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The Trident at Nariman Point was not supposed to be the venue for the AVCJ Private Equity & Venture Forum/India 2008, but the Mumbai terrorist attacks led to the conference being postponed anyway from December to February. That said, the global financial meltdown rather than terrorism should be held responsible for a noticeably muted conference this year.

When I walked into the first panel session, which was being chaired by ChrysCapital’s Ashish Dhawan — it was nice to see the usually reclusive Dhawan step into the spotlight — the seats were all taken. The fact that the panel comprised of Bain Capital’s Pavninder Singh, Goldman Sachs’s Heramb R Hajarnavis, Future Capital Partners’s Atul Kapur and TPG’s Puneet Bhatia probably had something to do with the high interest. And, of course, the fact that they were talking about buyouts. Dhawan has been talking about buyouts as a new flank at ChysCapital for over a year and Bain and TPG are well known buyouts hunters. Good time to talk about it but probably still early to expect deals in India.

It was a good, strong start to the conference but the momentum didn’t hold. By the second session, post coffee, you could pick and choose your seat. “Last year was abnormal. This year we’re back to business as usual,” remarked a private equity honcho when asked why the conference seemed less busy than usual. He’s probably right. Many of the fresh faces around in December 2007 were missing. I have not yet specifically heard of private equity firms in India shutting shop but the AVCJ conference certainly indicated that many, many people are keeping a low profile. That also made it easier to spot the old faces.

At the 2007 conference even standing room was at a premium during sessions. Several groups of people spilled over into the lobby or into coffee shops to network. I remember sitting down with a venture capitalist on the stairs leading down to the Regal Room to conduct an interview.

I am glad that in 2009 things are getting back to the old normal. Grant Thornton reports that January 2009 saw 14 deals worth $202.22 million announced against 57 deals worth $1.51 billion in January 2008. Going by the buzz at the conference, dealmaking will not hit the historic highs of 2007 and 2008 but will gather momentum towards the second half of the year. Curious though about a new animal called VC Hunt in the January deal list — it has invested in CashURDrive, Artintell Systems and Avisya. It has Acumen Fund as one of its investors and operates in the startup and early-stage space.

I must mention that if the conference venue itself wore a deserted look, the coffee shop just above it was quite the opposite. Spotted Blackstone’s Akhil Gupta and Morgan Stanley Private Equity’s Aluri Srinivasa Rao in deep discussion at separate tables. Speaking of ICICI Venture alumni, Bala Deshpande, who now leads New Enterprise Associates’ growth investments here, happened to be there as well en route to an investor meeting. And I finally got myself Ventureast’s Sarath Naru’s new numbers. Ever the contrarian, he’s talking about PIPE (private investment in public enterprise) deals these days.