[TechSparks 2020] Building from India for the world: India’s largest startup and tech conference is LIVE

“The universe is made of stories, not of atoms,” said Muriel Rukeyser, the noted poet and political activist. And I couldn’t agree more. I believe that every story deserves to be told.

It is with this mission – to make every story matter – I’ve built YourStory for more than a decade, telling stories about inspiring people looking to change the world for the better. Over the years, we’ve told over 100,000 stories and if there’s one major takeaway for us, it’s the immense power of storytelling.

And that’s why, with TechSparks – YourStory’s flagship entrepreneurship event – we’ve harnessed the power of storytelling to empower connections, conversations, and collaborations that matter, so that together we may move forward in this mission to build from India for the world and catalyse impact that matters.

Today, I'm proud to present TechSparks 2020, which is bigger, better, and completely global and virtual for the first-time ever, with a a most spectacular line-up of speakers, not just from India, but from all over the world as we focus on building from India for the world.

Our stellar line-up of speakers include Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Government of India, Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India, John Chambers, Chairman Emeritus, Cisco & CEO, JC2 Ventures, Ratan Tata, Chairman, Tata Trusts, and 200+ more noteworthy personalities and changemakers from across the world.

Given the tough dynamic, we want to go that extra mile this year to make sure TechSparks delivers all that it stands for, and more. We have pivoted to make it an all-virtual event and have worked tirelessly these past few months to make it really worth your while with a most diverse set of voices from across the Indian startup ecosystem and beyond.

As you know, TechSparks has been India's biggest and most important technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship summit for more than a decade, bringing together entrepreneurs, policymakers, technologists, investors, mentors, and business leaders. Over the years, this conference has been instrumental in creating over 1.5 million connections, over 2.5 million jobs, and has helped startups raise over $1 billion in funding.

This year, at our five-day-long TechSparks 2020 conference, there's even more reason for you to join us. Here are a few that I'm particularly excited about.

A few reasons why TechSparks 2020 is a must-attend (virtually)

• Conversations and actionable insights into solving from India for the world
• Insights into tech trends of 2020 and beyond, for the new normal
• YourStory’s Jobs for All campaign — to catalyse job creation, spotlight India’s job creators, and showcase India’s skill providers
• Tech30 2020: YourStory’s annual list of top 30 innovative early-stage tech startups
• Enterprise and VC connects
• Predicting future billion-dollar opportunities
• Masterclasses & keynotes by thought leaders and subject matter experts

A sneak peek into what else you can expect

• Exclusive fireside chats
• Keynotes by policymakers, industry leaders
• 200+ speakers
• 200+ VCs
• 10,000+ startups
• ~15 countries
• 5 days of non-stop learning, conversations, and connections

Key speakers

• Inaugural Address by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, Government of India
• Guest of Honour: Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India
• Global leaders: John Chambers, Ratan Tata, and more
• Industry & Business leaders: Puneet Chandok, Gururaj Deshpande, Caesar Sengupta, Daaji - Kamlesh Patel, and more
• Investors: Shailendra Singh, Anu Hariharan, Hans Tung, Varsha Tagare, Pieter Kemps, Karthik Reddy, Ritu Verma, Rohit Sood, Sanjay Nath, Anup Jain, Ashish Dave, Sanjay Mehta, and more
• Indian entrepreneurs and unicorn founders: Sridhar Vembu, Bhavish Aggarwal, Byju Raveendran, Nithin Kamath, Sujeet Kumar, Ashish Hemrajani, Gaurav Munjal, Kunal Shah, Kavin Bharti Mittal, Abhinav Asthana,
• Women in power: Sapna Chadha, Archana Vohra, Sheenam Ohrie, Ritu Anand, Geetha Manjunath, Prashanti Bodugum, Ghazal Alagh, Sakshi Chopra, and more
• Leading personalities: Kunal Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Tahira Kashyap, and more

We also understand that networking and forming connections are an important part of TechSparks and have made provisions for that with virtual VC and Enterprise Connect forums.

We look forward to hosting and inspiring you at TechSparks 2020.

For more information on TechSparks 2020, check out our TechSparks 2020 website. Sign up here to join the event.

TechSparks - YourStory's annual flagship event - has been India's largest and most important technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship summit for over a decade, bringing together entrepreneurs, policymakers, technologists, investors, mentors, and business leaders for stories, conversations, collaborations, and connections that matter. As TechSparks 2020 goes all virtual and global in its 11th edition, we want to thank you for the tremendous support we've received from all of you throughout our journey and give a huge shoutout to our sponsors of TechSparks 2020.