In this tumbling economy, Entrepreneurship and Startups have definitely become the flavor of the season.With more and more newcomers opting to work in startups, an event like Entrepreneurship Week would definitely be an icing on the cake

What is E-Week,09
E-Week is a project initiated by the National Entrepreneurship Network [NEN] with an aim to embrace innovation, engage communities and inspire young people to think big.

As per the E-Week wesbite :

E Week India 2009 will connect young people across the country through a range of activities and programs to harness their potential as innovators and problem-solvers. Industry captains, experts, non-profit leaders, and faculty members will be in attendance in large numbers to encourage, guide, and inspire students to take action. In doing so, students will begin to acquire the knowledge, skills and values required to grow high-potential, sustainable enterprises for a brighter tomorrow.

Theme for E-Week,2009

Green Leader of the week
Mohanjit Jolly, executive director at DFJ is the Green Leader of the week.May be he was the ideal choice since, he is really betting big on cleantech in 2009.In his article “Predictions of 2009″, he states that “Cleantech would be most invested sector in 2009“

The event would be celebrated from February,7th to 14th and you can find the complete details here

One of the most common sayings about Failure is “Failures are stepping stone to success” but, what if we could learn important lessons from someone else’s failures.Most of the times,Failure is a exaggerated term which should otherwise be termed as “Failed Attempt” and wouldn’t be great to share your life experiences with others under one roof .FailCamp is one such wonderful initiative[better to call it as an initiative rather than an unconference] by Kiruba Shankar and his team.

The bottom-line of FailCamp -

We all make mistakes and learn from it to become a better person. Won’t it be great to learn from other’s mistakes so that we don’t make the same ones!

The focus is really not about the failure. It’s about why we failed and what lessons we learnt from it. Let’s not be ashamed about failing. Let’s celebrate failure. Let’s look straight into its eyes.

To be very honest,off late;I have taken lot of hasty decisions[which have taught me lot of things] and it would be really nice to share those learnings with the audience.Well,not to forget listening to other’s mistakes would be great learning for all of us !!!

So, interested in FailCamp:

Date and Time – 16th November 2008
Venue – Tenth Planet, Chennai. The venue was just finalized few days back and I am quite excited to meet my old unconference buddies
Registration - FailCamp Wiki

Before ending this article, I would like to share few lines from Paulo Coelho‘s book “Manual of the warrior of light“

A warrior of light shares with others what he knows of the path.Anyone who gives help also receives help and needs to teach what he has learnt.That is why he sits by the fire and recounts his day on the battlefield.

It seems like the unconference styled format is becoming quite popular nowadays and even companies like Wipro have realized it’s potential[both in terms of brand building and tentative recruitment].After a series of WiCamps in cities like Bangalore,Pune,Chennai,Hyderabad; WiCamp returns to Wipro’s home ground -Bangalore 

Pavan Soni ,WiCamp’s chief un-organizer mentions :

Practitioners, Entrepreneurs, VCs, Academicians, Faculties, Students, Freelancers and almost everybody want to learn more on innovation and its applications to their lives. We have seen them all visiting these WiCamps over past few months.

WiCamp has been an informal platform which has helped people come together and share their perspectives on innovation.

Rajesh Moorjani, founder of Propel Software is all praise for the Pune edition of WiCamp for it’s perfect adoption of the unconference culture[More here]

So,interested in WiCamp?

Date and Time – 10th October 2008 [9 AM onwards]
Venue – Wipro Technologies Campus, Electronic City, Bangalore
Theme - Taking Ideas to Market
[Interesting theme,however this should be complimented with speakers who have themselves taken some idea to the market ]

You can register for the event here

In my previous article, I had mentioned about Proto[the Startup event] , that I missed but it is nice to see lot of blogs already updated with the coverage To start with, let us look at the startups that demonstrated at the event….

Amit Ranjan of SlideShare & one of the co-organizers of the event has a crisp coverage of all the startups here

Few months back, we had a guest article from Nithya Dayal, co-founder of Muziboo & it is nice to see Muziboo getting shortlisted for the presentation !!! Prateek Dayal has shared lots of interesting views about the event & his experience on pitching in front of the audience !!!

Unlike some of the other startups, we had a walk through and no ppt. I think eventually turned out to be good as the response to the demo was very encouraging.

I liked the fact that proto mentioned that 3 companies have shut shop. I think its great to see that failure is no longer considered a bad thing. There was also a Proto for Dummies video which was pretty well done. I think the videos will be up on youtube pretty soon.

I had always heard that talking to investors gives you a good perspective and I think its true. I had also heard that there are quite a few senior startuppy people who give a lot of gyaan and try to pull you down and I think that is true too. In general its not very hard to find a few people in proto who look like they have come down there just to feel important by giving gyaan to clueless entrepreneurs like me.

You can read the complete article here.

Coverage across the Blogosphere:
There are lot of other blogs that have covered the event and you can find them here.

After checking the coverage of the event, I never felt that I have missed the event Thanks to all of them !!!!

