Looks or Function,Simplicity or Complexity, these are some questions that plague any product development teams across. When many such people who face these problems meet at a place to unwind and un-conference we have the Bangalore DCamp.
Design Camp or DCamp as it is known is in its 2nd edition. The 1st edition held at Yahoo EGL campus in Bangalore was a resounding success. Amit Pande, Muthu, are some of the key persons behind getting this edition to run.
The event attendees list contains the who's who from design fields in Bangalore. Register now lest you should not find place for entry. I am excited to meet the following people Sowmya Karmali, Umesh Gopinath, apart from host of other friends who are attending this event.
Let me know if you are going to be there.
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
DCamp 2.0: Bangalore Design Camp
Design is Back!! Are you there!
Design is Back was the punch line of the Microsoft Expression around the Clock, Global Designer Conference at Bangalore. For a detailed account of what happened check out techbangalore (aka. Prashant). In this post I will talk about Expression, and some of the people I met at this conference.
The number of people who attended the event were far more than the place could accommodate. Not surprisingly it was cramped to the hilt. The logistics guys have done a very bad job.After a wait which seemed like an eternity, we were introduced to Shelly Armstrong, a vivacious lady, she presented on how Microsoft cares for design and what designers should do to have more impact in their organization. I would have loved to put the presentation here for all of you (will do it, if I can get it).
Next it was the turn of Supreet Singh and Pandurang Nayak, most of the presentation was similar to the stuff I saw at dCamp. The different part was a typical designer- developer tuff on stage. What came out of it was a showcase of Expression's ability to integrate with VS. I was impressed with the way the design and development could be done so independently. The live application that they made in less than ten minutes was really impressive.If you or your company has something to with developing applications for the end user, you cannot ignore this new way of doing things.
I met some familiar faces Hrish, Harish, Param. There was a lot to learn from the interaction between Param and Harish. Finally, my wish to meet Umesh Gopinath came true. There were Vinod and Upma from Aditi, these folks are interested in UX and have a blog uxunleashed (I have some company!!). I gave Harish and Upma earful of the story behind why my blog is named sodidi ;). Will share with you in the next post. There was a lot of interesting gyan from Umesh on how one should blog about usability.
Coming back to Microsoft and Expression, in my latest project, I use Expression Blend and am impressed with how we can do things much better and faster. I always wanted to nominated an MVP but never was impressed enough to develop my expertise in any of the MS technologies, Now I see an option, let me and the one above (god) decide on Expression's fate in my hands!
About the Event:
Umesh
Vinod
Links:
Expression Blog
Expression Web Team Blog
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
"Enterprise KGP" Calling all IIT Kgp entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship is the flavor of the season. While the Bangalore OCC meet is still gaining ground, we have one more events around the corner. The IIT Kharagpur Bangalore Alumni Chapter is inviting all KGP entrepreneurs for celebrating entrepreneurship. This event is going to held at the famous "Chinnaswamy Stadium"(KSCA) in Bangalore on 6th October 2007. If you are from IIT Kgp and even remotely interested in entrepreneurship be there. Read on for more....
The first time I heard of the entrepreneurial past of the KGP alumni, I was speechless. This remote place in a corner of eastern India could generate such stupendous success was beyond imagination. Over my stay at IIT Kgp, I got used to this and started harboring dreams of my own.
We all know that entrepreneurship is a difficult path to take. However as Robert Frost said, "I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." It is these guys among us, who made, are making, and will make the difference.
In it's own small way, IIT Kgp Technology Alumni Association Bangalore chapter is celebrating this cause and in the process wants to reach out to all those who just started their entrepreneurial journey. We are organizing an Event "Enterprise KGP " on 6th of October 2007. The venue for the event is "Chinaswamy Stadium" (KSCA) in Bangalore.
There will be a panel consisting of Kgp alumni, who are into VC funds, successful entrepreneurs themselves, and other people, who can help you with your venture. If you have just started out and looking for that "big" opportunity this is it. Since time is a constraint we can accommodate only a few companies. So rush in your entry here or leave a comment/mail to me. Some more information about the event can be found at the IITKgp Bangalore blog.
