Submitted by farha on November 30, 2009 - 12:43
TiE Chennai’s annual flagship conference and Tamilnadu’s
largest conclave for entrepreneurs, TiECON Chennai 2009 was
successfully held today at the Chennai Trade Center.
This year’s conclave with the theme –“Enterprising India –
Creating Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur” attracted over 1000 entrepreneurs,
investors and business school students and saw the cream of
Chennai’s business elite and India’s investing community participating
as panelists and speakers.
N Srinivasan, Vice-chairman of India Cements Ltd.,
inaugurated the one day conclave and
also gave away TiE Chennai Entrepreneur
Awards for 2009 starting with
Kalainithi Maran of Sun Network who received
the Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Winners of the other six categories
of the awards are -
Kami Narayanan of Pre Global Media as Woman Entrepreneur
of the Year;
P N Vasudevan of Equitas Microfinance as Start-up Entrepreneur
of the Year;
M B Nirmal of Exnora International as Social Entrepreneur of the
Year;
Satish Babu of Univercell as Extreme Entrepreneur of the Year;
Ravi Appaswamy of Appaswamy Estates and the Residency Group of Hotels
as Next Gen Entrepreneur of the Year and
M V Subbiah of Murugappa Group as
Family Entrepreneur of the Year.
N. Srinivasan of India Cements Ltd.
was chosen unanimously by the jury for Lifetime Achievement.
Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman & MD of TVS Capital Funds Ltd. moderated
the entire awards session.
Winners of the LIBA-TiE Chennai Pan-India Business Plan Competition
were also announced on the occasion with Chintan Megawanshi
from Symbiosis Institute of International Business, Pune
winning in the student category for his mobile retailing plan;
Kapil Jain winning in the general category for his Renewable
Planets plan and Bharath Kumar and Gokul Gururajan from GLIM
emerging joint winners for their Karaktiti plan.
The winners would be eligible to pitch for VC funds amount
to US$500000; courses worth Rs. 5 lakhs; cash prize worth
Rs.1.8 lakhs besides TiE associate membership.
Speaking after inaugurating the conclave, N Srinivasan,
Vice Chairman & MD, India Cements Ltd., said,
“Access to more funds, better and stronger relationship
between universities and industry, flexible curriculum structure
and schedule at educational institutions besides on-campus incubators
will accelerate entrepreneurial growth in the country.”
He also called upon governments and successful entrepreneurs
to come forward and provide a funding base that will give
impetus to entrepreneurship.
In his comments, Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman, TVS Capital Funds Ltd,
said, “Today entrepreneurship is coming to the fore and celebrated
with more and more passionate individuals becoming highly successful.
Associations like TiE need to provide a platform that recognizes aspirants,
gives them a stage to express themselves and helps them to take their rightful
place in the business world.”
Batting in his inimitable style, Kris Srikanth, Chairman,
National Selection Committee, BCCI, and a sports entrepreneur himself,
emphasized the need to believe in oneself, be passionate about whatever
one does and thinking through the heart as key factors for success in
any walk of life including business. He called upon the audience to go
with their gut feel quoting from moments in his captaincy
where it stood him in good stead.
In his welcome remarks, Ramaraj, President, TiE Chennai, said,
“TiE which is anchored on the pillars of networking, mentoring
and education globally is a specially created platform for entrepreneurs
and we have had initial success already in mentoring and creating
new entrepreneurs. The success of TiECON Chennai 2009
only makes that resolve stronger.”
According to J Krishnan, Vice President, TiE Chennai and Chairman of the
2009 conference,” This year it has been bigger with more delegates and
bigger names as speakers. The team has worked hard to create simply the
single largest platform for entrepreneurs in Chennai and we look
forward to being back next year even bigger.”
About TiE Chennai:
TiE Chennai is a part of TiE, a global not-for-profit
organization that helps budding entrepreneurs by way of advice,
guidance and assistance from successful and experienced entrepreneurs
and professionals.
Founded in Silicon Valley in 1992 by successful
entrepreneurs and professionals with roots in the Indus region, today,
TiE has 53 Chapters in 12 countries, spread across 5 continents.
The TiE ecosystem comprises 11,000 members and 2,500 charter members,
who are the top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, lawyers and management
professionals in their chosen field.
For more information visit: www.tiechennai.org
About TiE (formerly The Indus Entrepreneurs):
TiE, in its 17 years of existence, has today emerged
as the world's largest non-profit global network of Entrepreneurs
and professionals, dedicated to the advancement of entrepreneurship.
TiE's mission is to foster conscious entrepreneurship
globally by Educating, Mentoring and Networking -
Educating - Inspires and educates budding entrepreneurs;
Mentoring-Provides role models and one-on-one
mentorship through experienced
entrepreneurs and support system like VCs,
service & Networking-Holds regular
conferences, workshops, and networking meetings
providing a platform to forge
relationships.
The 15 TiE chapters in India do 300+ programs for entrepreneurs annually.
