TiEcon 2013

This year, TiEcon 2013 will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center on May 17th and 18th. As in the past, there is an army of volunteers working round-the-clock to deliver a successful conference.

Last year, I was the Co-Chair for the MentorConnect event - where Mentors (who are VCs / successful entrepreneurs / high profile Corporate Execs) were paired with Mentees (conference attendees). We had a semi-automated way of pairing the Mentees. The feedback that we heard was unanimous. Mentees wanted a more "intimate" setting and, most importantly, to have more control on who their Mentor is.

My role in this year's TiEcon (at MentorConnect) is to steer on the systems side. The co-chairs are two highly accomplished, excellent Charter Members - Sanjaya Kumar and Ravi Amble. Early in the process, the TiE Silicon Valley Systems Lead, Deepak Bhagat, and I evaluated MentorCloud as a possible solution provider.  In order for MentorCloud to work, there was a list of changes that needed to be done to the platform. Understandably, the CEO of MentorCloud, Ravi Gundlapalli, was not keen on doing "one-off" tasks for TiE. Nevertheless, he was quick to see the potential benefits (to MentorCloud) of working with TiE. Ravi and his team worked tirelessly with us to roll it out successfully. The proof, of course, is only in the pudding and I don't want to "declare success" before the event. I will certainly blogging about the "on-the-ground" experience after the conference. Nevertheless, the user experience is undoubtedly improved from last year.

Given the availability of this platform, the TiE Silicon Valley team, led by Venk Shukla, mobilized some very high profile mentors to participate. I am really happy to inform that we have 100+ eminent Mentors registered and available to Mentor TiEcon 2013 attendees during lunch on the days of the Conference. The list of Mentors include Vinod Khosla and Kanwal Rekhi. This is a unique opportunity to meet these folks and learn from them. They have all been successful in building public companies or having substantial exits.

TiEcon offers so much more than the MentorConnect opportunity to the attendee. Here are a few more reasons to attend TiEcon.

1. Inspiring keynotes from Jeff Weiner, CEO LinkedIn, Manoj Bhargava, CEO 5-Hour Energy and more! See the full list here.
2. Discuss the latest trends and meet the hottest companies, entrepreneurs and VCs in these high growth tracks - BigData, Mobility and SW Defined Infrastructure
3. Meet some innovative companies in the Expo Hall.
4. Listen to 18 lightning round startup pitches and meet the TiE50 winners

With prices starting at $275 (using discount codes) TiEcon certainly offers best value for your money. I believe the prices go up on May 1st. So, register today to what promises to be an exciting conference. When you register, be sure to check the "Interested in MentorConnect" box. In case you are already registered, and did not check that box, you can back and do so. This will allow you to participate in MentorConnect and get mentored by some awesome Mentors.