IILM institute for Higher Education organized the Third Annual Entrepreneurship Conference on 7th April 2017 at its Lodhi Road Campus. The conference was centered on the theme “Mobilizing Entrepreneurial Thinking in an Uncertain World”. The focus of the conference was on fast changing uncertain world and opportunities for entrepreneurship and associated risks, structured around three key sessions.
The conference started with the welcome remarks by Dr. Daisy Mathur Jain from Entrepreneurship Development Cell, IILM. In her welcome address she pointed out the tremendous growth in Entrepreneurship in India for our youth brimming with ideas and energy. She took the opportunity to mention that IILM does its best to promote and inspire this new generation through their undergraduate program – BBA in Entrepreneurship – inspiring students to be innovative in their thoughts and actions to grow their family businesses or to grow as entrepreneurs themselves.
The Opening plenary entitled “Mobilizing Entrepreneurial Thinking in an Uncertain World” wherein Mr. Rajiv Chawla, Founder & Chairman of JaiRaj Group of Industries, Ms. Padmaja Ruparel, Angel investor and President Indian Angel Network, and Dr. Sarandeep Singh, Chairman and CEO of Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment (WEE) Foundation shared their journey and inspired the young entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Mr. Chawla spoke about the exponential entrepreneur and elucidated the five step process to reach there – digitization, deception, disruption, demonitization and dematerialization. Ms. Ruparel, citing significant historical examples, emphasized that India is the most entrepreneurial country and urged the youthful audience to “Just go build it and make it happen!”. Dr. Singh, in his thoroughly engaging speech, underlined the importance of the disruptive mindset, the need to ask the question “Why not?” instead of “Why?” while starting on the entrepreneurial path.
The panel discussion on “Women Entrepreneur’s – Breaking Barriers using Science And Technology” had award winning young women entrepreneurs sharing their experiences and wisdom – Ms. Neha Upadhyay, Founder and Macrobiotic Coach – Guna Organics, Ms. Pooja Bhayan, Founder – Lets Barter, Ms. Ankita Gulati, innovator of a series of Multimodal books designed to help the visually impaired, and Ms. Tarusha Mittal, COO and Co–Founder of Cloudrino. Each of them was part of the WEE Foundation and had started with a problem that they wished to solve, and came up with innovative answers. Through the discussion all four emphasized the importance of perseverance, to get up and start again every time you fall, before you can see some light. They also encouraged the budding entrepreneurs to seek help and support which experienced entrepreneurs and mentors are more than willing to offer.
The closing plenary was based on the theme “Entrepreneurial Journey: Lessons Learned from Front Liners”. Mr. Aditya Singhal, Founder and CEO of IML Jeans Co, Mr. Vaibhav Lall, Founder Khojdeal, Mr. Samit Saxena – Founder & CEO of DJNNI, and Ms. Sonal – CEO and Founder of White Cub Dairy Free Ice Creams were the distinguished panelists. Mr. Singhal underlined the importance of understanding the customer’s needs, treating them as being special and to analyse the demand for the product. He further emphasized the significance of a supportive environment and people around the young entrepreneur to allow the germination of the idea to a full blown set-up. Mr. Lall stressed the importance of translating the idea into action immediately on conception – “Don’t wish for it, work for it!” as he put it. Mr. Saxena urged the aspirants to check the suitability of the idea in the current context and to not get intimidated by the competition, highlighting the approach – build, measure, learn – as the key to success. Ms. Sonal shared her entrepreneurial journey inspiring the students, the entrepreneurs of tomorrow, to take timely action and to market their product well.
The active participation from students and faculties made the conference a great success. It provided an engagement opportunity for students and faculty to listen to new ideas and experiences from distinguished speakers and also to network with established entrepreneurs and investors.
