Last day me and Ujj, a fellow mutineer, was at the Nimhans Convention Center for Proto.in, the startup event. The reach that event had on each of the participants and the people gathered there was quite profound. I have been to quite a lot of conferences and un-conferences, but this one was nothing like the ones i had ever been to. The talent that this event show cased, the ideas that flowed, the success stories that were shared, the new avenues that were opened up for many was quite, let me say it this way, impressive!!!

I vividly recollect telling Ujj, after the event that, i quite didnt know that there were so many smart geniuses in India. Generally when i hear the word start-up the picture that i frame is one of a bunch of people who are sitting in a room and rolling out a service on the internet and minting money(well, if they are lucky). So i wanted to see if there was anyone else who was running a non -IT based, non-internet business. Yes indeed there are, and as it turns out the Healthcare and Wellness sector in India is yet to be tapped to its potential.

I was in for “The Proto.in ShowCase”, where a bunch of start-ups, that were selected on the basis of their trend-setting status, were asked to showcase their product in 6min. Here is a list -

• Nualgi – Kadambari Consultants.
• Remindo – an office social-networking site
  
• Ooha Kiosk Infrastructure – Ooha Services Pvt. Ltd.
• InkFruit – Fingerprints Fashions Pvt. Ltd
• Fachak – Youtube, Flickr, Scribd, Slideshare searches all rolled into one
• Taroby – Advanced Millennium Technologies – Web 2.0 based Messaging Solution

So if u thought it was all about show casing you company and product, you’re wrong. The day’s keynote address was by Bob Young, and yes it was really interesting to hear him speak and the way he ended up in having the worlds largest collection on bad poems online . Sandeep Singhal, Nexus Capital, had a very interesting conversation with the audience on – Thinking Beyond Mobile and Internet. It was here that he pointed out that, yes there can be successful startups outside the mobile and internet sphere.

At the end of the day as i was leaving i realized that, what we need is not more and more conferences on diverse topics, but conventions like Proto.in, where the best in everyone, from the organisers, to the speakers, to the participants, to the techies like me (to the good food and the crowd), are exposed.

I’m looking forward for the next Proto.in.