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The fourth one in the series of BarCampMumbai’s is about to take you along on a 2-day rollercoaster ride on which you will be able to gather & share gyan on a plethora of topics from technology to business to startups to basically anything-under-the-sun that you want to hear or share. The ride has complimentary networking opportunities tagged to it with people from diverse fields attending the camp, like they always have.

Announcing BarCampMumbai4.

Venue:
Shailesh J Mehta School of Management,
IIT Mumbai.

Dates:
4th & 5th of October, 2008
09:00-18:00

This BarCamp is a brand new one with a really new face.

First of all, you must have already noticed, it is a two-day camp. So double the fun & more people to meet!

Secondly, for you to find more value at the camp, we have made it a bottomline:

No registrations like there used to be. You want to be at the camp, get involved. Volunteer at the camp by taking a session or any other areas of volunteering.

So, looking forward to see you there friends!!

His days in world’s leading travel portal, Expedia.com were very exciting. But he wanted more challenges in an innings as an entrepreneur. He was living in San Francisco Bay Area then. He decided to start a company Vertual Life Style Pvt Ltd to  launch a wedding planning site www.firstphera.com. This student from University of Southern California ,  is now a regular at Barcamps in India. 

“ I had just launched  a start-up having two having  operation in two location – Ahmedabad and San Francisco. I had participated a Barcamp in Silicon Valley. To be able to be part of BCM 2 , I had  preponed my India visit. BCM2 helped me witness the entrepreneurial energy in India first hand.- so the great thing about Barcamp was to see the participation levels and energy across the group. I got first hand exposures to several new websites and interesting websites that launched at Barcamp.   I also met with a few people who helped me get key contacts for my start up Firstphera.com for business development purposes. I heard first hand from Mahesh Murthy about his perspective on seed funding.  In terms of comparison with San Francisco, the audience out there is easily more geeky - the talks there are more techie in nature and people manage themselves and form their own groups. BCM needed more handholding partially because the format is new to India and partially because a lot of audience there was students who tend not to participate so much.” 

For Sabnani, memories and learning of Barcamp Mumbai is always fresh. He says, “ well, certain topics, especially around entrepreneurial sessions were very interactive. Example: people were debating about the merits of VC funding, what are the most user friendly websites, etc.. The range of topics was very diverse, which is perhaps one of the negative things, since its hard to get the right audience and accumulate people with the same interests.” 

Vikas Sabnani had a dream them to asset up firstphera.com. But now when BCM4 is about happen, he has grown as an entrepreneur and his start up also. In the language of this NRI entrepreneur, “It is still bootstrapped.   We are looking for seed funding. We have started making some revenues, so it’s fine.  We are a 10 member team.” 

During BCM2 , I  had a long chat with him. He was seeing the complication in Indian bureaucracy, non-availability of skilled IT manpower in smaller Indian cities, and was looking for shifting his base to Pune from Ahmedabad as real estate price in Bangalore was high.  His eyes were filled with dreams. During discussion, he told me then,” In Silicon Valley, start-up is like a commodity, which gets seeded, grows and gets sold. The entrepreneur again starts a new start-up.” His company has started making revenues. His team has increased to 10. He is now looking for  seed funding.

As fellow camper, I wish him good luck! ( Posted by Loknath Swain )

A year back, three young engineers Divyesh Kharade, Akash Shah and Jinen Dedhai had left their application development job from IT major Wipro Technologies Ltd to start their own company Deltec Technologies from an industrial estate from Dahisar in Mumbai. They had attended BCM 3. Barcamp Mumbai has become a “really great networking platform” for these three Wiproites to find solutions for challenges they are facing in their journey with their start up in mobile application domains.  

I  recently asked them to know how BCM 3 really helped them. They have sent me a mail describing the benefits/values that BCM have added in their journey for entrepreneurship.

