It was certainly TiE time of year once again at the Westin Hotel and the adjoining Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley on May 16-17 as TiECon 2003, the premiere annual gathering of South Asians in Northern California once again generated much interest and hope within a Hi-Tech downturn that has gone on much longer than predicted. The IndUS Entrepreneurs or TiE as the organization is known holds this annual gathering of the very talented, the rich & lucky and not to forget the tech savvy “Desi” South Asians (predominantly Indians with a sprinkling of Pakistanis and now Bangladeshis) plus a multitude of those from the community who would like to join these ranks and learn the ropes to business success.

This year’s TiECon 2003 had been based on the theme of “Succeeding with new realities”, but one just had to be there at the keynote speech Friday night by a legend of American Football, former San Francisco 49er Quarterback, Steve Young to see if we could also use “The Huddle” as a replacement theme (at the very least it would not be completely out of character). But we’ll get back to that thought in just a moment.

The event started off with the customary registration and breakfast period on Friday and a welcome by TiE officials. Right off the bat TiE President Sridar Iyengar and convener Vish Mishra and their whole team of volunteers need to be congratulated on making both registration process and the event run smooth and appear effortless, especially while catering to the needs of over 2000 people. TiECon this year was once again substantial in attendance even during this economic downturn. The frills of the good old days 3 years ago were not as visible but the attention to detail was still there especially within the lineup of quality speakers.

The Friday morning keynote speech (advocating much patience in today’s business climate) was delivered by Dr. Irwin Jacobs, Co-founder-Chairman-CEO of Qualcomm. This was followed by a discussion on “Where is my Valley?” which in this case was centered on Silicon Valley. Donald Valentine, founder of Sequoia Capital and

Marketing Author Regis McKenna had a chance to educate the audience through their views including at least one swipe at the Press for being overly negative on the current situation. After these and a discussion on “Building a Global Company”, the day was divided into two sessions on the “Four Phases of Entrepreneurship” each with four panels each followed by a session on the topic that certainly has everyone’s attention these days, that of “Homeland Security”. Khaja Ahmed currently a CTO of Passport Services at Microsoft along with Praveen Jain and Matthew Ellis shed much light on this issue. A session on “Serving the next Market Tiers” was conducted just before the Steve Young keynote and the Showcase Open house.

Steve Young is an American Football legend. A all time leading passer in NFL history with the most touchdowns thrown in the game to a single receiver (Jerry Rice) and now considered by many of us a speaker par excel lance (after the Keynote that he delivered). During his speech Steve succeeded in equating the often rough and tough game of Football to the rough and tough world of striving in business and Entrepreneurship. He said that it was relatively easy to give speeches as a football player because listener expectations were already not particularly high. “Football is a beautiful game,” he said (a game that he played for over 30 years). He said that in times of adversity, more planning was required and using the “Huddle” metaphor he explained that much is learned and planned during such a group Huddle before a Football play is executed. He said that Entrepreneurship and doing business when the industry is not doing well is especially a challenge. He explained how his team, the San Francisco 49ers finally got to the Super Bowl Championship after losing to the Dallas Cowboys twice along the way.

He reminisced about the horrible weather on the day that his team finally got past the Cowboys to win the Super Bowl two weeks later. “Entrepreneurs and Quarterbacks are very much the same,” he said. He asked everyone to take advantage of the current downturn and “bad weather” just as his team did in the past when they beat the Cowboys.

He said that Football was a metaphor for life. “I was the greatest practice player,” he said.

“But then you go to the game…” he added. He explained to us what you can accomplish in a Huddle, how the team communicates amidst the noise of thousands of screaming fans.

“We found a way to win those games,” he said and that it was sometimes a mystery as to how you are successful. He included Love, Self Respect and Tolerance of diversity as some of the essential elements necessary for a successful group. He said that he learnt a great deal from football and was grateful to have played the game. He shared with us the horrible feelings that he experienced when he threw interceptions (giving the ball to the other team). He said that leadership was about admitting to one’s mistakes. “In the end, it was my fault,” he said. He equated this to leadership in business and how you learn how to win by learning from your mistakes. Adding a touch of humility to this, by deriving an analogy from a trip to Disneyland where Steve and Jerry Rice shared a stand with Mickey Mouse in front of many young fans, Steve added, “no matter how big you get, how great you become, you will never be as big as Mickey Mouse.” On a closing note on the Hi-Tech industry he said that the downturn would end one day and that the sun would come out for the industry and that we may all be going to Disneyland tomorrow.

After the keynote, Steve presented award Footballs to six companies for their superior showcase presentations. He then led all the winners into a symbolic Football “Huddle” which may very well become a part of Hi-Tech Management style from now on.

The second day of TiECon 2003 was just as if not more hectic than the first. The Saturday morning keynote speech was given by Author Geoffrey Moore of the Chasm Group. Moore elaborated on the new realities facing the industry. “It’s the market stupid,” he said. Also discussed were issues such as globalization, interaction of the Entrepreneurial System and the Established system in the ecosystem and company emphasis on core products. The second day panel discussions were devoted to the topic of “Ecosystems”. One interesting panel was devoted to Wireless technology in which

Larry Brilliant, Jawad Khaki, Bill Rossi, Mark Steele and Sriram Viswanathan made

very interesting presentations. The morning session had five panels and with a break for company spotlight, the afternoon featured six. This reporter could not make it to the later events of the day and had to skip the company spotlights and the Shashi Tharoor presentation on “The Next Frontiers of Innovation” along with the evening Banquet which featured fashion, comedy, music and dance.

In conclusion, there is much that you can miss at a two day quality affair such as TiECon 2003. But if one were to try and capture the essence of this event, the message this year was that in bad times for Hi-Tech, one just cannot sit back and wait. One has to seize the opportunity however rare, wherever it may be found. It was good to meet some old friends here from within both the Pakistani and Indian community. And it is heartening to note that Bangladesh too has just opened up an IT Center in this area.

Now if we could only get the leadership of India and Pakistan into a “Huddle” of sorts, so they too can seize the opportunity for peace in region. South Asia’s leadership (and over 1.3 Billion people) can learn much from the work of organizations such as TiE about how thinking positive can change the destiny of Third World people.