Innovations 2007

A show case for ideas in practice

January 6, 2007, Pune

Sponsored by

Persistent

The Concept

Innovations 2007 is an annual technology event - branded the best place in India to showcase innovations in practice. An event like this on the national calendar is a must today to enhance the pace of high impact, relevant innovations.

Event highlights

_ Featured innovations – from diverse industry segments – with demonstrated initial success in the

market.

_ Close interaction and mentoring by panels of experts for candidate innovations during selection.

_ Keynote by Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande focusing on the process of innovation.

_ Attendees consisting of invited stakeholder communities.

_ Intense, single day, single-track format, ending with an India perspective by Arun Shourie.

This is an inaugural event co-developed by the Pune Chapters of IIT Bombay and TiE. The event develops itself on the following building blocks.

Innovations 2007 is aimed at promoting interaction between the innovators, various key industry segments – such as Manufacturing, Biotech/Chemical, IT, and Communication – venture and financial community and experts who have done it all. There is a targeted campaign in progress to invite nominations for innovators and select 15 most appropriate ones based on input from experts in the respective fields.

Keynote

This inaugural event is anchored around the keynote by Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande – a globally respected technology entrepreneur and visionary whose ideas have reshaped entire industries. Desh was the first luminary the organizers contacted and he immediately accepted, due to the power of the concept. In fact, Desh is promoting a forum at the Deshpande Center for Innovation at MIT. He is one of the most prolific donors and participant promoting technological innovation worldwide.

An excerpt from his bio at Sycamore Networks which he founded and is the Board Chair says

“ … Led by Dr. Deshpande's vision and direction, Sycamore has helped create a fundamental paradigm shift in

the role and architecture of the optical network – transforming a once static optical infrastructure into an intelligent and dynamic network foundation for the delivery of new services. Sycamore's equipment is currently carrying voice and data traffic in the networks of the world's largest service providers.

Dr. Deshpande is also widely respected for his contributions to education and the greater community. Numerous business and industry publications in both the US and his native India have recognized Dr. Deshpande with awards. Dr. Deshpande is frequently invited to deliver keynote addresses at business, technology, education, and government conferences. Dr. Deshpande serves as a member of the MIT Corporation, and his generous donations have made possible MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. The Deshpande Center was created to serve as a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship by supporting research and collaboration among entrepreneurs,

young companies, and MIT students, alumni, and faculty.

Prior to co-founding Sycamore Networks, Dr. Deshpande was founder and chairman of Cascade Communications Corp. Between 1991 and 1997, Cascade grew from a one-person startup to a company with $500 million in revenue and 900 employees. In June of 1997, Cascade was acquired by Ascend Communications for $3.7 billion. …”

Innovators 15 innovators who have already put their innovations in practice, each one selected by a panel of experts, will pitch their work in a fast-paced forum.

The organizers believe that an innovator will realize a number of benefits by participating in this event. Some of these are mentioned below:

_ An opportunity to present their innovation to “Desh” Deshpande. Desh is a global influence on technology innovations and plays one of the most active roles at MIT, TiE, and various other fora. This is a no-effort opportunity that each innovator must grab.

_ The attendees for the event will be a highly select list consisting of VCs (20), Banks (10), Institutes (15), R&D institutes (15), Foundations and government representatives (10), corporate executives (60), Press (20), and other invited registrations (200). This is a once in a life-time opportunity to meet all the ecosystem participants at one location. The numbers in parentheses are approximate.

_ The organizers plan national publicity once the innovators are selected. This provides publicity at no expense.

_ The selection process is rigorous. In the worst scenario, even if a nominee does not get selected, a month-long interaction with a panel of experts will certainly be of high value to the nominee. The panel will provide substantive input about how to pitch as well as how to exhibit. In addition hard questions, which the experts will ask, will also help in clarifying the positioning to the nominee.

_ Be one among a select few – each final selected innovator will be showcased with only 15 other innovators.

_ The format of the show is such that each selected nominee will be able to witness the manner in which others pitch their innovations and listen and learn from the questions they all different innovators receive.

Innovations 2007, with its unique format, is a not-to-be-missed opportunity for each nominee. For the selected innovators, the participation cost of Rs. 10,000 fetches an opportunity to propagate their innovation in a highly targeted audience.

Exhibits

The attendees will have the opportunity to experience selected innovations demonstrated or explained in a 1- on-1 setting. The organizers have designed the format and the guidelines for the exhibits keeping the following in mind:

_ The individuals at the exhibit will be key individuals associated with the innovation. This will ensure that a “direct” contact is established.

_ The exhibits will be more on the process of innovation and the learning out of it, rather than commercial material.

_ The exhibits will be managed so that there is a quick way to make the meetings happen.

Guidelines

Exhibitors are requested to highlight:

_ The process of your specific innovation

_ Technical details of the innovation, which are in the public domain

_ The current uses in the marketplace

_ The creators of the innovation and present them in person

_ The impact of the innovation, if widely adopted

All display material and exhibit management must be reviewed by the organizers. Specific physical facilities will be communicated to those who get selected. Each innovator, finally selected, will get two invitations in addition to the innovator at the event.

Attendees

Approximately 350 invitees consisting of VC’s, bankers, corporate executives, R&D foundations, academicians, scientists, media, and professionals are expected to attend this event. The organizers believe that there are a number of reasons why an invitee will be compelled to attend such an event. They are:

_ Meet multiple innovators to learn about what it took to put the innovation in practice. The attendees will acquire an interdisciplinary perspective on the process of innovation and on how to pitch an innovation.

