Yesterday, I attended the annual TiEcon 2007 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The theme of this year's conference was: The New Face of Entrepreneurship! And TiEcon had the bold mission inviting every entrepreneur to "dream, explore and connect." This was my fifth TiEcon in attendance. And believe me, it seems every year, it gets bigger and bigger. Case in point: many sponsors and exhibitors organize luncheons, separate meetings, dinners and more. TieCon is hosted by TiE - The Indus Entrepreneurs.
I was quite impressed by the turnout (I overheard there were over 4,000 attendees). I met some of my friends, past colleagues from previous employers and TiE alums that I have known over the years. I also met new would-be friends, enterprising exhibitor companies looking to open up new opportunities, and budding entrepreneurs. The best though were the keynote presentations on Innovation from some of the world's top innovators including Meg Whitman, President and CEO of eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY), Robert Ingram, Vice Chairman of Pharmaceutials, GlaxoSmithKline, Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman of Microsoft India (NASDAQ: MSFT), Ajit Singh, President and CEO of Siemens Medical, Gerard M Mooney, VP, Emerging Business Opportunities of IBM (NYSE: IBM), Zia Yusuf - EVP of SAP AG, and Matt Cohler, VP Strategy & Business Operations of Facebook.
Although I did not attend his particular session, "The buzz on the expo floor was about Silicon Valley gaming startup Elementeo and its precocious 13-year old founder and chief executive, Anshul Samar." I did visit the Elementeo booth on the exhibit floor, and was quite impressed by this new entrepreneurship of gaming in the world of Chemistry. Our son, Rohan Dalal, wants to be a writer (he's 11), and you can find a sample of his writing on Lightning - a story about a young boy Matt who is trying to save his friend Blake from the evils of Dr. Vick. Rohan won the Young Author's contest in his school last year. His latest books are already combining elements of gaming and challenges. Our daughter, Suhani Dalal, wants to be an artist when she grows up. She has also started her own picture site at My Pictures. However, not to digress, and take the attention away from Anshul Samar. We are after all in the age of "young" entrepreneurship and creativity, where every year, we will find more budding entrepreneurs beginning their careers in their teenage years.
I learnt many key lessons on Innovation from these top innovators and leaders.
Here are the Innovation Lessons learned from Meg Whitman who provided the keynote presentation in the morning.
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