Proto.in was one event that I was looking forward to attend for a long time. Infact, I was so enthusiastic about it that I was the first one to register for it, even before the organizers had officially opened up the registration. My name tag also had #1 :) I had reached a day b4 event started to volunteer for getting things ready for the event. It was gr8 fun interacting with the organizers and other volunteers. We all were there @ the Seminar Hall @ IIT-D working hard to make sure everything was ready for the next day. I have taken some candid shots of ppl working behind the scenes. I was taken aback after entering the Dogra Hall @ IITD where the Startups were gonna demo their products on the second day. It is HUGE. I bet, I have never stood on any stage bigger than this. This was the best "platform" the guys @ proto.in could give the startups to showcase their products.

Day1. Fastrack Sessions.

Keynote - Kiran Karnik, the former president of NASSCOM.

Building Services for India: The Art of Pricing - Murugavel Jankiram, Bharat Matrimony.com

At helm of a fast growing Business - Bhavin Turakhia, Directi.

This session was real good. Bhavin brings so much passion and enthusiasm in his talks that one is always impressed by his talks and I am sure that I will remember this session for a long time to come. In his session, Bhavin gave an analogy that running a business was like playing a game. Check the slideshow below. Check out Siddharth’s Blog he has written a very nice article on this session.

The Game of Business by Bhavin Turakhia

 

 

Since I work @ Directi and my name tag had "Directi" written below my name, I was approached by so many people during the refreshments and lunch break. Since many of them had not heard much about Directi, they wanted to know more about it.

The Art of Marketing your Startup by Mahesh Murthy, CEO Pinstorm was very good. Nikhil Pahwa of Medianama has written a wonderful article on it here. This is article is tagged _MUST_READ_  :)

I wasn’t there in the seminar hall for most of the sessions after that as I was busy networking. I met some really interesting people, one is bound to as the event attracted a lot of startup enthusiasts, investors, techies, technocrats et al

Day2. Startup Showcase.

The 2nd day was the d day for the startups short-listed for this year’s proto. Each of the startups were given 6 minutes to demo their products in front of an audience followed by a Q n A session after each category got over. Since pictures speak louder than words, I have found a couple of slides which sums up the entire 2nd day.

Startups at Proto’s fourth edition at New Delhi (July 18-19, 2008)

This slide shows the startups that showed their demo @ Proto4

Proto IV held at New Delhi: Startups, Entrepreneurship & Technology in India

Missed this year’s Proto? Keep checking Proto.in for the next one coming up in December @ Bangalore.