TiECON CHENNAI 2010 reinforces itself as the largest show in the state for Entrepreneurs

TiE Chennai Entrepreneur Awards 2010 presented; Over 1000 entrepreneurs and professionals in attendance; “Pitch to VC” session sees participation of 40 entrepreneurs

Awardees – N. Sankar of Sanmar Group, Lifetime Achievement; B.Soundararajan of Suguna Poultry Farm, Entrepreneur of the Year; Dr. N. Mahalingam of Sakthi Group, Distinguished Family Entrepreneur of the Year; Rajshree Pathy of Rajshree Sugars & Chemicals Ltd., Woman Entrepreneur of the Year; Padmasingh Isaac of Aachi Group, Extreme Entrepreneur of the Year; GSK Velu of Trivitron Healthcare, Serial Entrepreneur of the Year and Dr. Sunil Shroff of Mohan Foundation, Social Entrepreneur of the Year

Chennai, November 24, 2010: TiE Chennai’s annual flagship conference TiECON CHENNAI 2010 was successfully held today at the Chennai Trade Center. This year’s conclave with the theme “money-Money-MONEY” attracted over 1000 entrepreneurs, investors and business school students reinforcing its status as the state’s largest show focused on entrepreneurs.

Speaking after inaugurating the conclave and receiving the Lifetime achievement award, N Sankar, Chairman of Sanmar Group said,” it is the best time to be an entrepreneur in India, with opportunities in every sector and every area of business.” He exhorted the audience to enjoy Entrepreneurship cautioning that it does not work once the fun goes out of it. He also appreciated that values are becoming stronger today and today’s younger generation of entrepreneurs are displaying higher levels of integrity.

In his comments, Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman of the awards committee, TIECON Chennai 2010, said,”The awards play an important role in celebrating entrepreneurship and successful entrepreneurs, thus encouraging them even further. This year, the jury had to meet multiple times to finalize on the awardees and I am happy to see the stalwarts lead the awardees list. Another interesting fact is the diversity of the list, with awardees coming from varied sectors, pointing to the spread of entrepreneurship across sectors and not restricted to IT or consumer, as one always visualizes.”

In his address on “The Entrepreneur’s Dharma”, Gurcharan Das, the best-selling Author & Management Guru said,” It is very important for all entrepreneurs to have a moral compass and focus on building true reputation. He said markets were moral by nature and one cannot deceive it for long.”

In his comments, R. Ramaraj, President, TiE Chennai, said, “ I am happy to say that this year’s TiECON attracted a large number of Business Leaders, Bankers, Venture Capitalists, Entrepreneurs (Veteran, emerging and aspiring) as well as students and other members of the public. This annual event is getting better, bigger each year and there are new additions of programs and variations with each edition.”

Of particular interest in this year’s TiECON was the unique session in Tamil titled “Unnaal Mudiyum Thambi” moderated by Y Gee Mahendra with pioneering entrepreneurs from Tamil Nadu like Padmasingh Issac, Founder of Aachi Group, Dr. A.M. Arun, Chairman of Vasan Eye Care, and Mr. Kumaravel, Founder of Naturals sharing their inspiring business journeys. There were other well attended and highly interactive parallel sessions covering Education, Cloud Computing and Start-ups. The panel discussions – “Where is the Money” and “Raising the Money, When and How much” - focused on various aspects of raising money from VCs, Angel investors and banks at different stages of the enterprise. The winners of the LIBA-TiE CHENNAI-EDI-NEN Pan India Business Plan Competition Awards were announced in the afternoon session on which a press release will be issued tomorrow.

About TiE Chennai: TiE's mission is to foster entrepreneurship globally by Educating, Mentoring and Networking. Founded in Silicon Valley in 1992 by successful entrepreneurs and professionals with roots in the Indus region, today, TiE has 56 Chapters in 13 countries, spread across 5 continents. The TiE ecosystem comprises 11,000 members and 2,400 charter members, who are the top entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, lawyers and management professionals in their chosen field. TiE Chennai holds regular events on its own, as well as through partnerships with other institutions to deliver programs such as Mentoring, Education and Networking on a non- profit basis. For more information visit: www.tiechennai.org