Odyssey Cruise with Entertainment & Dining - An Unforgetable Experience!

It is with great excitement that we announce the Odyssey Cruise on Saturday, 30th August at the 17th Annual NetIP Conference in Boston.

This 3 hour cruise starting from the historic Boston Harbor will provide a total entertainment experience with a menu of creative hors d'euvres, appetizers, entrees and desserts, spacious dance floors and live music, and spectacular views of Boston.

The cruise comes at no extra cost and is included in your conference registration. Join over 800 fellow conference attendees on this cruise to celebrate and rejoice!

Get ready for the most amazing experience of your lifetime!

Conference Hotel - The Renaissance Boston Waterfront - Opens as Scheduled

The luxurious Renaissance Boston Waterfront , the official conference hotel opened its doors on 18th February, 2008 as scheduled.

"As the newest addition to the Boston Harbor, this sophisticated downtown Boston hotel stylishly reflects the vibrancy and aqua-elegance of the ocean. The Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel blends contemporary design with state-of-the-art technological enhancements, setting a new industry standard in innovation. Inspired by the sea, this newly acclaimed Boston Harbor hotel boasts luxurious guestrooms with the latest amenities and offers breathtaking ocean vistas."

The conference logistics team visited this spectacular hotel last week and was duly impressed by its elegant/chic decor and everything the hotel has to offer including meeting facilities, luxurious rooms and a wealth of amenities. Located less than 3 miles from Boston Logan Airport at the historic Boston Seaport District, the Conference attendees will have easy access to the best Boston has to offer like Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall, Logan Airport, and the Financial District.

Brand new luxurious hotel + Highly discounted rates for Conference registrants + Brilliant views of the city and Boston Harbor + Central location = The absolute best location to host the 17th Annual NetIP Conference in Boston!!

The excitement builds....

Dr. Tarun Khanna from Harvard Business School to Keynote at the Conference

We are glad to announce that Dr. Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor at Harvard Business School, will be a keynote speaker at the NetIP Conference on Saturday, 30th August.
Dr. Khanna works with entrepreneurs, companies and NGOs in emerging markets worldwide. In 2007, he was elected a Young Global Leader (under 40) by the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Khanna has served as course head of the required Strategy course in the Harvard MBA program, and chaired the executive education program on Strategy, Leadership & Governance. Currently, he teaches in Harvard’s comprehensive general management executive education programs. His current research focuses on understanding the drivers of entrepreneurship worldwide. As part of the Emerging Giants project, he seeks to understand how to build world-class companies from emerging markets worldwide.

Professor Khanna’s work has been profiled in news-magazines around the world, including The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, the Far Eastern Economic Review, and newspapers in China, India, and elsewhere in Asia and Latin America. He has been a frequent commentator on ‘Competing in, and from, China and India’ and ‘Building the Developing country Multinational’ on several TV and radio programs recently (NPR, BBC, CNN, CNBC, Voice of America, Bloomberg and local channels).

In his recently published book Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours, Professor Khanna explores the likely evolution of the Chinese and Indian models and the implications for the world.

China, India, and Your Future

China and India are home to one-third of the world's population. And they're undergoing social and economic revolutions that are capturing the best minds and money of Western business. In Billions of Entrepreneurs, Tarun Khanna examines the entrepreneurial forces driving China's and India's trajectories of development. He shows where these trajectories overlap and complement one another--and where they diverge and compete. He also reveals how Western companies can participate in this development.

Through intriguing comparisons, the author probes important differences between China and India in areas such as information and transparency, the roles of capital markets and talent, public and private property rights, social constraints on market forces, attitudes toward expatriates abroad and foreigners at home, entrepreneurial and corporate opportunities, and the importance of urban and rural communities. He explains how these differences will influence China's and India's future development, what the two countries can learn from each other, and how they will ultimately reshape business, politics, and society in the world around them.

Engaging and incisive, this book is a critical resource for anyone working in China or India or planning to do business in these two countries.

Seeking help with Sponsors for the Conference

Our conference team is busy planning various aspects of the conference from content to marketing to logistics. Moreover, our Finance and Sponsorship teams are working very hard to keep the costs low (including the registration prices) and secure sponsors to offset many expenses...

The NetIP conference which attracts over 850 attendees from across the US and Canada, provides many benefits for sponsors, big or small. Be it corporate branding and visibility, diversity initiatives and outreach, or talent acquisition, our member demography is an ideal target that Corporations can tap into. While our sponsorship packet (email us to get it) lists several packages, we are more than happy to create customized packages based on the needs of the sponsor. We are committed to delivering the best value to companies for their sponsorship dollars.

In this endeavor, we seek your help in bringing more sponsors to the 2008 NetIP Conference. If you know potential sponsors or if you are a potential sponsor yourself please contact Swarupa Purandare, Sponsorship Chair or Sundip Arora, Conference Co-Chair at sponsorship@netipconference.org

There are quite a few incentives for you to help us with sponsorship. Contact us to discuss more.

Announcing Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande as Keynote Speaker

We are glad to announce that Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande will be our opening keynote speaker at the 2008 NetIP Conference.

Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande is co-founder and chairman of Sycamore Networks, Inc. Dr. Deshpande is an influential technology entrepreneur and visionary whose companies and ideas often reshape entire industries. Led by Dr. Deshpande's vision and direction, Sycamore has helped create a fundamental paradigm shift in the role and architecture of the optical network.

Dr. Deshpande is also widely respected for his contributions to education and the greater community. Dr. Deshpande serves as a member of the MIT Corporation, and his generous donations have made possible MIT's Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation. On the community front, The Deshpande Foundation, which is the family foundation of Gururaj (“Desh”) and Jaishree Deshpande is a leading philanthropic foundation in Massachusetts and India in the areas of innovation, entrepreneurship and international development.