_ Listen to “Desh” describe the process of innovation.

_ Have 1-on-1’s at the exhibits and set up subsequent dialogs. The exhibits will emphasize the experience of the innovators. The organizers expect to ensure that individuals closest to the innovations presented are available to interact with the attendees. This will ensure that each dialog will be “direct”ly with the persons with the “experience”.

_ Listen to Arun Shourie provide the India perspective.

Being part of an invited audience will be a significant opportunity to network. All attendees will receive a consolidated attendee list before the meeting so that they can set up meetings beforehand at the event. For accepting an invitation and a registration fee of Rs. 1000, each attendee gets a Saturday full of highly stimulating content and an exciting forum to interact with.

Program

A single-track day-long program starting with the keynote speech, followed by 15 fast-paced presentations by the innovators, a visit to the exhibits, ending with Q&A with all the innovators

The format will be:

_ Keynote on the process of innovation

_ Elevator pitches by 15 selected innovators to an invited audience

_ A visit to exhibits and lunch

_ Post-lunch Q&A with the innovators

_ India perspective The event will take place on Saturday, Jan 6, 2007 from 9am-6:30pm at the state-of-the-art Dewang Mehta auditorium of Persistent Systems, Pune.

_ 09:30-10:00: Inauguration and preliminaries

_ 10:00-11:00: Keynote speech by Desh Deshpande

_ 11:00-13:00: Elevator pitches by the innovators

_ 13:00-15:00: Exhibits, question collection, and lunch

_ 15:00-16:30: Q&A with the innovators

_ 17:00-18:00: India perspective by Arun Shourie

_ 18:00-18:30: Vote of thanks

Nomination Process

Nomination is the first step in the selection process. Requests for nomination are being widely circulated by the organizers, across the industry, academia and NGOs.

The novel idea receiving your nomination may be a process, product, design, method or even a business model or a model of social entrepreneurship.

The idea should result in a significant improvement in technology, and/or improve availability and affordability of goods and services to society. The innovation should have demonstrated significant positive impact on Society The nominator must highlight the key features of the innovation – the novelty and originality of the idea and its impact in the particular field of application. The information on the form will be used by the panel to do preliminary screening and invite some of the nominees for more detailed information. The primary objective of this event is to highlight novel ideas which have been put in to practice. Nominators are requested to supply information about practical use.

Nominators may please note:

_ Innovations from all fields are welcome.

_ Self nominations are welcome.

_ The nominations will be processed as they arrive.

_ Please submit the easy one page form available at www.iitbombay.org/innovations2007 as soon as possible, but no later than November 10, 2006.

Selection Process The overall process of innovation selection will be done by a panel of experts covering a broad range of experience. The selection panels will screen the nominations and ask additional information from those short-listed for further scrutiny, and help the selected innovators to prepare their pitch.

In the second stage of selection, the following information is expected:

_ A detailed description of the innovation covering the originality of idea

_ A brief history of the process of commercialization

_ Cost/benefit analysis

_ Current and future impact on the sector

_ Proof of commercialization and current successful use

The final selection of 15 will be made by December 7, 2006.

These innovators may be required to prepare a crisp six-minute presentation. The panel will provide the innovators the common guidelines to be followed and request a presentation and exhibit plan ready for review by December 15, 2006.

A review of the presentation from each innovator selected will be held in the third week of December and the final presentations are expected to be available to the organizers by December 31, 2006.

The current panel members are:

_ Ramesh Akarte, ex-VP, Engineering Research Centre, Tata Motors

_ Pravin Bhagwat, CTO, Airtight Networks

_ Satish Gokhale, Managing Director, Design Directions

_ S. Rama Iyer, Executive Chairman, Kvaerner Powergas

_ Pramod Kale, ex-Director, SAC-ISRO

_ B. D. Kulkarni, Deputy Director, National Chemical Laboratory

_ Ashok Joshi, Managing Director, Approva

_ N. D. Joshi, ex-Director, R&D, Thermax

_ Atul Narkhede, VP, GS Lab

_ Deepak Phatak, Professor, IIT Bombay

Organizers

_ Pune Chapter of IIT Bombay Alumni Association

Contact: Shridhar Shukla, Chapter President, shridhar@gslab.com

_ Pune Chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE)

Contact: Pratima Kirloskar, Chapter President, pratima@kbl.co.in

_ Enquiry: Write to innovations2007@iitbombay.org or call +91 20 2588 8301 (Attn: Mazel)

_ Attendees: By invitation only. If you are interested in attending, please send your name, affiliation, email, and phone number to innovations2007@iitbombay.org.

_ Contact for innovators: Dr. Shantaram Kane, sgkane@gmail.com, +91 20 2567 6160/2833

_ Contact for press and publicity: Santosh Sabnis, sabnisconsultants@vsnl.net, +91 94220 00066

Event Details

_ Date and time: Saturday, January 6, 2007, 9:00am to 6:30pm

_ Location: Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems, 402, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune, 411

_ Last date for nominations: November 10, 2006. Visit www.iitbombay.org/innovations2007 for the

_ Period for submitting additional information: Within a maximum of two weeks after request

_ Intimation of the final selection: December 7, 2006

_ Draft presentation review of selected innovators: December 15, 2006

Exclusive Sponsor

_ Persistent Systems – the Company that innovated Outsourced Product Development