I attended Proto.in yesterday. One of the biggest changes that happened at this event was that, it became a one day event rather than the usual two day event. Of all the sessions that happened, keynote talk by Mr. Ganesh Natarajan, CEO of Zensar and the “Angels can help you fly!” discussion from Mumbai Angels were very good.

The Event

This time, there were 15 products from a variety of areas including but not limited to Education, Internet and Mobile, Software etc. I liked the presentations from the companies namely English Seeko (a dial-in solution by phone to learn spoken English). Even though their demo was good, they would have lot of challenges with speech recognition. Then I liked the Credit Card Reconciliation System from Aerosoft. It was a very well put together presentation and I immediately understood their product’s validity from their presentation.

There was two presentations that did blow the audience away. One was from TouchMagix about their Microsoft-Surface-like product. Other was this launch of custom made bikes by Vardenchi Motorcycles in the range of Rs. 2.8 lakhs to Rs. 10 lakhs. They are already profitable and they brought 2 of their custom made bikes to the Proto.in stage to showcase them to the audience. They looked beautiful. When funds allow, I will surely design & get my own bike from them.

There was another company with the name GoVasool. Their presentation reminded me of the product named SpotEazy that presented during the first Proto.in in 2007. I couldn’t get their concept of why vendors would compete with each other to give a lower price for a select group of people. And then there was Vrixx (pronounced as vri-ksh), a end-to-end college management product, based on the all prevalent SaaS model.

Mumbai Angels

Near the end of the event, Mumbai Angels announced that they would pick two startups from the lot and give them the opportunity to present to the angels at their offices for funding. They picked Vrixx and TouchMagix. Congrats guys! It seems ConWizta (content management and testing application) missed that by a narrow margin.

Links

1. Proto.in Live.
2. Company Profiles.
3. Send feedback to startups.

It was a good way to spend the weekend and this event is making me feel guilty every time because I haven’t started up yet.

If you wish to attend the event, do register as soon as possible. There are very limited seats available. And for those who register before 31st December 2007, there is a early bird discount of 50% of the event fees.

 Important links:

• Proto.in website – http://proto.in/
• Registration – http://proto.in/proto2008/registration_form.shtml

Hurry up!!

Proto.in 2007 SE
Proto.in was a good success last time. Proto.in second edition has been fixed for 21st and 22nd July 2007 at Chennai. Exact location will be put up soon at the proto.in website. As usual, I’m taking care of the website along with Siddharta. An interim website for Proto.in 2007 SE is up at http://www.proto.in/proto2007se. You can also go through the old proto website to learn what this event is about.

If you are a product based startup company, you can nominate yourself now. The nomination closes on 5th June 2007. As last time, 30 companies with amazing products will get a chance to present them on the day of the event. Registrations for participants will start after the nominations are over. Read the blog for more information. Subscribe to the ProtoTalk group to keep yourself updated with the latest happenings.

MoMoChennai
MoMo = Mobile Monday. The venue for the first episode has been fixed as IIT and the event is scheduled for 6th May 2007, which is a sunday. Therefore, this event can also be called as MMS (Mobile Monday on a Sunday) . More details here and here.

PodWorks
This is a two day event, focussing on podcasts. This event will consist of crisp workshops on podcasting and hey, you will definitely walk away carrying a lot of satisfaction on acquiring your new skill . More details coming soon.

BigRace
This is a challenging race in which with just about Rs.1000/- you should to travel to the farthest destination possible and come back in 10 days. You are not encouraged to carry any money and in case you are in want of money, you can do small part time jobs on your trip . This should be very very exciting and if I get a 10 day off at work, then you can see me there. More info at bigrace.pbwiki.com.

*Wipes sweat off the forehead*

Exciting times ahead!!!

Sponsorship kit, media kit and other necessary items are on their way. They should be out in a couple of weeks. Preparations have started way ahead this time… Let wait and watch about how this event turns out to be.

The Event
The whole day consisted of demonstrations of 30 different products from 30 different companies. Many of them did manage to finish up in the stipulated 8 minutes. There was no Q & A session after the presentation. It was left for the audience to network with the guys doing the presentation. For most of the companies, it was the first time they had to present their product within 8 minutes, something that Atul Chitnis calls, “The elevator pitch”, and many of them did a good job at it.

