 3 different dimensions:
    • Volume: Raw amount of data generated
    • Velocity: speed with which the data is generated
    • Variety: the various different sources and types of data (sensor data, text, images, videos). Some of the data is structured and lot of it is unstructured.
  • We will need next generation algorithms and tools to make sense of all this data so that we can generate usable insights
    • Software and Algorithms
    • Data Modelers
    • Data Visualizers
    • Data Architects
    • Business Analysts

Actual examples of IoT usage by Bosch:

  • Fleet Management: 10% reduction of fuel cost per trip in underperforming routes – this was in Bangalore
  • 25% reduction of testing time in Manufacturing
  • 33% reduction in calibration cost of hybrid ECUs in automotive calibration
  • 15% reduction in inventory holding costs in a supply chain

Smart Cities:

  • This is a difficult area
  • Lots of countries/cities claiming that they want to become smart
    • Narendra Modi has also announced Smart Cities initiative in India
      based on the PPP model (Public Private Partnership)
  • Main problem is that these smart city initiatives do not have a business model. The investment has to be made by someone (the city, or the company in the PPP) and the benefits are reaped by others (the citizens). There is no direct return on investment for the investor
  • No city has really solved this problem.

Smart Industry:

  • We have already had 3 industrial revolutions:
    • 1st industrial revolution: the original mechanical industrial revolution
    • 2nd industrial revolution: the assembly line
    • 3rd industrial revolution: electronics
  • Now, with IoT we are ready for the 4th.
    • Smart production: communication between each part and the machine:
      • Dynamic optimization of scheduling of processes and machines
      • Customized processing for each individual product
    • Horizontal Integration
      • Communication between:
        • Parts Suppliers
        • Transportation
        • Within the Factory
      • When all of these are talking to each other and we have data, new optimizations become possible
        • Example: +10 increase in productivity, -30% reduction in stock

(Paid) PuneConnect 2014: Pune’s Largest Startup Showcase Event 8 Nov: Register Today

Events, Featured, , , , , , ,

After 3 successful years, PuneConnect has quickly become one of Pune’s most important events for startups, and it is now back with PuneConnect 2014, the mega event for Pune’s startups to showcase their products and services to the world at large, specifically to larger companies in Pune, VCs and angel investors from all over the country, and others from the ecosystem.

Register today to be part of this show.

30 of Pune’s most promising startups have been selected from a huge pool of applicants, and they will be joining some of Pune’s established startups and companies in showcasing their products at the Westin, on 8th November from 9:30am to 2pm.

The keynote speech will be by Sharad Sharma, ex-MD of Yahoo! India, ex-MD of Veritas/Symantec Pune, and now an angel investor with 30+ investments and one of the driving forces behind iSPIRT, the national level forum for India’s software product startups. Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General of the Software and Technology Parks of India, and who has worked in various capacities with the Central Government, will also be speaking.

This is an ideal event to connect with the who’s who of the Pune Startup ecosystem. You will find lots of startup founders, successful senior entrepreneurs, potential recruits, angels and investors from all over, potential customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates, and investors from all parts of Pune’e startup and technology ecosystem – including SEAP, PuneTech, TiE Pune, PoCC, MCCIA, IPMA, HIA, IIMA’s CIIE, and SME Joinup.

Agenda

  • 09.00a.m Registration
  • 09.30a.m Welcome Note, Also, Start-up Alley (Demo Room) Open
  • 09.45a.m Guest of Honor
  • 10.00a.m Book Launch
  • 10.15a.m Keynote by Sharad Sharma, Co-founder Ispirt & CEO BrandSigma
  • 10.50a.m Panel Discussion: “Cloud and Mobility: Reason to Cheer or Fear?”
    • Suhar Kelkar: CTO BMC
    • Mukul Mukar, Co-Founder Pubmatic
    • K Vishwanathan: VP Operations, Eaton
    • Ankur Agarwal: CEO, Clarion Technologies
    • Nandu Kulkarni: Independent Consultant, Banking & Payments Tech
  • 11.45a.m Break. Also: Registration for Ispirt Roundtable
  • 12.00p.m How do we Support Startups?
  • 12.45p.m Lunch Break
  • 1.45p.m Student Entry Opens. Also: VC RoundTable starts
  • 2.30p.m On-stage Startup Shootout
  • 3.30p.m TiE Nurture Startups Presentation
  • 4.30p.m Awards
  • 5.00p.m Show Ends

Background

PuneConnect started in 2011 and is held in late October/early November every year. In 2011 we showcased 12 startups, and had attendance of about 250. In 2012, we showcased 21 startups, and had to close delegate registrations at 600 because of space limitations. In 2013, we showcased 27 startups, out of 104 applications, and had to close registrations at 1055 due to space limitations. Click here for more information about past PuneConnect events.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM, SME Joinup, CIIE Ahmedabad, and MCCIA Pune, IPMA, Hinjewadi Industries Association, and IIM Ahmedabad’s CIIE (which will soon have an Pune presence) – basically all the important players in Pune’s startup ecosystem. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Entries to other prestigious events: Companies featured in PuneConnect have been selected to be on TV (e.g. an episode ETNow Channel’s Starting Up show), or in national-level conferences (e.g. one organized by Zinnov), where they got to demo their products to companies from all over India, or for mentorship programs (like the TiE Pune Nurture Initiative), or even got funding (e.g. AppSurfer, a company from the first PuneConnect that got Rs. 1 crore in funding on the SuperAngels show) – all as a result of being featured on PuneConnect.

