The panel discussion centered on the theme of finding the next business model for the Indian IT industry and the unanimous conclusion was that a more collaborative model of interaction and technology development among the various IT industries was the need of the hour. The panelists agreed that the sector would in the next few months successfully counter the recessive storm in the global economy to emerge stronger.
The session saw the finals of the business plan - Alchemy (judges panel consisted of Venture Capitalists and Professors of the NSRCEL, IIM B) and Case presentation competition - on the topic of beating Nokia’s market dominance in the Indian mobile handset market; with the finalists vying for the top slot; the sessions were thoroughly contested and interesting pitches were made. The ‘Turing Test’ business/technology quiz finals were conducted by Prof Rajeev Gowda in the afternoon after the written elimination rounds and Mr Arul Mani the VP of Karnataka Quiz Association was also present for the show.
The panel discussion at the end of the festival, in the late evening was well attended and consisted of panelists of repute from the IT Industry including Mr Srini Rajam, CEO Ittiam Systems, and Mr Y V Prakash, Director R&D, Honeywell Technology Solutions and established entrepreneurs from the PGSEM lineage moderated by Prof Sourav Mukherjee. Prof Pankaj Chandra, Director, IIM Bangalore, started with his inaugural address which was followed by the Keynote by Mr Rajam; on the topic of ‘Innovation: Leading the way’ which was also the overarching theme of Convergenz’09.
The valedictory address and concluding remarks were made by Prof Shankar Venkatagiri, Chairperson, PGSEM who stressed on the importance of industry-academia interactions and stressed the point that students of the PGSEM through Convergenz were leading this initiative.
