Four big reasons not to miss Conquest 2009

Things are heating up in the CEL room as we get closer to the Conquest weekend. This happens to be my fourth Conquest and I'm even more excited than my first Conquest in 2006.

Everybody is working hard to ensure the judges, participants, speakers and attendees have the best experience possible.

A major focus of Conquest has always been to be a platform for discussions and talks on entrepreneurship. We have a fantastic line up of speakers and the two days are packed with sessions. Anybody reading this should certainly think about coming down to Pilani! Its only 4 hours from Delhi or Jaipur and will be very much worth it.

Here are few of the sessions that I'm personally excited about:

1. Ajit Ranade on recent government policies that have created opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Mr. Ranade is an economics rock star and in this keynote I expect to learn about new possibilities for public-private partnerships and hopefully some specific thoughts on the energy sector.

2. Mahesh Murthy on fundaes of starting up.

Mahesh Murthy is a personal hero of mine for being a completely self-made person. Droping out of college, running the Amazon marketing campaign to coining the Pepsi's 'Yeh pyaas hai badi' slogan, his story is stuff of legends. A must attend for budding entrepreneurs!

3. A panel of VCs from Sequoia, Bluestream and Helion VC will discuss upcoming market opportunities in India. I think this session will inspire a lot of people who are looking for sectors to startup in. I'm convincing all first year juniors (who've landed in Pilani, barely a week back) to attend this one.

4. Gaurav Mishra on learning from activists. I first heard Gaurav Mishra on social media at the Grassroutes orientation and I can't wait to hear his ideas on marketing inspired from social activists.

So these are four big reasons not to miss Conquest 2009.

Conquest 2009 Grand Finale

Members of the Center for Entrpreneurial Leadership at BITS Pilani are bustling with activity. Having arrived on campus close to a week in advance of reopening, we are gearing up to host the biggest ever finale with lots of intersting additions.

Conquest had got off to a swift start with over 300 entries of business plans from 4 different continents. After gruelling rounds of evaluation and personal mentoring by our unique panel of mentors, Conquest would now winess the confluence of 5 budding finalists together with a host of eloquent speakers and a few added specialties.

Our list of speakers includes

• Ajit Ranade from Aditya Birla Group
• Mahesh Murthy from Pinstorm
• Raj Gollamudi from Blue Stream Ventures
• Prajakt Raut from Orange Cross
• Naren Dubey from Scan Cafe
• Shashikant Khandelwal from Thefind Inc
• Gayathri Rath from GE Capital.

As an additive attraction to Conquest, CEL is hosting StartUp Showcase that would showcase 4 budding Indian StartUps, currently creating ripples in the ecosystem, to the Conquest audience. Our final list of StartUps covers the four corners of Indian map:

• GreenOBin from Delhi
• Voice Pitara from Ahmedabad
• One Billion Minds from Kolkata
• RangDe from Chennai

We are hoping to have a great showcase from these startups who would certainly inspire the BITSian population to startup and create value to the society.

The CEL student team is all eager to organize this one of its kind Business fiesta for the audience at BITS Pilani.