Some of our past winners will also be featured at the show.

Fees and Registration

This event costs Rs. 1000 if you want to be part of the lunch, Rs. 500 if you want to just attend the event, and is free for students with a college ID card.

The event is from 9:30am to 2pm at the Westin, Pune.

Register here

Converged Infrastructure: Talk by Bala Ganeshan, CTO QLogic

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This is a live-blog of an event organized by Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), in which Dr. Bala Ganeshan, Vice President and CTO of QLogic Corporation talked about Converged Infrastructure, which has also been called as Integrated Systems, or Unified Computing Systems. Specifically, he focused on the idea of having compute, storage and networking into one preconfigured package which can be delivered to the data center. This approach provides a major transition that complements the shift to cloud and virtualized computing. These trends together with new I/O centric applications and solid state storage have the potential to revolutionize computing. Many IT organizations have started using converged infrastructure for various reasons ranging from centralized management of IT resources to consolidation to lowering costs. Gartner estimated the growth by more than 50% in 2014 over 2013 to reach $6 billion. Another research firm IDC estimates that, total worldwide spending on converged infrastructure will hit $17.8 billion in 2016.

The evolution of IT infrastructure for the data center

  • Initial system implementations for “open” infrastructure were inflexible, had CPUs with limited power, networking that was slow and unreliable, and storage was captive – it wasn’t easy to share data.
  • SANs (Storage Area Networks) evolved to address these limitations. Here, the data and storage was divorced from the servers, and powerful and flexible standalone storage systems were set up that could be accessed by any servers from anywhere else on the network. But SANs are complex and expensive, required specialised skills, relative high effort to provision new infrastructure, and ended up requiring lots of efforts to manage operationally in large environments. Over time, interoperability between different pieces of the SAN became more and more difficult.
  • Converged Infrastructure was a response to the problems with SAN. The focus of the new systems was ease of use, faster time to deployment, and ease of management.

Factors that drove the disruption of SANs and IT infrastructure:

  • Web Scale: Suddenly, the requirements on the IT infrastructure grew by orders of magnitude, requiring radically different solutions and architectures
  • Open Source: Putting pressure on proprietary solutions
  • Software Defined Networking in particular, and in general Software Defined Everything
  • Storage Scale-out: more storage generated in the last 2 years than the history of computing before that.
  • Server vendors started incorporating storage in their offerings
  • Storage vendors started building intelligence and apps in their hardware

Converged Infrastructure

  • No end user specialized skills required. No zoning, no LUN masking.
  • Automated provisioning: use of single-click, drag-n-drop interfaces for creating new storage and associating it with servers and applications
  • Tightly integrated management
  • Focused on application deployment: the business doesn’t really care about disks and LUNs and servers. They care about their sales orders, and websites, and SAP instances. So all management and deployment should be in terms of the applications, and the details of the underlying infrastructure should be hidden, and automatically handled by the system
  • Combines compute, network, and storage resources
  • Improves time to deploy new applications

Not all of these goals are easy to achieve, but any progress on any of these parameters is a huge improvement.

There are three approaches to converged infrastructure.

  • SAN based infrastructure
    • Where servers and storage an infrastructure unit contains a bunch of servers and the storage is hidden under the servers, and the servers expose virtualized storage
    • This gives a flexible architecture. Servers and storage can be expanded independently
    • Reduction in OpEx
    • Management is convoluted, and is at the level of the virtualized storage
  • Appliance:
    • Here hardware appliances contain both storage as well as compute nodes
    • The convergence across appliances is provided via a software management layer
    • Provides an Application Centric view to the users
    • Fixed granularity of scale – need to add appliances; can’t scale the storage without scaling the compute, and vice versa
  • Open Source Technologies:
    • The kinds of technology being built/used by Facebook/Google
    • This is currently a small fraction of the worldwide infrastructure
      market

A lot of small startups are playing in the “Appliance” space, because the ease of management is an important consideration in the SMB market. Larger, more established companies are doing SAN based converged infrastructure.

