TiEcon 2017 Attendees trying out VR (All Photos: Vansh A. Gupta/Siliconeer)

@Siliconeer #Siliconeer @TiESV #TiESV #TiEcon @TiEcon – Over 6,500 entrepreneurs and technology professionals recently gathered at the Santa Clara Convention Center, in the heart of Silicon Valley to attend TiEcon 2017, writes Vasudha Badri-Paul.

The conference is orchestrated by The Indus Entrepreneurs, a non-profit in Silicon Valley, with chapters spanning the globe. TiEcon is the largest technology focused entrepreneur conference in the world and a dream come true for budding technology entrepreneurs and seasoned professionals, alike. Where else would you find 200 speakers, all under one roof, talking and networking about the latest mind-boggling technology?

TiEcon 2017 consisted of 15 tracks, namely, IoT, Autonomous Vehicles, AR/VR, Govtech, Machine Learning, Software Defined Infrastructure, Drones, Security, Martech, Gaming, Entrepreneurship, Digital Health, Fintech and Blockchain.

Added into this intriguing mix, was a track on entrepreneurs, talking about their journey, a “Social Impact” track focusing on entrepreneurship that serves the world, “Words of Wisdom” for budding entrepreneurs, a session to inspire and award “Youth” entrepreneurs, and a competition to win the coveted TiE 50 award.

Attendees at TiEcon 2017

The keynote sessions ran to packed halls with luminaries including: Tim Draper, Managing Director of Draper Fisher Juvertson, Ravi Mhatre, Light Speed Venture Partners, AppDynamics CEO Jyoti Bansal, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chairman and CEO, NantWorks, and many more. The event ran full-throttle with talks on innovation, futuristic trends, sage advice for budding entrepreneurs, and extensive networking opportunities.

Key takeaways this year:

  • Insights into current mind-boggling technology trends
  • Networking opportunities with technology entrepreneurs, industry veterans, old pals
  • How to be create a business that is mindful of #SocialImpact
  • Informative sessions for youth involvement in entrepreneurship
  • Speakers delivering motivational and thoughtful quotes to guide entrepreneurs
  • Speed in decision making comes from cognitive diversity – Sandy  Carter, VP @AWS
  • It’s not about B2B or B2C. It’s about B2H (human) – Chandar Pattabhiram, CMO @Marketo
  • You have to do all the right things, give yourself a chance, try more things & you have a chance to get lucky – Vinod Khosla @KhoslaVentures
  • Trust and believe in yourself. You will have failures-get back up! – Jyoti Bansal CEO @AppDynamics
  • Social Impact needs to be built into the DNA of a company from the start- Sarah Gordon, co-founder @SquareOrganics
(L-r): Former TiE President, Vish Mishra, and Current TiE President, Ram Reddy, presenting the TiE Lifetime Achievement Award to Vinod Khosla, Founder of Khosla Ventures

The best takeaway was the sheer thrill of a 2-day extravagant technology festival, with a chance to learn, mingle, and celebrate. In short, #TiEcon 2017 was all about fueling entrepreneurs to go for the gold.

Read more in Siliconeer’s detailed report on TiEcon in the upcoming June print edition.