The Executive Director of Deshpande Foundation, one of the key organizers, says the conference has tapped into New England’s rich resource pool.
By Raif Karerat
The 2016 Leadership Conference of the United States-based alumni of the Indian Institutes of Technology will be held at the Rhode Island Convention Center, in Providence, RI, next month. The event will be hosted by the IIT Association of Greater New England and PANIIT USA, the national IIT alumni organization.
A number of prominent speakers from around the country and the world will attend the event, which will be held from August 12 to 14.
In an interview with The American Bazaar, Raj Melville, a key member of the organizing committee spoke about the event.
An active member of IIT AGNE and TiE Boston, Melville is the Executive Director of the Deshpande Foundation. In his capacity, he develops the foundation’s strategy and efforts to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation. He helped launch the Pond Deshpande Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of New Brunswick, Canada and drove overall direction of the Entrepreneurship for All Center in Lowell that has launched over 100 startups in the past three years.
Melville has over 25 years of product management, marketing and consulting experience including as a Vice President at two MIT mobile technology spinoffs – nTag Interactive and Vaultus; He has been a mentor and judge for several entrepreneurial competitions and accelerators such as MassChallenge, the MIT 100K, the MIT Legatum Center, Canadian Technology Accelerator and the MIT IDEAS competition.
Melville has a doctorate and a master’s degree from MIT, a master’s from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Here are excerpts from the interview:
Related: PANIIT 2016 Leadership Conference to be held in Providence, RI, from Aug. 12 to 14
The theme of the conference is “transformation for a better tomorrow: Technologies that lift the human spirit.” What is the significance of that?
The 21st century is witness to accelerating change across economies and beyond political boundaries. With growing populations, global climatic changes, and resource limitations the challenges seem daunting. In the past, human ingenuity has delivered a constant stream of innovations to address such issues. We believe in the potential for technologies in a number of fields to continue innovating and impact human society for good. The theme of the conference reflects this optimistic view of technology in building a better future for ourselves, in the workplace and for society.
Even though it is a Pan IIT conference, over the years, the event has been made open to others as well. What is the thought behind that?
Alumni from the IITs have played a critical role in major industries and academic institutions across America. According to a Brown University study, IITs have accounted for 122 faculty members at the top 50 American universities, second only to MIT. As of 2014, the combined valuation of over 1300 startups by IIT alumni was over $48 Billion, 44% of which were in the United States. Having said that, the issues and challenges that IITians address are the same challenges every citizen faces. We believe the ideas and dialogue at the conference are relevant to anyone who is interested in how technology, science and academia are going to change society for the better. The event is open to all who would like to interact with over a hundred thought leaders, engage in over thirty leading edge panels and learn from eight inspiring keynotes.
This is the first time the New England area is hosting the event. What can we expect from the conference?
New England is host to world class thought leaders and game-changing innovations that address today’s challenges and can dramatically transform the future. The New England region has a rich history of innovation with a steady flow of ideas from early inventions like the cotton gin that revolutionized cotton production in America, to Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone conversation, to relatively recent inventions like the ubiquitous spreadsheet and the Roomba robot. The region is host to one of the largest concentration of universities and research institutions in the world. It leads the country in several fields including life sciences, biotechnology, academics, medicine, to name a few. The conference has tapped into this rich resource pool to bring together some of the great institutions and innovators to share their vision of the future.
Tell us more about the business plan competition. Tell us more about ‘Licensing technologies from universities or research labs’.
The business plan competition is open to anyone older than 18 years with an early stage idea, one that is yet to reach cash flow positive stage. Ideas can be from any industry and we also encourage folks who are looking to commercialize technologies from university or research labs. The applicants will be evaluated on their written submissions in the first round and a selected group of finalists will be invited to pitch their ideas before a panel of judges at the conference. The judges have been selected from a cross section of entrepreneurs, investors and executives. The competitors will be vying for prizes totaling $25,000.
Your speaker-list includes scientists, physicians, entrepreneurs, academicians. Tell a little bit about those speakers traveling from India.
We have a number of representatives from India including faculty and directors of various IITs, entrepreneurs like Peeyush Ranjan, CTO of Flipkart which is India’s billion-dollar e-commerce company, Anu Acharya who has started MapMyGenome in India with the vision of improving healthcare through personal genomics, and there is Harish Hande, co-founder SELCO India, who is a renewable energy entrepreneur. Under his leadership SELCO reached 220,000+ households across 6 Indian states, while focusing on Innovation and Ecosystem building, for which he was awarded the Magsaysay Award in 2011.
The conference opens with a theme: ‘Women in Technology’. How do you perceive the acceptance and success of women in the corporate world?
It has been quite a while since women first got a seat at the table. However, women have still not achieved equality at the top echelons of technology, business, academia, and even nonprofits. Much progress has been made but equal pay for genders for equal jobs continues to be a challenge. During this journey it is important to pause, listen, reflect and applaud those who through their dedication and hard work, courage and determination have paved the way towards our collective progress. The women in technology sessions at this leadership conference target celebrating our women leaders, innovators, risk-takers for thinking forward, opening new doors and expanding the possibilities for women around the globe.
PANIIT 2016 Leadership Conference: Key Facts
Where | Rhode Island Convention Center, in Providence, RI |
When | August 12, 13 and 14 |
Conference site | http://www.iit-2016.org/ |
Early bird registration ($200) | https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2016-leadership-conference-registration-registration-20784696587 |
Contact for Business Plan Competition | BPC2016@iitagne.org |
Updated on July 12, 2016.