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.

Conferences are all about Networking

In my role as co-chair of the TiEConnect program in TiEcon 2012, I posted a guest column on GigaOm. Since there were restrictions on the number of words, etc. I could not include everything that I wanted to say. I am posting a longer version of the blog here. Hope to see many of you in TiEcon next week at Santa Clara Convention Center.

If you were at the Santa Clara Convention Center for TiEcon2011 on May 13th and 14th, 2011, you could not have missed a familiar figure in the registration area for almost the entire duration - talking incessantly to a panoply of people. When I asked Rohit Chandra about his motives, he said, "I registered for the conference to meet people, pitch my idea, find talent, hear other ideas, identify interesting start ups, pick up on the state of the art, etc. I may not get 30 minutes here for a full pitch with Investors. If I can pique their interest to garner a follow up meeting, it was worth it." When I asked him if it was working, he pointed me to a pile of business cards that he had collected.

While Rohit’s case may be an super-charged example of networking at a conference, it goes to show the immense value of meeting a diverse group of people at a single location. TiEcon provides for both structured and unstructured means to connect with leaders who would, otherwise, be unavailable or inaccessible. MentorConnect provides all TiEcon attendees

 provides an opportunity to meet with an industry stalwart in a scheduled session during lunch. Attendees looking to validate their idea, or want to know how to move their ventures forward can avail this program and meet with folks who have been there and done that. InvestorConnect provides access to VCs and Angels on a 1:1 basis to get feedback on your business plan. This program is available to anyone that registers for a TiE Expo booth. This is an unparalleled opportunity to present your business plan to get feedback and/or seek investments. Finally, TiEcon is also offering AttendeeConnect this year to allow for AdHoc interactions at the conference.

Unlike other conferences that cost in excess of $1500, TiEcon costs less than $500. We are able to keep TiEcon prices affordable since it is run entirely by volunteers (yours truly being one of them) in a not-for-profit organization. While the focus of this posting is Networking at TiEcon, there are other benefits to attending this year's conference on May 18th and 19th at Santa Clara Convention Center - outlined in this blog post by Jai Rawat, Convenor, TiEcon 2012. Register now to avoid missing out! You can use the discount code "TIEFOV" to get $75 off the conference price.