Yesterday, it was a big day in the world of Unconferences with the First Ever BarCamp in Kerala and Kamp[The First ever Knowledge Management Camp] in Bangalore.

After landing at the venue and attending few talks, we[myself and Sridhar Rao] realized that we were only the two guys who were not from that background We also managed to give a talk on some Web 2.0 tools that could help organizations to manage the Knowledge.Sridhar also shared his insight as to how his organization manages knowledge through Blogs, Wikis, Webcasts etc.

Most interesting part of the entire unconference was “The Knowledge Cafe” lead by Raj Datta , Vice-President – Knowledge Management at Mindtree Consulting.There was a single question that was discussed in the Cafe – “How do you encourage employees to share ideas and help companies to generate Business round those ideas“. There was a short debate on “Patenting” v/s “Value Creation through Idea Generation”.

Not a bad start to the first Kamp with around 40 attendees [though there were around 180 people who registered for the event ].

The bottom line of Kamp was “Web 2.0 has revolutionized the way Knowledge is managed in organizations as well in our personal lives…..“

There was an interesting presentation that I came across which reading about Knowledge Management on the internet.

Related Articles:
Live Blogging from BarCamp Kerala by Kenney Jacob
Unconferences covered on ThoughtsPrevail

Some of the readers would be wondering if this blog is turning into an event calendar Of course not, but whenever I write about some unconference or a conference or some other event, we can see “The changing face of a rising India”

While watching CNBC, came across an interesting contest called TheSimplicity Challenge which is open ONLY to students from the age 18-30.

What is the Simplicity Challenge?
You can check the details here

Interesting highlight was the definition of BIG IDEA:

An idea is a business opportunity to improve people’s lives and create value for individuals and communities. If it does that, it automatically makes marketing sense. And the simpler the idea, the more sustainable it is likely to be.

So, there is a Social Entrepreneurial angle to the contest [since, your idea would help in making lives simple & better, which is also the mantra of Philips - Sense and Simplicity].

Terms and Conditions :
You could read them here

Prizes to be won :
From the Simplicity Challenge Website:

If your idea is voted by the viewers as amongst the first 4, you can look forward to prizes like the Philips Ambilight LCD televisions, in addition to all the publicity. And if your idea is judged the Number One, you will receive a cash prize of Rs 15 Lakhs. And, an introduction to a Venture Capitalist, who can turn your idea into a commercial success, and you into the hottest entrepreneur of the year.

More details here , here and here

Long time back, there was a Podcast which focussed on Sun’s strategy to help Startups .Just came across an excellent initiative[taken in this direction] by Sun Microsystems named Startup Camp, details of which are given below:

Indian Institute of Technology ,Mumbai (IIT-B) will celebrate its Golden Jubilee this year.Shailesh J Mehta School of Management,IIT Mumbai celebrates this occasion with Avenues 07, its Annual International Business Festival.

Do you have a blog or thinking of starting a blog?, than you are the one who is at least thinking of contributing to the “CHANGE ECOSYSTEM”….So, try to change the world before 31st August,2007 which is being celebrated as ‘BLOG DAY’.

Why Blog Day?
Blogs have gone leaps & bounds,and spread like fire but sometimes,we have the doubt as to whether ‘YOUR BLOG IS CROSSING BOUNDARIES’? So, go ahead and make your blog ‘Global’ by contributing to the blog day.
What will happen on the Blog Day?
As stated on “Blog Day” website:

One long moment on August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post recommendations of 5 new Blogs, preferably Blogs that are different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

BlogDay posting instructions:
1. Find 5 new Blogs that you find interesting
2. Notify the 5 bloggers that you are recommending them as part of BlogDay 2007
3. Write a short description of the Blogs and place a link to the recommended Blogs
4. Post the BlogDay Post (on August 31st) and
5. Add the BlogDay tag using this link:
http://technorati.com/tag/BlogDay2007 and a link to the BlogDay web site

Spread the message of blogging by grabbing a badge(for your blog) from here

Time again to throw some light on an activity where every individual’s contribution is highly valued.An off topic post yet again, but could not have found a better place than my blog

What is WINGS:
WINGS stands for opening up a whole new mindset among the differently-abled who feel resigned in life due to circumstances and society which limit them. It is about giving them a voice, enabling them to overcome their barriers in “Dreaming Big”. And it aims to achieve this through adventure sports.

How would WINGS help physically disabled?
This is a project initiated by a group of like-minded individuals. After our experience with adventure sports, we started thinking about how to reach out to youth with disabilities through this powerful medium. We first heard of such adventure activities being pursued by youth from National Association for Blind (NAB-Mysore).

Some of the past events:
A new High in their determination
The Himalayan battle against disability

Similar event in Bangalore:
BlindNews: Despite disability she soars to heights: student tries Aqua Parasailing

When does the event happen?
The event is scheduled in the weekend(1st or 2nd week of August,2007)

How can you contribute?
You can contribute in multiple ways:

If you wish to discuss more in detail,kindly get in touch with Mahalakshmi Viswanathan(09886403269) or Ashwin Murali(09886742019) or Himanshu Sheth(09242471228).For more details, refer to this document.