Indian Eye

Topics discussed at Cerebrate, Goa 2008

Cerebrate 2008, held at Club Mahindra Varca beach resort Goa, went off better than expected and served the purpose of the event - to ideate and cerebrate.

Over the two days of the event, a variety of things were discussed spread over many subject.

These were the topics discussed.

Media - Cost dynamics in the media (Demand and Supply), PR and the media, Challenges faced by PR agencies with clients and vice versa, Effectiveness of ratings

Technology - Privacy and security issues on the web, Benefits of Open Source, Corporate Blogging, the uber personal device

Hospitality/Travel - Favorite holiday destinations, Grass is greener here - Hospitality in India, Rustic holiday experiences

Legal - The Creative Commons and how it benefits the community, Sharing Video aka Youtube and its legal implications, Making Legalese more accessible, Shooting the messenger - Can blogging or content platforms be sued for derogatory/inadmissible content.

Sports - The art of motivation, Overcoming obstacles in a country starved of sports
Cinema/Theatre - Financing an idea, Has creativity lost out to commercialism, Challenges of making a cinema in India and the way ahead, Method in the madness - the Indian movie industry and its success despite the trappings

Start-ups/Entrepreneurship - Financing your startup, VC funding - the necessary evil, Sailing the rough - Becoming an entrepreneur after a cushioned 9-5 exec job, Finding and retaining talent.

Marketing - Dumb it down (why the most creative ads may not necessarily be the best for the mass market), the changing face of the Indian consumer, Market in times of inflation.

Here are some snapshots of the participants “cerebrating”.

Abhimany Radhakrishnan (CNBC-TV18) Cerebrating. Others in the frame - Kiruba Shankar, Nikhila Kesavan and me.

Kiruba Shankar and Rashmi Bansal

Nikhila Kesavan and Abhimanyu Radhakrishnan

Cerebrating in the open - Kiruba Shankar (speaker with orange t-shirt). Others (clockwise): Shriram Adukoorie, James Joseph, Abhimanyu RadhakrishnanNikhiKesavan, Atul Chitnis, Dev Amritesh, Rashmi Bansal, Sudhir Shivaram, Arun Nair

Tags: 2008, Cerebrate, Club Mahindra, Goa

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Cerebrate - How it was born

Back in early February 2008, Me and my social media partner Kiruba were brainstorming about our next social media initiative. A lot of ideas and concepts were passed back and forth, but none seemed interesting, and most of them were clichés .

And then, it dawned on us, why don’t we have a forum where achievers convene and discuss on a variety of topics. Freewheeling intellectual conversations between individuals who have achieved something significant in their professional sphere, and share it with the rest of the group.

A forum where everyone speaks, everyone learns and everyone benefits. We however didn’t think it was a good idea to let it go the conventional route of a conference, and we felt that the event should be an unconference. Or briefly put, an unconference where achievers convene and discuss or ideate.

That done, the next step was to find an appropriate name for the event. One that had the right tone and meaning which conveyed the essence of the event. Two, the name of the event should have the .in domain name available.

After nearly an hour of shuffling between an array of names, we realized that the names fell short of one parameter or the other. And then in a moment of revelation, we came across the word “Cerebrate’, and we were unanimous in our consent. Fortunately enough us, the .in domain was also available, and as a bonus the name had a ring of “celebrate” to it, which made it the perfect choice. That done, it was now time to book the domain and select the appropriate audience/participants for the event. But thats a different episode in itself!

You may also want to read how the Cerebrate logo was designed. Next up : Learnings from the Cerebrate event and the Topics discussed.

Tags: 2008, Cerebrate

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Cerebrate Invitees

Cerebrate, Goa 2008 is less than a week away, and the preparations are in full fling. The list of invitees, the most important aspect of the event is ready. Any good event hinges on the quality of the participants, and it becomes all the more important in an un-conference, where the collective wisdom and partipation of the audience is key.

I’m glad that the list of invitees for Cerebrate have turned up well, and the credit goes to my co-organiser Kiruba for effectively using his network.

Tags: Cerebrate, Unconference

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Cerebrate Logo

The Cerebrate logo is ready. The key element of the logo is the “a” which is shaped in the form of a glowing bulb, with the “@” as the filament of the bulb, which signifies ideas emanating from a digital perspective. The glowing lines have an element of informality, which defines the unconventionality of the event.

Tags: Cerebrate, Logo

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Cerebrate.in

What is Cerebrate? It is an unconference where luminaries and professionals will participate in a free-wheeling intellectual conversation.

For the uninitiated, an unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event. The invitees will be an elite list (about 15) of professionals who use the internet directly or indirectly in their line of work(CEOs, CIOs, bloggers, celebrities).

The topic will also be selected by the participants and broadly it’s going to be on the digital medium, holiday and travel.

Visit www.cerebrate.in for more information.
 

Tags: Cerebrate

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