Attended by nearly 4,000 attendees, TiEcon 2011 was part of Worth Magazine's Elite List as one of the 10 best conferences for Ideas and Entrepreneurship in the company of Demo, TED, and the World Economic Forum!


Founded in Silicon Valley, California, in 1992, the birth name of TiE is 'The Indus Entrepreneurs', which signifies the ethnic South Asian or Indus roots of the founders. TiE stands for Talent, Ideas and Enterprise. The world's Largest Conference for Entrepreneurs, TiEcon is a global, non-profit, non-political, and non-religious organization dedicated to fostering entrepreneurs across its international network. Today, its network has grown across 56 chapters in 13 countries.


TiEcon 2012 was no different than the previous conferences. This year the conference took place on 18-19th May, 2012, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, and lived up to its billing as "the World's Largest Conference on Entrepreneurship." The theme for the 20th year of TiE was to "Connect, Innovate, Prosper," which reflects the current entrepreneurial ecosystem, now stronger than ever as evidenced by the thriving entrepreneurial activity in the Silicon Valley and the globe.


"TiEcon 2012 was a great success by all measures – attendance, fantastic content, world class keynotes, and a wonderful closing celebration," stated Kiran Malhotra, Executive Director, TiE Silicon Valley. Jai Rawat and Farhat Ali, this year's conference conveners, incorporated their wealth of knowledge from their roles in past TiEcons and their leadership experience as entrepreneurs. They were supported by the talented TiEcon 2012 leadership team of Yogesh Agarwal and Sanjay Sathe (Content Chairs), Bharath Ram (Sponsorship Chair), Manoj Goel (Expo Chair), R. Paul Singh, Anand Akela, and Gautam Thockchom (Marketing & Sales Chairs), Mateen Syed and Raj Desai (Operations Chairs), Sharath Shankar and Bharat Kamdar (Systems Chairs), Harbir Bhatia (Entertainment Chair), Sameer Vij (TiE Youth Chair), small and mighty TiE staff of Patricia Acosta, Harini Sreepathi, and Shilpi Agarwal, lead by Executive Director Kiran Malhotra, and over 250 volunteers who helped to design and produce the conference.


TiEcon 2012 highlighted innovation, mentorship, and networking - the essential ingredients to achieve success in business. The event featured the five most vibrant industry sectors: Social, Mobile, Cloud, Energy, and Life Sciences, and captured exciting content in the Entrepreneurs workshops, TiE Women's Forum sessions, and a new program, the TiE Youth Forum.


TiEcon 2012 maintained the same energy level and high caliber of audiences as seen in the previous years. More than 90 percent of surveyed attendees said they were "satisfied" or "extremely satisfied" with the event, and nearly 75 percent stated they intended to return next year.



TiEcon 2012 Highlights


Keynotes and Breakthrough Thinkers: The event witnessed six legendary keynotes and breakthrough thinkers this year. Day one opened with a keynote on driving innovation by Vishal Sikka, CTO and Executive Board Member of SAP; Dr. Deepak Chopra, Founder of the Chopra Foundation challenged the thinking of people by pushing the boundaries of the mind/body connection; and finally young entrepreneur Aaron Levy, Founder and CEO of Box talked about his story and philosophy for business. Day two began with a presentation on the entrepreneurial landscape by VC, Tim Draper, who also graced the audience with an original song about entrepreneurs; Dr. Anant Agarwal, Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Director of CSAIL at MIT; and the final keynote delivered by Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister of India, and Public Information Infrastructure & Innovations.


TiEcon Innovation Expo: In its second year, the TiEcon Innovation Expo showcased over 100 innovative startups, major corporations, research labs, service providers, and country pavilions. On the heels of last year's breakthrough thinker, Dr. David Ferrucci, IBM showcased Watson at their booth, SAP as grand sponsor, had an anchor booth in the middle of the Expo floor, and Fisker/Mclaren had two of their cars on display. For the first time the Expo also featured the TiE media lounge as well as a place to kick back and connect with friends, colleagues, and business partners.


TiE MentorConnect and InvestorConnect: MentorConnect is a structured, small group networking program that provides an opportunity to meet, learn from, and engage in discussions with successful entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals. Mentors included 58 Charter Members from the Silicon Valley and other TiE chapters, and 214 mentees. At TiE's InvestorConnect, entreprenuers who were exhibiting at the Innovation Expo got the opportunity to meet VCs and/or experienced Angels for 20 minutes on a 1-1 basis. 18 VCs and 25 entrepreneurs participated in this year's program.


TiE50: This year's TiEcon hosted the 4th annual showcase of TiE50, the hottest and most promising startup companies around the globe. This year, TiE selected the top 50 startup companies out of over 3,000 company nominations from more than 50 countries!


TiE Youth Forum: For the first time at TiEcon2012, the TiE Youth Forum kicked off with nearly 600 students in attendance! The program was conceived to give high school and college students the opportunity to become inspired by notable entrepreneurs. Speakers included Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures, Cameron Cohen, a 14 years young entrepreneur, and Sakina Ariswala who recently sold her company, Campfire Labs to Groupon.


TiE Women's Forum: TiEcon 2012 featured three sessions focused on women in entrepreneurship and business. On day one, Dr. Deborah Gruenfeld spoke about leadership and power. The afternoon panel featured corporate women leaders including Judy Little, VP of Strategic Alliance from Ericsson, and Kim Decarlis, VP of Marketing at Citrix, talking about climbing the corporate ladder. Day two featured a session on women entrepreneurs talking about their successes and challenges and included veteran venture capitalist Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, and Claudia Fan Munce, Managing Director of IBM’s Venture Group.


Conference Sessions: TiEcon2012 featured 15 high quality sessions with accomplished panelists who include industry leaders from the Silicon Valley and the globe, from companies including HP, IBM, Microsoft, Facebook, Oracle, Google, Ericsson, Citrix, Groupon, Mozilla, Eventbrite, SalesForce.com, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Barclays, Ernst & Young, as well as others from the top VC , Legal, and Accounting firms in the country.


Entrepreneurs "How To" Sessions: This year, the event featured four interactive workshops that focused on the business of entrepreneurship from 'how to build a successful team to do you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur?' These sessions were lead by seasoned entrepreneurs who offered battle-tested strategies to give entrepreneurs the best shot at success.


Networking: One of the important reasons for entrepreneurs to attend TiEcon is to network and connect. The newly minted TiEcon Expo and Media Lounge, at the VIP and general receptions, provided opportunities for entrepreneurs to network in between sessions, at lunchtime and at the gala banquet and entertainment evening. Additionally the event had several country delegations and VIPs in attendance including Australia, Japan, Brazil, Dubai, India, Mexico, Turkey, Canada, and Singapore.


TiEcon2012 Banquet and Entertainment: The end of the event began with a private reception in the lounge and an Indian fusion feast was hosted along with a dash of music and dance building up as the key act of the night, Kailash Kher and his band, Kailasa.


The social media reach for TiE2012 was overwhelming and was a trending topic on Twitter with total tweets of 6903, Twitter impressions of 14,590,718, Facebook impressions of 477,040, and 2828 videos.