Mumbai’s startup unconferencing circuit is the most inconsistent in the country. BarCamps remain pretty much at the experimental stage, except for the OSSCamps, which have been quite regular. MoMo meets are around but the last one had more public relations people than start-ups.
The city’s held its first and last BarCamp on May 13 last year and it was a fairly successful event. There were plans to revisit the event on the same date this year but never took off. Now there are plans for a second shot at getting the event off the ground. The date set is the second Saturday of October. One of the organizers, Arpit Agarwal, dropped into my inbox the other day to say that he has recently re-located to Mumbai from Bangalore and has helped organize three BarCamps there. And the 23-year old software engineer wants to revive bar camping in Mumbai. Lucky for Mumbai. Looking at this guy’s enthusiasm it is not surprising that Bangalore is streets ahead on most things related to start-ups. All the best to Arpit and team behind BarCamp Mumbai October 2007.
Meanwhile, BarCampMU 3, the university leg scheduled for September 29 at KJ Somaiya Institute in Sion has been called off! Their wiki says “due to some internal reasons of our college…probably we have a barcamp next year.” The students must be disappointed.
On to other things. The TiE-ISB Connect NEA-IUV Business Plan Showcase has extended the date for submissions from August 31 to the last week of September. Still time, but rush.
Also read Himanshu Sheth’s update on the second Open CoffeeClub in Bangalore on September 2.
nice blog, but maybe, you should also focus on china, it’s where all the action is, at least more than india
preet chadha
Was reading your column in the paper the other day, and was also present at the CFO conference but would not like to reveal my real name for obvious reasons. but you do have a good grasp of the VC and PE sector. pl do keep writing.
it’s ironic. bombay is still sputtering, and bangalore’s barcamps are growing too big for comfort, for some diehard barcampers.