A set of luminaries – Senator Hillary Clinton, Jeff Immelt (CEO, GE) & Arun Sarin (CEO, Vodafone) – will be keynote speakers at the IIT 2007 Global alumni conference, to be held in San Clara (Bay Area, California) on July 6-8, 2007. Over 4000 attendees are expected to attend the conference that is being organized by PanIIT Inc. Conference chair Sanjiv Sahay said, “The theme of the 2007 conference is Transforming the World through Technology”. Sanjiv added, “It will showcase the impact of the IITs and its alumni in driving innovation, creating new enterprises, and enabling social transformation in both India and the US”.

Some of the finest brains including Nobel Laureate Arno Allan Penzias (1978 Nobel Prize in physics), CMU President Jared L. Cohon, McKinsey's Rajat Gupta, Keynote CEO Umang Gupta, leading VC Vinod Khosla, Headstrong CEO Arjun Malhotra, entrepreneur and philanthropist Kanwal Rekhi, iGATE’s Sunil Wadhwani and other luminaries from around the world will look hard at the future, explore the frontiers of new thought and technology, and identify the next big forces and trends that will sweep across the world. In addition, the conference will provide an opportunity to discuss the cutting edge technology issues like Clean Technology and Web 2.0.  

It’s not all work though. This three day conference will serve as a forum for IITians from all over the world to re-establish old bonds, create new friendships and network with fellow alumni, faculty, and their families. “Day 2 of the conference is focused on alumni interactions. In addition, there are batch reunions and fun events for spouses”, says Sachin Maheshwari, a conference organizer.
 
“The 2007 conference will build on the very successful IIT 2006 conference in Mumbai that was inaugurated by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (President of India)” said another organizer, Ashu Garg. Ashu added, “The Pan IIT movement is rapidly picking up steam. In 2006, we had conferences in Mumbai, Singapore and Toronto, and in 2007, there are regional events planned in Paris and Tokyo, in addition to the Global Conference in Santa Clara”.

We have already seen a large number of registrations from outside the bay area as people are looking to make travel plans over the July 4th weekend as soon as possible. We are encouraging people to register early and to lock down their travel plans to avoid disappointment. Registration for the conference is open at http://www.iit2007.org.


About Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)

The Indian Institutes of Technology, or IITs, are a group of seven autonomous engineering and technology oriented institutes of higher education established and declared as Institutes of National Importance by the Government of India. Collectively, the IITs are widely regarded as amongst the leading educational institutes in the world. In order of establishment, the seven IITs are located at Kharagpur, Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati, and Roorkee.

About PanIIT USA

PanIIT USA
PanIIT-USA is an umbrella entity representing the alumni organizations for all the IITs, and the various regional PanIIT organizations in the US. It’s goals are to build the “IIT” brand, enable networking amongst alumni, and facilitate “giving back” to the IITs and India more broadly.

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