Some of my favourite presentations were SEraja, spoteazy, desicrew, tracbac, deeprootlinux, novatium and some more companies whose names I’m unable to remember right now. Those companies who did well answered some questions like, “What problem they are solving with the product?”, “What is the differentiating factor of the product?”, “What they are looking for from an event like proto?”. Precise answers for these questions and a quick demo was all they did to capture the attention of the audience.

Good Things about the event
Met a lot of good old barcamp buddies, some of whom turned out to be angel investors . Arjun and Arun, who soft-launched Taazza at BarCampChennai last March, now have a kick arse full fledged news product. Good going guys! What’s a bit surprising though is that there is no support for IE, which is still the most popular browser

Got lots of inspiration to start working on some of the crazy ideas that had been occuring off late. Also realized that, there are lots of people ready to fund your product. But then, one thing to remember is to answer the “Why?” question before proceeding to build the product.

Overall, its been an amazing experience to be a part of the proto.in team. This event will return soon in all its glory, only getting better than this next time.

Whoa! the proto.in team has come a long way. With just a day more to go for the event, I’m really so damn excited to see the 30 technology companies, who are going to be the next big wave, pitching on the D-day. As a personal interest, I’m very interested what the Indian mobile space has to offer.

For the professionals who are not going to attend, it will be a day they will regret. Watching the evolution of products and technology is a boon in itself . The event is taking place at the ICSR Auditorium in Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. By the way, this is not a free event. If you want to attend, head on to http://www.proto.in/register. I will be going there on sunday. Drop a line if you are attending too.

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Java SE 6 is out. The whole Java community is gaga over it. Netbeans 5.5 now supports Java SE 6 also. Reading this yesterday, I feel Sun is committed to not making that mistake. The next Sun Tech Days event is happening at Hyderabad on 21-23 Feb 2007. The talks look promising and the topics they pick everytime are exciting. They have also added a Java ME day this time. If you are a java freek, DON’T miss this event. Register.

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Proto has been going on great. The website now sports a new dress skin. If you are a startup company willing to showcase your product at Proto, nominate yourself. The nomination closes on 20th Dec 2006. Registration for other participants will be open soon. So, hang on! Read the Proto blog for more information.

Wow!! exciting times ahead.

BlogCamp.in: Six months after the smashing success of BarCamp, Chennai came up with an event tagged as India’s Biggest Blog Unconference. True to the tag, the event attracted participants from around the globe and as many as 60 volunteers owned various parts of the unconference.

After BlogCamp.in: Two weeks later, the same team met again and thought of a DEMO like event for India and Indian products. After some heavy discussions, the event has been named as PROTO. It should be noted that Palm, Java and many other great products were launched at DEMO. Read the DEMOblog.

PROTO cannot be in unconference mode because it will become a bigger BarCamp. This event is one place where we get venture capitalists (VCs) and entrepreuners together so that some of the best brains and ideas in the Indian sphere can get funded. We are aiming for a one-on-one coordination between the entrepreuners and VCs. That is, number of VC companies will be greater than or equal to the number of teams presenting at the event. Ofcourse, there will be a lot of press coverage.

Teams who think they have innovative products will be asked to register at the website that is expected to come up shortly. After that, each team will be reviewed by an expert team from PROTO who have an eye for future trends and the ability to judge products which promise to be the next huge wave. Some teams will be shortlisted for presentation at the event. They will also have the opportunity to have a face-to-face meeting with interested VCs who will gather at the event. The place and time of the event will be announced shortly.

The main reason for coming up with such an event is that, even though there are a huge number of IT companies in India, there is not enough innovation happening on that front. It is like yet another government job where we get a good salary, pension, wife, 2 kids etc. This face of India should change. Entrepreuners should be encouraged. Events like PROTO are a step towards that. As DEMO had set the stage for entrepreuners world-wide, PROTO hopes to be India’s defacto platform for staging new products and technologies. With a pretty huge population and talent raising day-by-day, I think innovation shouldn’t be a problem. It is all in the mindset of the people.

Interested? Read the discussions we had during our first meeting. Our community tech blog says, “India has the potential to become a technological innovation hotspot. It must be noted that, it won’t be the IT majors who make this happen, but startups”. Vijay says, “We are the future of India. Either embrace us, or fear us ”.

PROTO will make a change on the IT face of India.