Over 550 people attended TiE-Boston’s 13th Annual TiECON East Conference on June 2-3, 2011 at the Westin Waltham. An event to help entrepreneurs, "Innovate Now" attracted top notch speakers who delivered valuable insights on how innovation and enterprise remain keys to success.

The conference explored new arenas for innovation through panels across Three Tracks: The Life Sciences track explored breakthrough business models and innovative platforms for regenerating organs and discovery of new drugs and therapies. Speakers on the Clean Tech track provided great insights into starting and scaling Clean Tech companies, sustainable smart communities and fuels of the future. Technology track discussed the latest industry buzz in social media, mobile commerce and enterprise space.

“Innovation is at the heart of economic rejuvenation, and it was heartening to see young startups such as AisleBuyer and HubSpot challenging well-established business paradigms on one hand while corporate leaders such as Alain Bechtel of GDF Suez, Ramesh Shankar of Tennessee Valley Authority, and David Mohler of Duke Energy, were talking of alternate models of innovation even in large firms,” said Shekhar Shastri, Co-Chair, TiECON East 2011.

Keynote speaker Andy Ory of Acme Packet gave an inspiring talk on ‘how persistent entrepreneurship can challenge the mightiest and redefine the industry’. Ed Roberts, from MIT Entrepreneurship Center laid out the landscape of entrepreneurship emerging out of MIT. The audience was spellbound with Tim Healy's talk on how his company EnerNOC after being rejected by 36 VC firms became the first profitable public smart grid company. Banquet keynote speaker, Scott Sperling from Thomas Lee Partners gave a fresh perspective on innovation by citing interesting real world examples on re-engineering business models.

A keynote plenary panel on "Entrepreneurship and Investing in India" comprised of founders of Rai Foundation, Monsoon Capital and Capinova Advisors.  An attendee remarked, "A great panel discussion on India with realistic and very well balanced views on both the opportunities and the challenges of starting businesses in India."

Attendees at Bootcamp sessions took some key lessons on how to tackle leadership issues in organizations and develop effective entrepreneurial strategies. Startup entrepreneurs learnt best practices on angel investing from a very thoughtful panel of VCs and entrepreneurs. Innovation showcase saw great attendance as dynamic companies like ByteLight, OsmoPure and ProTeqt demonstrated their revolutionary technologies and products.

More than 20 aspiring entrepreneurs participated in the Entrepreneur Forum geared towards entrepreneurs seeking advice and feedback via facilitated, quality one-on-one time with VCs and industry experts. Selected companies spanned through different business sectors like healthcare, energy, technology, media and more.

One the participants, Anthony Sterns PhD, Chief Executive Officer of iRxReminder, (who travelled to Boston from Ohio for the conference) acknowledged, "At E-Forum, I had a very helpful and informative meeting with a VC analyst who gave insightful feedback and is recommending us to a NYC firm that invests in Ohio, with strong connections with several life sciences companies, and a hospital system interested in purchasing a license and working with us. I had over 50 people give me a card at the networking table on Thursday evening!"

“As a sponsor of TiE-Boston, I must say that TiECON East was a success for us, we received a lot of exposure to our products,” said, Vinay Sachdeva of EMC.

A technology track volunteer exclaimed, "The conference went really well. Personally, I got exposed to the whole new world of entrepreneurship and a lot of inspiration."

Attendees at PowerLunch got engaged in the lively conversation with leading entrepreneurs and VCs like Ganesh Venkataraman, Kedar Gupta, Bill Warner, Jit Saxena and many more. They discussed diverse topics relevant to entrepreneurs like funding, marketing, IP protection and getting customers.

Five TiE stars, Amar Sawhney, Ash Ashutosh, Asa Kalavade, Venkat Kolluri and Venkat Krishnamurthy inspired the audience with their secrets of success and how they overcame personal challenges along their entrepreneurial journey. Anupendra Sharma, CM and Chair of Startup Leadership Program (SLP) said, "The TiE Stars was a great idea and we should continue it in the future. This year TiECON East was different for me because I came away with two startup ideas."

The new networking tool "Plug" got great feedback from attendees who used it to connect with key people and share event happenings on social media. The room was filled with excitement as a large number of attendees competed against each other for the top networker and participant on Plug.

"Being at the conference was a wonderful experience and I enjoyed it so much! It amazed me how many people just came up to me and introduced themselves to me," said Regis Desilva, MD, Harvard University

The conference concluded with the distribution of TyE Business Plan Competition awards to the winning team "Illumination." The evening program was very entertaining as the audience danced to the tunes of traditional Bhangra dance, DJ music and played exciting casino games.

A first time conference volunteer remarked, "TiECON East truly inspired me, as I spoke to old stalwarts as well as new upcoming entrepreneurs. I felt the enthusiasm bubbling out right from boot camp till Bhangra."

"TiECON East was like an Entrepreneur Mela - phenomenal to see so many entrepreneurs thinking about, working on, and tweeting about their business ideas. I was especially thrilled by the connections people made. Many of the speakers enjoyed being surrounded by eager entrepreneurs breaking new boundaries and were happy to have traveled this far and share their experiences," said Ramesh Kumar, TiECON East 2011 Co-Chair.

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