International E-Conference on Post COVID-19 Strategies for Start-Up Ecosystem and Entrepreneurship Opportunities

The Institute Innovation Council, at The ICFAI University Jaipur, organized the International e-Conference on Post COVID-19 Strategies for Start-up Ecosystem and Entrepreneurship Opportunities in association with IEEE Entrepreneurships and IEEE Rajasthan Sub-section from May 12-15, 2020.

Aim and Scope:

The Covid-19 pandemic has toppled the global economy. As countries scurry to fight the unprecedented outbreak with complete lockdowns, businesses have been stalled, global trade has been thwarted and supply chains have been disrupted. These times could be anxious for start-up founders, particularly for those still in the early stages or the youngsters who are planning to set up a start-up.

The e-conference aimed to provide a platform where investors, start-ups, and incubation centers boosted up the youngsters with strategical-solutions to Post-COVID problems that might be faced by young entrepreneurs.

The e-conference was segmented into three categories.

Post COVID-19 Strategies for Start-up Ecosystem
Invertor’s Strategies for Start-ups in Post COVID-19
Role of Institute Innovation Councils/Incubation Centres for boosting start-ups in Post COVID-19

Highlights of the conference:

FINANCIAL EXPENDITURE: INR ZERO

The organization of the event didn’t involve any finances. The registration for the participants was also free. The eminent speakers didn’t charge for taking up the sessions.

The conference was of its kind which was organized first time in INDIA in association with IEEE Entrepreneurship and IEEE Rajasthan Sub-section.
The e-conference is featured globally on the IEEE event calendar (https://entrepreneurship.ieee.org/session/e-conference-post-covid-19-strategies/).
The conference was also promoted by IEEE social media through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Eminent Speakers with global images featured in Times Ascent Engineering Mastermind, f6s.com, Your Story, Zee5, etc.; from premier institutes like IIT, NIT, IIIT, IIM; TEDx speakers; Young Entrepreneur’s from Sri Lanka and alumni from London Business School participated and deliberated in the 4-day event. (Speaker’s profiles are attached in Annexure-I.)
Number of Participants: 283
Institutions participated: 159 institutions from 10 countries including Universities, Colleges, Start-up firms and Incubation Centers (List is attached in Annexure-II)
Encouraging Feedbacks received (a quantitative summary is attached in Annexure-III)

Glimpses of the event are shared in Annexure IV.

Brief Day-wise Highlights

Day 1

Day 1 of the conference began with the inaugural function hosted by Ms. Alakhnanda, Assistant Professor- Icfai Law School and Member IIC. The program began with divine blessings. The welcome speech was delivered by Honourable President Dr. Rajesh Kothari. He addressed the gathering with his commanding words highlighting the significance of start-ups and entrepreneurship aspects learning in academics. He also shared the vision and mission of IUJ. The agenda of the conference was briefed by Dr. M. Sainath, Dean, CFED, ICFAI Group. It was followed by video messages of Dr. Harish Mysore, Sr. Director, IEEE India Operations, and Dr. Rohit Bhakar, Chairman – IEEE Rajasthan Subsection. Dr. Rana Mukherji, President, IIC, and Chairman of the conference briefed the audience about the inception and activities of IIC, along with thanking IEEE for the association. He also familiarised the gathering with the activities scheduled for the next 4 days.

The theme for the Day 1 of the conference was Post COVID-19 Strategies for Start-up Ecosystem. The deliberations for the day were as follows:

1st Session was taken up by Mr. Ravikiran Annaswamy, CEO, Numocity Technologies Bengaluru. He explained about major Stages of Entrepreneurship viz; converging on the idea, business plan, Business Formation, and Growth in detail for Post COVID-19 scenario.

2nd Session was taken up by Mr. Mahen Ratnayake (Co-founder, Katha (Private) Limited & Redlabs Ltd, Colombo, Sri Lanka). According to Mr. Mahen, although the year started well for start-ups and investors alike, the outbreak of novel coronavirus or COVID-19 soon dampened their spirits. With many sectors coming to a near halt, budding ventures began anticipating the worst – a severe liquidity crunch.

3rd and the last session was taken up by Mr. Ankit Chaudhari (Founder & CEO, AIISMA Inc. Gurugram, India). He discussed how the AIISMA data marketplace app is enabling COVID-19 contact tracing in rural India. The story was also covered by Business Standard. For a post-coronavirus world fintech, edtech, healthtech, e-commerce, and agritech will be the emerging verticals and will be in demand globally as, at present, much of the world is working remotely and many business and personal transactions are being done on a global scale.