More than 50 speakers, 500 businesspeople and 50 venture capitalists from all over the country are expected to attend an entrepreneurial convention in Atlanta next month.
TiE Atlanta is hosting the TiE Entrepreneurial Summit in conjunction with its annual meeting July 16-17. The event will buttress TiE’s efforts to build a “support system” for entrepreneurs, providing them with a network of professionals who can share critical information and expertise, said C.N. (Madhu) Madhusudan, president of TiE Atlanta.
“This is our annual conference, but this is the first time we are doing it on this scale,” Mr. Madhusudan told GlobalAtlanta. TiE Atlanta is partnering with chapters in the Carolinas and Florida to host the event, which includes a segment where young companies will showcase their products and services to potential investors.
Fostering entrepreneurship and networking has always been the focus for TiE; the organization’s initials stand for The IndUS Entrepreneurs. Part of the nonprofit group’s strategy has been to integrate South Asian entrepreneurs into the American business mainstream.
Now TiE is becoming more globally focused. It now has 55 chapters in 15 countries, including new outposts in Brussels, Belgium, and Tokyo, said Mr. Madhusudan, who is also CEO of VectorSpan Inc., which helps firms grow through mergers and acquisitions.
The organization hopes the Atlanta summit will solidify TiE’s role as the premier clearinghouse for entrepreneurial resources in the region. The group already has mentoring programs in local universities and a review board that offers feedback on potential companies’ business plans.
“There is hardly anybody who is really focusing on entrepreneurship in the Southeast, so we said we are going to step up and say the TiE platform is available for anyone who is interested in entrepreneurship,” Mr. Madhusudan said.
TiE doesn’t solely focus on traditional “bootstrapping” entrepreneurs, although helping them scale products and introduce them to markets is an important goal for the organization. The skills the TiE propounds are transferable to corporate settings, where innovation and creativity are valuable across the board, he said.
“The skills require a lot of commonalities. You don’t have to give up your job and bootstrap yourself in a startup to get value out of anything entrepreneurial,” he added.
Keynote speakers at the event include J.D. Power III, founder of consumer satisfaction firm J.D. Power and Associates; Vivek Wadhwa, a senior researcher in Harvard University‘s Labor and Worklife Program and Gus Whalen, chairman of the Gainesville, Ga.-based Warren Featherbone Co.
For a full list of speakers or for registration information, visit www.tesatlanta.com.
