In Anticipation of TiEcon 2012
TiEcon organizers kicked off the planning for TiEcon 2012, with
continuing goal to deliver the best TiEcon ever. Successfully year
after enthusiastic organizers have delivered a conference that is
vibrant with opportunities for professionals, looking to advance
their careers, staying connected with their peers, looking at
staying in touch with the emerging trends, and looking for access
to angels and VC community. Year after year, they have exceeded the
goal to deliver the best TiEcon, by adding new and exciting
offerings, like TiE50, TiE Expo and more, by attracting the best
and most sought after speakers and panels, and by keeping the
enormous volunteer pool engaged, with exciting volunteering
opportunities. It is perhaps the only conference where hundreds of
volunteers often spend hours toiling in the trenches, and then
claim to get more out of this conference than at any other
conference.
So what is going to be the focus this year? If I could have my
wish list, it would include the following. Some discussion on
social media and where will be next disruption in social media.
Television has always been inherently social activity. People
gathered around the tube when TV was just introduced and friends
still gather around the tube to enjoy sports events like Super
Bowl, Academy Awards, and movies. Will there be re-socializing
television by integrating it with social media. Is Pinterest the
next big thing in social media? Even in it's "by invitation-only"
beta phase, the company has attracted 7 million plus visitors and
is driving more traffic to company websites and blogs than YouTube,
Google+, and LinkedIn combined. With growing cybercrime with huge
and costly implications for corporations, how will we enhance
network security? Besides managing new and emerging systems, how
will companies protect data and information?
Will TiEon focus on Energy and Life Science industries? Despite
the major Soyndra fiasco, we would like to see some discussions on
solving energy challenges? Apparently, there are huge potential
advantages to making cheap fuel from seaweed or macro-algae and Bio
Architecture Lab in Berkeley is currently building huge seaweed
farms. It remains to be seen how it will scale. Will there be
discussions on electric cars with durable and long lasting battery,
even on harnessing solar power more effectively, and other
potential breakthroughs to deal with the energy challenges. I will
absolutely love to see some serious focus on Life Science industry.
Some of the current major buzz words are the new frontiers of
synthetic biology, wireless devices, and the continuing interest
though not much progress in personalized medicine (with the
exception of Herceptin and recent launch of Zelboraf). Scientists
will be heavily focusing on understanding the brain, and perhaps
mapping the brain by zooming in on single neurons (brain has
billions of them). Understanding breakdowns within the neurons will
enable targeted gene therapies, besides the current focus of
personalized medicine, in oncology.
And finally, what new and innovative ways will the TiEcon enable
entrepreneurs and other dedicated professionals to come together
and leverage what each has to offer, to mutual advantage? Each
year, TiEcon has responded to the external opportunities and
challenges with new offerings like extended and serious focus on
Women's Forum to encourage and ensure women professionals'
participation at TiEcon 2011, Outer Realm sessions at 2010 TiEcon,
to challenge perceptual boundaries in technological, marketing, and
cognitive realm and allow for cross-functional collaboration,
Business Bootcamp sessions in 2009 to provide hands-on tips to the
entrepreneurs, during the fledgling economy, and so on. Now in
2012, the economy is on the path to gradual recovery but
uncertainty and funding challenges linger. We have high
expectations that TiEcon 2012 will give yet again a positive boost
to the professionals to follow their dreams, and offer sessions and
strategies with tools and techniques, to enable them to achieve
their dreams.
Friends, stay tuned in the coming weeks, for best price deals
for early registration, and I look forward to seeing many of you at
the best TiEcon ever, TiEcon 2012!
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