By Ritu Jha-
With the theme, Decoding the Future: Unlock Tomorrow, Unmask the Challenge, the Indian Institute of Technology Bay Area Alumni (IITBAA) California hosted the 2024 IIT Bay Area Leadership Conference that brought together technology visionaries, venture capitalists, AI pioneers, unicorn builders to connect as well as listen to professionals, learn new insights, explore innovative ideas, wisdom from keynotes and panel discussions where AI may surpass human intelligence, bringing hope and fear.
Over 850 people attended the conference held Saturday, October 18-19 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, California.
The IITBAA California is a nonprofit public benefit corporation dedicated to the professional advancement of alumni from all IIT campuses throughout India who call the greater San Francisco Bay Area home. The primary goal is to educate the alumni by disseminating ideas that lead the market and create global technology trends. IITBAA arranges periodic subject matter discussions and organizes an annual conference that empowers the IIT alumni as they retain their edge in the workforce.
Nidhi Kannoujia, president of the IIT Bay Area organization, spoke to indica about the mega event that decoded the future with AI in perspective. “The theme of the conference was Decoding the Future, which means, with so much technological advancement and wisdom that we have gained over the years and all the industry trends that are available to see right now, we have a chance, to some extent, predict the future. We want to go into the future and see what we want to build. What do we want it to look like? Whether from a technology point of view, community point of view, or even a personal perspective. Having that vision and seeing whether what we are doing today is going to get me there. If not, then we want to change that. It’s bringing the learnings from tomorrow to today so you can build a better future,” she said.
While talking about the future, the hosts focused on the tech that is defining the future. “We also had to pay attention to the verticals that are very high focus right now. On the security vertical, we had two panels – Zero Trust and Data Privacy. The health tech segment too relies heavily on the data of their customers, which too needs a lot of security. To handle all that, one of the focuses of the conference was AI, which is not just a vertical, it cuts across every segment. In addition, we picked the industries that can be highly impacted by these changes and brought leaders from there. We focused on technology and referred to cases that we have today and the cases that we will have in the future. That’s the decoding of the future as we move ahead.”
When asked whether the conference needed more women panel speakers, Kannoujia said: “We had women-focused segments in the conference. But that remains a challenge, we will think about how to bring the women speakers to the main stage. I feel that our community needs women’s focus, I don’t think we are there yet. We still need to have that conversation. But there’s always a push from my side and this organization. Women need to be front and center because that’s the only way to being equal right now. Because, being a woman and a leader in the corporate world they have built their brand, and they are honored but still we expect more.”
“I want women leaders to be easy to find and more women to come out and speak. I think it’s an aspect of justice and service to speak about what you want. As women, we get very passionate about the things that we do. Sometimes we stop caring about visibility. I do the same. We care about our purpose so much that we stop caring that maybe we need visibility. And I think women achievers must come out and talk, not just for ourselves, but for our community. We have to step up and ask for more. We reach out to a lot of women and ask them to speak for themselves. We don’t need to back down; we need to be at it until we get it. And I think many of the women leaders are amazing. They’re out there, they talk and ask for things. But I’d love to see that more because it’s like pushing a product into the market. If the customer loves it, too it becomes easier to be found and reached,” she added.
Was it difficult in this recession market to get sponsors for the event? “It does require a lot of work to organize such an event. But, I don’t think I saw the effect of the recession at all. It’s a tremendous amount of work, reaching out, and following up. A few of the conversations closed at the last moment which put pressure on the team. But then again, it’s business. I work very aggressively in the nonprofit world and its business model is very different, but it’s still business. Running a nonprofit is even more tough and needs an additional set of skills. Because you’re not paying anyone, it’s all volunteer work. The challenge is to motivate people to be passionate about the vision and that they can put in more time after they do their full-time jobs.”
Preparations for the 2024 IIT Bay Area Leadership Conference began six to seven months back. “It’s a business model of resources, retention of funds, generation of spending, keeping the organization afloat, following governance.”
When asked why the fun and entertainment section of the conference was missing this year, Kannoujia explained: “It was a business decision for two reasons – the time allocated for the main events was long, we knew that nobody’s going to stay after that. And, the time factor was also crucial for the organizers and volunteers. If we do something, we do it well or we better don’t do it. But again, I’m very pro-entertainment. I think the life is fun. That keeps our energy high. So I would love to bring it back or find another way of doing it sometime in the middle of the year.”
