TiEcon Kolkata – Celebrating Entrepreneurship in India and Beyond
“Startup to sustainable excellence” was the theme of TIEcon 2015. It’s one of the biggest professional networking seminars for business owners and a premium entrepreneurial ecosystem in South Asia. The Global Entrepreneurial Report of Oracle Capital Group considered India to be one of the premium entrepreneurial countries in the world in terms of experience, self funding, low failure rates and feasibility. Last year over 600 entrepreneurs participated in TiEcon 2014 Kolkata at the Ball Room of The Oberoi Grand.
TiEcon is the annual conference of entrepreneurs – small and mid-level business startups to eminent business owners from diverse domains like IT, Education, Retail, Health Sector, and Financial firms. TiE – The Indus Entrepreneurs is a nonprofit organization, devoted to encouraging entrepreneurship. From fresh pass outs with promising ideas to people heading startups and even established companies, it brings them all together under one roof annually. It is also a meeting point for angel investors, Business Gurus, and related service providers to assist and guide a wannabe entrepreneur in the right direction. In short, TiE plays an instrumental role in global innovation and entrepreneurship.
The inception of TiE took place back in the year 1992 at a lunch meet of Silicon Valley business owners and professionals. TiE became an official organization by 1994. The small organization soon attracted more and more members, representatives, charter members and participants. Today it’s the largest organization promoting entrepreneurship in 18+ countries in 5 continents, 61+ chapters with over 12000+ members.
TiEcon Kolkata 2015 was held at Hyatt Regency on the 20th of February 2015. As the largest assemblage of entrepreneurs from eastern India, it served as an impetus creating a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem for business leaders, trendsetters, government officials and investors. This year featured multi-industry which means more business for every participant followed up with extensive pre-event and post-event networking sessions. The wide array of industries from IT, food sector and education, TIEcon 2015 witnessed a galaxy of top bracket business managers, speakers and organizers actively taking part in the event.
The lighting of the lamp and opening note was delivered by the chief guest of this gala event – Mr. Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, Chairman and Managing Director, Bandhan Financial Services Pvt. Ltd. He is a true inspiration for budding entrepreneurs, having started his entrepreneurial journey against all odds with a modest savings providing small cap micro-funding to rural entrepreneurs. Today Bandhan has over 200 branches with a net worth of more than Rs. 1100 crore.
Other keynote speakers were Sanjeev Bhikchandani Vice Chairman, Info Edge India Ltd.(Naukri.com), Mr. Viresh Oberoi Managing Director & CEO Mjunction Services Limited, Anil Wanvari, Founder CEO & Editor-in-chief of Indiantelevision.com Group, Rear Admiral A. K. Verma, Chairman and Managing Director, Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited, Amitabh Rai, Director of Sarson Restaurants Hotels Pvt. Ltd, Varun Agarwal, Co-Founder Alma Mater and other bigwigs.
Which business is worth receiving seed funding?
Some very relevant topics were debated, and great insights shared by eminent entrepreneurs, investors, and financial institutions from across Eastern India. UK being the Country Partner, Alpesh Patel from UK Trade and Investment gave an interesting speech on how Indian entrepreneurs need to think global.
Few distinguished award categories of the event were the TiEGER awards, Lifetime Achievement award, Social Impact/Business Award, Start-up of the Year Award and Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award. One of the main attractions of the evening was the Hot Pitch. Here, a handful shortlisted start ups pitch their ideas looking for funding in front of a panel of notable investors and Venture Capitalists. Apart from the cash award (first prize of 50k!) announced on the spot, investors can show their interest on the business ideas for a detailed offline discussion.
TieCon 2015 arranged for special booths for distinguished and promising business owners from all across eastern India. Top 10 businesses like WowMomo, BANTECH and Bengal Hearing Aid showcased their products and services which were visited by the dignitaries and delegates at the event. BANTECH happened to be the most popular booth in this business conference showcasing its leap motion technology, Innovative graphic design and 3D Games to the audience and participants. As the pioneers in the technology, the most engaging offering of their booth was the Game kiosk offering the delegates an opportunity to experience computer games through Leap Motion, or hand gestures, which is not yet a common practice in India. Queries poured in, and visiting cards were exchanged.
The day was a great success! A general tendency was to compare it with the TieCon event last year at Oberoi Grand, which arranged for some great International dignitaries to attend the event and share insights. This year was no less, but one can only expect it to grow manifold every year. This one day plays a pivotal role for all the promising start ups and mid level business owners to meet, network and promote their business amongst each other, as well as witness the inspiring success stories of those who have made it big. TIEcon has always worked as an accelerator and business incubator for entrepreneurs and investors in exchanging ideas and promote innovation.
About BANTECH: BANTECH is a custom web design and open source web development company offering a wide range of services in mobile app development, Game development and Technical Support and Maintenance services. For more information, please visit bantechsolutions.com.
