StartupCentral

It might be fun to go Barcamping around Asia. It would not be too expensive and probably quite an eye-opener. I’m seriously planning an itinerary and decided to start with the BarCamp wiki to get a fix on the activity across the region. Some of things I learned amused and surprised me:

1. You cannot access the BarCamp wiki if you are in China (says this blogger’s post)
2. Malaysia is having its first BarCamp this July. When you’re sitting in India where a BarCamp happens once a week (almost), that sounds LATE. They have something called a ‘hangout time’ which starts at 6.00 am on Saturday and continues into Sunday morning.
3. The party spirit continues in Thailand, which is having its third BarCamp later this month. Party is officially on the agenda.
4. Cambodia’s first BarCamp comes up a little later in September and the highlight of this event, according to me, is going to be, again, the evening party — people have been requested to show up with their national beers. Goa’s Kings beer is what I would take along

India does seem to be well ahead in the evolution curve as far as barcamping goes. The rest of Asia, or at least South East Asia, seems to be waking up to it now. Wonder why and maybe the best way to find out is to hit the road.

Image Courtesy: Barcamp Wiki

Startup Saturday comes up tomorrow. Two entrepreneurs are supposed to speak there. Mohit Dubey from Carwale and Girish Saraph from Vegayan Systems.

The BarCamp circuit seems to be on a monsoon holiday. But there’s something called WiCamps on the agenda in Chennai, Kolkata and Gurgaon. WiCamp is short for Wipro Innovation Camp and is the Bangalore-based information technology services company’s attempt to derive inspiration from the BarCamp phenomenon and hob-nob with the start-up community.

The TiE Canaan Entrepreneurial Challenge 2008 is nearing closure. Eight finalists have been announced (the names are up on the website). Three out of the eight will be declared winners.

BarCamp Mumbai 3 is getting cooler by the minute — and I don’t mean just the new logo. They’ve added a parallel event — BlogCamp Mumbai Style. This will also run from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm and is at the same venue, School of Management at IIT Bombay. The camp is actually a continuation of BlogCamp Pune that was held last June. They’ve moved to Mumbai for their second edition. I am looking forward to the session on ‘How to use WordPress’.

Note, even BlogCamp is not offering any badges, but the wiki says free T-shirts are available.

Quick update on other upcoming events to watch:

Startup Lunch: The Proto guys have launched a new initiative and it kicked off in New Delhi today. This is speed dating applied to startup networking. You have one hour to talk to as many startup founders as possible across a table. The event is aimed at getting young professionals interested in taking up jobs with startups. Very good idea. I was chatting with Vijay Anand, Proto’s curator, a couple of days ago and happened to ask him why Delhi first and not Mumbai. He shot back, “No enthusiasm in Mumbai.” Turns out that Mumbai came up with only 2-3 registrations.

There are a whole lot of other BarCamps coming up — Delhi (its fourth), Rajkot, Ahmedabad and of course, Bangalore (sixth edition).

And, Bangalore’s next OpenCoffee Club meet is on March 30th.

After a over a year of expounding on BarCamps and unconferences I finally attended one — BarCamp MU3 at the KJ Somaiya Institute of Engineering and Information Technology at Sion.

So what does a BarCamp at the university level look like? A bunch of maybe forty guys and girls, not all of them students, sitting at their desks and taking in the presentation going on up front. The mood was nice. Speakers took questions or opinions from other participants at regular intervals, some became extended conversations and I finally saw first hand how an unconference actually works. The big one — BarCamp Mumbai3 — comes up on March 29 at IIT Bombay.

I chatted a bit with the guys who put the show together — Saumil Parekh (front row third from left in the photo) is a final year student and alongwith friend Maulik Shah, has set up a web design company called Cafe Infotech which he says is an interim thing before he joins his family business. This was Mumbai’s third university-level BarCamp.

December is my favourite month of the year, and not just in venture capital terms. And, there’s a load of networking taking place this month.

First week, on the 5th, I attend a private, private equity party hosted by well, a private equity firm who I cannot name here. It’s actually being held at the CEO’s home in Bandra and I expect to meet not just general partners — folks who invest private equity money in companies — but limited partners, who are people who invest in private equity funds. Looking forward to it.

Next, back on the BarCamp trail, Delhi hosts the third chapter of its gig on December 8, which happens to be a Saturday. The last one in the Capital was last December. I find the phenomenon of BarCamping or any start-up networking gig in Delhi quite amazing. The city is so much about power broking and bad attitude, it is nice to see something positive and new-age gaining momentum there. For more details, go to the wiki here.

Chennai OpenCoffee Club, I believe the first OpenCoffee Club chapter to debut in India, meets again on December 2. I’m happy to report that the website is now open to public viewing and may I add, it is a very professional and happening site. Go visit.

Business plan contests for start-ups are in peak form now. Don’t forget to track Eureka! 2007, which culminates in February. The countdown promises to throw up some of the most exciting young start-ups from business school campuses. Meet the shortlisted start-ups for the final leg of the contest here. Another event that builds up to February is the IIM Calcutta Entrepreneurship Cell-organized National B Plan Contest. Seedfund, TiE and National Entrepreneurship Network are partners for the event and Seedfund will become a mentor-investor to the first prize winner, who takes home Rs 1 crore! Happy to get some good news out of Calcutta in a while.