File photo of director Soundarya Rajinikanth (l) and her dad, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth, in London during the promotion of the film “Kochadaiyaan.” (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images)

An international start-up conference from Sep. 3 will see 12,000 participants attending workshops and deliberating on a wide range of issues related to emerging companies in Hyderabad. – @Siliconeer, #Siliconeer, #StartupIndia, #DigitalIndia, #StartupHyderabad, #Rajinikanth, #SoundaryaRajinikanth #AugustFest

The fourth edition of the conference, `August Fest,’ is being supported by the Telangana Government.

The two-day event is being organized by Eat, Sleep, Drink (ESD) start-up with support from the State Government, T-Hub and Indian school of Business (ISB), said Kiran Maverick, founder of August Fest.

“This year 107 speakers and 12,000 participants will take part in the event, where there will be 125 start-up pitches and 20 workshops,” he said.

For the first time, non start-ups and members of general public have been allowed to participate, he said.

“Since last year we are working on measurable growth for start-ups. Last year, we picked up five start-ups that have seen exponential growth. This year we are picking up to 10 start-ups in different sectors and add value in terms of mentorship and guidance for funding and build success stories right here in Hyderabad,” Kiran said.

Telangana IT Secretary Jayesh Ranajan said “August Fest has contributed immensely in developing start-up ecosystem in the city. The Government’s focus is not just on T-Hub (a startup incubation initiative of the Telangana Government) alone.

“I am on the board of T-Hub, which recently decided that start-ups outside the ambit of T-Hub, too, should get the same benefits as those in the T-Hub Incubation,” he said.

“We own the fest. We feel proud of the fact that it has scaled up so fast,” Jayesh said.

Among the key speakers would be Carman Chan from Hong Kong, Ernest Sanchez from Spain and Soundarya Rajinikanth (Rajinikanth’s younger daughter), Kiran added.