RITU JHA
Thousands of engineers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, students and budding startups joined TiEcon 2021, this year’s edition of the world’s largest tech entrepreneurship conference.
TiE Silicon Valley’s signature event — held May 6 to 8 with the theme “Emerge. Engage. Elevate” — was attended by over 31,000 people from 100 countries. This was the second year it was held as an all-virtual conference.
The turnout surprised not just the hosts but even the attendees.
Anand Akela, co-chair of TiEcon 2021, told indica News: “We were surprised to get more than four times of last year’s registration, but it strengthens our belief that there is great interest in the content we build and deliver aligned with our goal of fostering entrepreneurship.
“Our marketing team did an amazing job of reaching out to the global audience with very targeted messaging for different programs and tracks,” he said. “We presented the glimpse of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial success recipe to our global audience and they responded to it by registering for TiEcon.”
“Help of our partners like Montgomery Summit, Bilateral Chambers, Strategy, and many more for a targeted outreach and that helped us achieve these record-breaking numbers,” Anand said. “Our social media targeted younger audience aligned with our goal to attract younger entrepreneurs and 75 percent of the audience we engaged were in 18-40 age range.”
TiEcon 2021 featured such iconic figures as Ratan Tata and Kanwal Rekhi, and rising stars such as Daniel O’Day, chairman and CEO of Gilead Sciences, the makers of the Covid-19 drug Remdesivir.
Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings emphasized how important freedom is for a company. “The key with freedom is having as much of it as possible, but not falling into chaos,” he said.
Nikesh Arora, chairman and CEO, Palo Alto Networks, shared how the pandemic had transformed changed business globally. “But the base of innovation and technology adoption and adaptably of a human beings trying to stay professional has been phenomenal,” he added.
TiEcon 2021 honored Daniel Dines, CEO of UI Path, with the Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Navin Chaddha, managing partner, Mayfield Fund, was given the Venture Capitalist of the Year award.
A new track in the conference this year was on Crypto, where Surojit Chatterjee, Chief Product Officer , Coinbase, and Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer, Coinbase, spoke on: “What’s in store for the future of the Crypto space?”
Rajani R Shailender,VP and Business Unit Head, Tech Mahindra, helmed the Diversity and Inclusion track. She told indica News that there is a proven correlation between an inclusive work culture and increased revenue and innovation.
“When employees feel that their ideas, presence and contributions are truly valued or taken seriously by their organization, they take ownership, perform at peak capacity, and take pride in their work,” she said.
She said that in the midst of all the chaos and loss of the pandemic, “it is so essential not to lose sight of what really matters! It is so important to focus on wellness before business, to encourage leaders to be more empathetic and inclusive, to be comfortable having a conversation on uncomfortable topics like racism and exclusion.”