Prior to co-founding Sycamore Networks, Dr. Deshpande was founder and chairman of Cascade Communications Corp. Between 1991 and 1997, Cascade grew from a one-person startup to a company with $500 million in revenue and 900 employees. In June of 1997, Cascade was acquired by Ascend Communications for $3.7 billion.

We are in the process of confirming more speakers. Subscribe to our Mailing list and our Blog RSS feed to stay tuned on the progress of the 2008 conference planning.

Renaissance Boston is Finalized as the Conference Venue!

We signed our contract with Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel of the Marriott Group yesterday (29th November, 2007) after negotiating the terms over last 2 months.

The hotel which opens in January 2008 offers guest rooms with many amenities such as

• •Wide screen LCD Television, connectivity panel with MP3 dock and High Speed Internet access.
• •Luxurious design with chaise lounges, large walk-in showers, and unique conveniences/special touches.
• •Spectacular Views of Boston Harbor.

All these amenities will be coming to you at an amazing price of $169.00 a night (lowest price in the Boston area). This was perhaps the best deal anyone could clinch.

Thanks to Aruna Paramasivam, Manasi Voruganti, Sanjay Rao, Aman Parekh, Venay Puri, Mugda Kelkar and Sharad Agarwal from NetIP-NA for their advise and for reviewing the contract.

An awesome job by Pallavi Chhabra, Logistics Chair of the 2008 Conference, who patiently spent many hours negotiating the contract with Renaissance. Here is her message and it goes on to show that the excitement for the 2008 Conference in Boston is just starting to build up...

~~~~~~~~~~~

Congratulations everyone .....

We have finally signed the contract with Renaissance Hotel ..... yippeee!!!. As Tushneem said, we just crossed our first major milestone :-)! Thanks to everyone on the team for their valuable time and input to make this happen.

Pallavi

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Posted by Conference Chairs

Conference Organization Structure and Volunteer Opportunities

The 17th Annual NetIP Conference is coming to Boston!

We are pleased to announce that the 17th Annual NetIP Conference is coming to Boston in 2008. The planning process for this large-scale endeavor is well under way. Over the past few weeks, we have worked hard to create the conference team structure and recruit proposed core team leads. We are now seeking committed volunteers to join each of the core teams and help shape the conference.

Listed below are the different sub-teams for the conference and their tasks. Based on your strengths, interests and level of commitment, please reach out to the respective Team Leads with the required information listed below. We strongly believe each individual has a great deal to gain from helping make this a successful conference, be it via professional & personal growth, unlimited networking opportunity or the satisfaction that comes with contributing (and making a difference) to the community.

Conference Organization Chart:

Conference Co-Chairs:
The 17th Annual NetIP Conference will be led by Sundip Arora (VP, Events, NetIP-NA) and Tushneem Dharmagadda (President, NetSAP-Boston)

If you are interested in volunteering, please send an email to conference-chair@netipconference.org with the following required information:
(i) Your area of interest (Logistics, Content, Sponsorship, Marketing or Technology; Please see below to know more about responsibilities in each area)
(ii) Your area of specialization and a brief resume with past conference organizational experience, if any.
(iii) Your motivation to volunteer for this conference


Logistics Team:
Logistics Chair(s): Pallavi Chhabra

(logistics@netipconference.org)
The logistics team is looking for detail-oriented and driven volunteers who can help with
(1) Planning the logistics for the conference, including hotel, indoor/outdoor event venues, entertainment options and setup, etc.

(2) Help with running and managing the conference on time. Tasks include, catering management, stage setup, speaker hospitality and so on.
Note: Given the nature of the tasks, we prefer volunteers local to Boston for logistics.

Content Team:
Content Chair(s): Shobhit Chugh

(content@netipconference.org)
The content team is looking for dynamic and connected volunteers who can lead and help with
(1) Defining the Agenda for the conference, including themes, topics and speakers.
(2) Seeking out speakers from different sectors which include professional, non-profit, media/entertainment, politics and education.

(3) Organizing Job/Career fairs and Non-profit fairs at the conference

Marketing Team:
Marketing Chair(s): Jitesh Gandhi

(marketing@netipconference.org)

The content team is looking for proactive and articulate volunteers who can help with
(1) Planning the marketing strategy for the conference which include pricing, packaging events and advertising.

(2) Liaison with various chapter officers across the country to solicit local marketing.
(3) Creating and sending out survey to potential attendees in order to fine tune our conference activities.

Sponsorship Team:
Sponsorship Chair(s): Swarupa Purandare

(sponsorship@netipconference.org)
The sponsorship team is looking for well-connected and articulate volunteers who can help with
(1) Marketing the conference to top corporations and pitch for funding
(2) Creating innovative schemes such as job fairs, college fairs and so on through which additional revenue can be generated. This team will be working very closely with the Content and the marketing teams.

Technology Team:
Technology Chair(s): Tanmay Kumar
(technology@netipconference.org)
The technology team is looking for tech-savvy volunteers who can make this conference informative, engaging and interactive. Expertise in web-development and other technologies is preferred.

Conference Finance Controller:
Controller: Prabhod Sunkara

(finance-controller@netipconference.org)
Conference Finance Controller maintains our budget and evaluates figures based on sponsorships and registrations to get attendees the lowest registration prices while keeping the conference out of red.

For opportunities outside the domain of the above Core Teams, please contact the Conference chairs Sundip Arora or Tushneem Dharmagadda at conference-chair@netipconference.org

- Posted by Conference Chairs