 I have presented their reply as it is:  

“Put yourselves in the shoes of 3 young guys, fresh out of their well cushioned IT jobs with dreams in their eyes and tenacity to reach the top. It was time for them to launch M.A.D a freeware initiative in the space of mobile learning, for the student fraternity preparing for their CAT, GMAT, GRE and other competitive exams. For the launch to have the right PR backing the search was on for a PR person with the thought of a PR agency out of the window for obvious reasons. A frantic search on social networking sites and business networking sites we hit on a person and after a few phone calls, an appointment was scheduled and drawn the introduction to BARCAMP, IIT Powai. What better place to network and share synergies with like minded people than the BARCAMP.

The initial meeting developed into a full fledged friendship and ended up in a mentoring session in which this  barcamper shared his  PR experiences, strategized with us, and helped us to come out with a right PR strategy which helped us come a long way. (Do visit http://madmobilesoftware.com/links.php ) We still turn to this camper for mentoring us on a lot of other things. Hats off to BARCAMP for laying a platform for networking and coming across very interesting people which are there for keeps.

We look forward to more such Barcamps and also for all budding entrepreneurs to come forward and participate in the same, who knows what it may bring.

Signing Off,

Divyesh, Akash and Jinen “ 

Barcamp is probably one of most powerful platform available in our time in India for networking for entrepreneurs like these three former Wipro engineers.  In coming days, Barcamp definitely will act as a platform for helping many in building networks and sharing skills /expertise.(Posted by Loknath Swain)

( I am trying to gather cases on how a Barcamp  is influencing the tech / start up scenario and communities. I request everybody to share information with me to enable me to continue the series on the Barcamp’s impact. My contact details :  loknathswain@gmail.com or 09833181107 )

It was just over a year old story. Vishnu Nath, 22, then in TYBSc in Ruprel College in Malad in Mumbai, attended a BCM2 in SOM in IIT Bombay. Always acquainted with the traditional conference and seminar in his college days, he was surprised to experience a camp where everything just un-conference! He was enchanted by the way a Barcamp gets conducted- freedom to participants to choose their subject/speaker, the way a speaker introduces their topics and the way every session goes where everything is interactive! He again attended BCM3 where he had met Vikas Sabnani, a Sanfrancisco based NRI techie who has started a start up Firstphera.com from Ahemadabd after leaving a high paying job at Expedia.com. He heard the inspiring story of a Pune based blogger “Jim Karter” who redefined the blogging by earning from blogs to the tunes of over $ 6 Lakhs a year! He is also updated with the inspiring story of RealAcres.com, the web start-up of Barcamper Murli which was acquired by i-Property of Australia.

He had quest to shape his career after his graduation. In the camp and aftermath, he keeps meeting the campers whom he had networked during the camp. With the reference from a Barcamp contact, he managed to undergo an honorary internship for a week in a mobile Apps company in social media relation just after his graduation. Few months back, with reference from a Barcamper, he joined a first- track software programming course in IDEMI, an institute run by Govt of India for promoting training and technologies among the small and medium enterprises (SMEs)    in Chunnabhatti, Mumbai. I happened to undergo a week-end fast track course in software programming in the same institute where we have a common woman faculty. The faculty said me that she had learnt about Barcamp, social media, Youtube and video sharing, blogging, website monitisation, SEO, SEM and entrepreneurship from this student. The faculty also told me that she had learnt many stories  about entrepreneurship and start-ups from him.  

Many have missed him in past BCMs. But he had got a lot from both past un-conferences. In his language, “it has shown him the way and inspired him to dream”. He is going to be a certified .Net professional from next month. This 22 year techie is planning to take up a job now and later teaming up for a start up. He is also planning to attend BCM4 .Like other BCMs where his dream got a shape to peruse IT as a career, BCM4 may give answers to his quests! During networking opportunities in BCM4, this young .Net professional may meet his employer also! I wish him good luck! ( POSTED BY : LOKNATH SWAIN)

(I am trying to gather cases on how Barcamp is influencing the tech / start up scenario and communities. I request everybody to share information with me to enable me to continue the series on the Barcamp’s impact. My email id is loknathswain@gmail.com Mobile: 9833181107)

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