For others this is a great opportunity to catch up with what Kgpian's are doing and see how you can benefit from their ventures. It can be a strategic partnership, an investment opportunity, a challenging job opportunity, or just a bhat session the old way.
The poster for the event is designed by Mukesh (2002 Batch), whose company "PixelnInk", I featured in this post . If you are looking for creative folks to help advertise your business, this is the company to approach.
All the Kgp readers of this blog, this is our event. Spread the word and let's celebrate the success of all those who dared to take the path less traveled.
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
2nd Bangalore Open Coffee Club Meet to discuss Marketing 2.0
Ok!! We are nearing the second meet of the Bangalore Open Coffee Club. The first meet kick started with in a big way. The details of the second meet are as follows:
Venue: Brewhaha (Directions)
Time: Sunday (11Am)
Date: 2nd September 2007
Contacts: Ram(09342509088), Vaibhav(9986186194)
Plan to attend this meet, one of it's kind in this part of the world. Do not forget to register your presence on upcoming(http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/240840). This will help us in having an idea on the number of people who might come.
We will be discussing on Marketing 2.0 this time. The discussion will revolve around how to market your product/service in the 2.0 world. Entrepreneurs among you, share what worked and what did not. Those just starting out can put their marketing dilemma.
Check out Vaibhav's post for some more details.
Related Posts:
Open Coffee! Wanna have a Coffee in Bangalore
Bangalore Open Coffee Club Meetup
Bangalore Open Coffee Kick Starts with a Bang
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
Design Camp Bangalore!
Looks like organizing and announcing events is what I am doing these days. Just heard of Design Camp Bangalore being organized on 15th September, 2007. This is a great opportunity for us in Bangalore who are interested in Design to be there. Mind you it's an unconference, so set rules, and no set agenda.
For more details check out the details here. You can also check out Muthu's blog for some information on this event.
What are you waiting for, see you there on 15th September 2007, at Yahoo Indian Airport Road, Bangalore.
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
Bangalore Open Coffee Kick Starts with Bang
What do you call a meet where about 60+ people interested in entrepreneurship drop by to share ideas? That's Bangalore Open Coffee Club for you all. I am speechless at the number of people and the quality (many of them are people who run their own start ups, a few VC's) . When me and Vaibhav started the marketing of this event, we expected about 15-20 to be a good number to call this event a success. Now the numbers speak for themselves of the success of the inaugural meet. Read on for more details.
I was there at Brewhaha a few minutes before 11:00am, and man there were about 10 people already over there. There was a bit of silence and I felt a bit awkward, but the talk started rolling out and then there was no stopping. By about 11:15am, there was fairly a large crowd(yes yes!!), and then I started out with an introduction of what we were going to do over the next two hours. Then it was Vaibhav's turn to speak and then the ball rolled on to all others. More than 55 folks introduced themselves, and there expectations from OCC Bangalore. Jace, Hari tried to live blog the event thanks a lot to them(i guess, there was some issue, but do check out for their version). I will mention some of the folks who were present, at the end of this post (the rest of you please excuse me and my memory, I will include the link to you, if you send across a mail).
Some key people for the event apart from all the interested and enthusiastic folks were Laura A. Perkin from the finance of NEN Online, Mr. SameerKanth a consultant at NEN Online, Yiting Shen a MIT Sloan student (she manages a fund, more details later). It was really wonderful to have you here at OCC Bangalore, thanks a lot and hope to see you more at the event.
The introductions were mostly about who they were? what they do? and what they expect from OCC Bangalore? To summarize the expectations, my key takeaways are as follows(please feel free to comment/add to these)
There were three kinds of participants at the meet.
The key expectations from OCC (not in any particular order)
Then we had a discussion on what people want from a regular meeting like this. Rajan tossed of his ideas from organizing MoMo Bangalore. Then there was a flowing discussion where Tejas, Bhaskar V Kode, Sandeep, Amit, Guna(was there at Chennai Open Coffee) and lots of others pitched in on what could be the direction for this event.
There were a lot more ideas that were tossed in but thankfully my memory again deserts me at the moment of writing.