Other Points

Here is a random collection of interesting points made during the discussion, captured in no particular order:

  • Although the impact of the cloud has been growing, enterprises have still been slow to adopt the cloud. Security is one of the problems, but also the need to move lots of data across the network is a bottleneck. So, private clouds are getting good traction; and Microsoft is one of the companies that is responding quite well to this demand.
  • For now, applications like SAP will continue to be in-house and will not easily move to the cloud. This is notwithstanding the fact that SAP does run on the cloud – it’s just not an ideal setup. Initially, the applications that are moving to the cloud are things like websites, mobile apps, and other low-hanging fruit.

Panel Discussion

There was a panel discussion on converged infrastructure. The panelists were:

  • Aalop Shah: Technical Director at Druva; handling the laptop backup product.
  • Maneesh Bhandari: Angel Investor.
  • Nitin Deshpande: President, Allscripts India.
  • Viswanthan K: Vice President, Corporate IT, APAC, at Eaton Corp
  • Yogesh Zope: Group CIO for Bharat Forge Limited, and CEO of Kalyani Technologies.

Here are some of the comments made by the panelists:

  • Yogesh: For years, different companies have called this concept by different names. And yet, it is still not something that is really useful for a company like Kalyani. Converged Infrastructure and all this flexibility might be useful for a company that needs to handle big data and lots of unpredictability as far as the storage and compute requirements are concerned, but that is not really an issue for many companies. So we’re happy with the old style infrastructure. Another important point is that the whole issue of “manageability” is more of a consideration in the west. In India, talent is much cheaper, and we don’t have the same problems.
  • Bala: The needs and the trade-offs in the Indian market might be different. While some of the problems being solved by the current players in the converged infrastructure might not be pain-point in India, there are other problems that are faced here. So while the current players are not really addressing those requirements, at some point they’ll start addressing India and then they might make inroads in the market.
  • Vish: One of the aspects of this that has not yet been addressed is the power requirements. The data-center requires a lot of power, and the requirements of a converged infrastructure data-center are unique. We (i.e. Eaton) are now playing in this space, and providing “convergence” not just at the level of the software/hardware infrastructure, but at the level of the entire physical data-center, including the power.

PuneConnect 2014: Startup Showcase Event for Pune’s Startups: Apply Now

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After 3 successful years, PuneConnect has quickly become one of Pune’s most important events for startups, and it is now back with PuneConnect 2014, the mega event for Pune’s startups to showcase their products and services to the world at large, specifically to larger companies in Pune, VCs and angel investors from all over the country, and others from the ecosystem. PuneConnect 2014 will be on 8th November 2014, and the idea behind the event is to allow the best startups in Pune a platform where they can find customers, mentors, business partners, affiliates, and investors amongst Pune’s established companies, successful senior entrepreneurs, and angels and investors from all over.

This event is free for startups selected by PuneConnect. If you are unsure of whether this event is appropriate for you or not, please go ahead and apply, and our selection committee will figure out whether you’re a good fit or not.

Any startup company from Pune or nearby areas, who has a product that they would like to demo, should submit a proposal at http://db.PuneConnect.com. A panel of selectors drawn from experts in the industry will select the most promising startups who will be allowed to set up a demo at PuneConnect on 8th November 2014.

Benefits to selected startups include:

  • Exposure to Pune’s top companies, potential customers and potential mentors
  • Exposure to Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors who are being
    invited to the event
  • Press and media coverage before and after the event
  • Winners of the event get automatic entries to other country-level events (e.g. those organized by NASSCOM)

PuneConnect started in 2011 and is held in late October/early November every year. In 2011 we showcased 12 startups, and had attendance of about 250. In 2012, we showcased 21 startups, and had to close delegate registrations at 600 because of space limitations. In 2013, we showcased 27 startups, out of 104 applications, and had to close registrations at 1055 due to space limitations. Click here for more information about past PuneConnect events.

Media Coverage: Economic Times, Indian Express, The Financial Express, the Financial Chronicle, Business Standard, and the top Marathi newspapers Sakal and Maharashtra Times all carried detailed articles about PuneConnect and the companies. All 12 companies got mentions in various articles. Click here for more information about media coverage resulting from PuneConnect.

PuneConnect is a joint initiative of Software Exporters Association of Pune (SEAP), TiE Pune, PuneStartups.org (POCC), PuneTech, and NASSCOM, SME Joinup, CIIE Ahmedabad, and MCCIA Pune – basically all the important players in Pune’s startup ecosystem. PuneConnect represents a one-of-its-kind activity that bridges the gap between the new companies and the established ones.

Entries to other prestigious events: Companies featured in PuneConnect have been selected to be on TV (e.g. an episode ETNow Channel’s Starting Up show), or in national-level conferences (e.g. one organized by Zinnov), where they got to demo their products to companies from all over India, or for mentorship programs (like the TiE Pune Nurture Initiative), or even got funding (e.g. AppSurfer, a company from the first PuneConnect that got Rs. 1 crore in funding on the SuperAngels show) – all as a result of being featured on PuneConnect.

Apply now. It costs nothing.