Finally we concluded with the idea that we will meet again on 2nd September 2007 at Brewhaha from 11am to 1pm. This time we will have an agenda over which we will meet. Post your thoughts on what you want here on the group (opencoffeeatbangalore).
On a personal note, there were so many folks whom I knew by face from barcamp who were here, Harish, Hari, Jace, Aashish, Amit, Mansi, Shivku, Manoj, Piyush, Rajan, Keshav, Himanshu, Saurabh, Anand, Sandeep,Akshat (If I missed someone whom I knew, memory dump!!).
Some of the others who were there (mentioning those who run companies,others whom I missed out please let me know)
It was really interesting and to meet you all. Bangalore Open Coffee Meet is your meet. It's a place where you want to meet others, learn with others and grow.
Spread the word, drop by, share your experience, and grow.
See you at the next meet.
PS: Thank you all for paying up for the coffee/snacks you bought. In the scale of the event, some of you have missed out on paying your due. Thanks to Vaibhav for sharing the spoils.
Releated Posts:
Post Event Blogging:
Vaibhav at Technofriends
Himanshu Sheth at Thoughts Prevail
Harinath at Harisays
Jace on Livejournal
Saurabh at the100rabh
Piyush at Silicon Tryst
Sid at Siddhi
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
Independence Day Diary
Independence day is a day when most of us wake up late into the morning (a few of us extend it to afternoon), eat, take a nice afternoon siesta, wake up go around and curse why we have to go to office the following day. That was what I did on most of the Independence days in the past. This time it was different not just for me but to people whom I reached out during the day.
It all started with a mail from Snigdha, inspired by which I posted this on this blog. This was picked up by rads and the word spread like wild fire(I would love to believe so!!, thanks a lot rads) . A few phone calls on the 14th, a few words to the owner in the building and a good friend Prakash, helped me to fill a bag full of clothes.
Sridhar, Singdha, Ayan, were already there (Sridhar was infact done with the distribution of the stuff he got) by the time I reached, Vinayak, Supriy, and Sudharsan joined in. A quick walk through the busy CMH road helped us to reach quite some folks, and in the process we distributed about 20 pairs of clothes to more than 30 people. The surprise of my life was that Sudharsan came after reading my blog(My blog is successful!!). The rest of the clothes we donated to the children at Blind School in Indiranagar.
Check this out, at a small sum of 50rs per month you can support one students education. Isn't it great. For more information contact me or Snigdha.
Sridhar and Sudharsan had to leave because of some work, the rest of us five treated ourselves to ice cream at corner house. The discussion here covered on the next activities(check Sridhar's post) to some great experiences by Ayan(aka. Chandan ;)). To summarize the discussion, we are planning to have a group (Pay Back?? Do you like it?) which will do something for the society.
Folks check this initiative by Vijay(proto.in) and others in chennai, amazing what a small idea can achieve. "We fixed about 60+ potholes, and we would like to do this on a sustained basis". Isn't it great. Hat's off to you guys Vijay and team.!!
The next part was equally exciting. Met Himanshu Sheth for lunch and we both headed to Poonam of dailydump about which I blogged here. Poonam turns out to be a very friendly person. She explained to us the idea, concept behind dailydump, How it works? etc. and patiently answered a lot of questions we had.
Poonam chose to be an entrepreneur after graduation and it was amazing to talk to her about her long journey since then. More about her and daily dump in a later post, where I cover all the points from an exclusive interview she gave us. We also shot a video of the interview. I will post it before the end of this week. It's a must watch!! so keep tuned.
Then it was some exclusive time with Himanshu(a very down to earth guy) where we discussed a lot about what to blog, various things about entrepreneurship, a change in his blog design, and Mumbai. Those of you who know me well know that I love Mumbai and what better thing to talk to a Mumbaikar than about Mumbai? We were wondering why there was no movie featuring the Mumbai Spirit. Filmmakers out there are you listening?
I learnt a lot over the day. This day I hope will be the starting for something small towards making something big?
Update: A typo for the post title. Unforgivable!!
Liked this Post: Subscribe to the RSS feed to get the posts to you. You have the advantage of getting my deli.cio.us links on the feed.
Posts
