The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in association with eBay India is organizing the 3rd National Conference on Digital Commerce with an aim to provide a clear understanding of customers’ expectations and how various industry constituents deal with digital commerce.

The conference will see the coming together of experts who will attempt to highlight ground realities and comprehend the Indian industry’s attitudes & perceptions vis-à-vis digital commerce. Our esteemed panelists will give an insightful and informative analysis of the current e-commerce scenario in India. The conference will touch and reflect upon various aspects of digital commerce and examine the numerous opportunities and challenges posed before the industry at large. The conference will also shed light on the upcoming areas like mobile commerce and examine the ways to boost it to a level that proves profitable proposition.

The event has a fairly impressive list of speakers.

Registration costs Rs 5000 + taxes

Check the link or details http://iamai.in/events/3rd_digital_commerce_conference/speakers.htm

Attention all mobile application developers in Chennai, block your calendar for Nov 23rd, for an event you shouldn’t miss.

After the success of the 1st Mobile Application Developers’ Meet in Bengaluru, IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) is organizing a Seminar for Mobile Applications Developers’ to provide a common platform to deliberate upon the opportunities and challenges of growth pertaining to the mobile applications services in India.

The seminar, to be held on 23rd Nov 2010 in Chennai, India, endeavours to recognize the way ahead to promote and project the growth in the field of mobile applications’ development with the help of an impressive line-up of experts as speakers. The seminar will also set a stage to encourage innovators and developers to offer an impetus to the industry which is undergoing revolution of sorts and proving to be an attractive revenue generator.

The event is free for all, but prior registration is mandatory. Please register here at http://iamai.in/Events/2nd_mobile_application_developer/register.aspx

Date: 23rd Nov 2010
Venue: Vel Tech University, Avadi, Chennai

The event has several prominent speakers including
» Sunil Rao, Head of Forum, Nokia India
» Prabha Aithal, Chief Technology Officer, CanvasM
» Badri Sanjeevi, Chief Executive Officer, Mauj
» Sandeep Sawhney, Head of New product & Innovation, Aircel Ltd
» Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Chairman & Managing Director, One97

Speed dating, wherein participants get to meet the speakers One to One, is also part of the agenda

More details at http://iamai.in/Events/2nd_mobile_application_developer/

BusinessBlogging is proud to be associated with IAMAI as its social Media partner. We’re looking forward to IAMAI’s MAD meet this month. Stay tuned for more updates

The sponsorship document for LOCATE 2011, India’s first location conference is ready. Please share them. If you know of any company who would like to parter with the conference, please let us know.

more info about the event can be found at http://www.locate.org.in

Locate 2010 is India’s only Conference dedicated to location based services. Its an event where technology pioneers, businesses, social media enthusiasts meet and discuss ways to harness the immense potential of location-specific opportunities.

Sign up for the only event in India that focuses on location based services. Ticket prices are Rs.1000. Seats are bound to be picked up soon and hence woud be a good idea to block your seat early.

Block your Dates: Nov 27, 2010, Chennai
Venue: IIT Madras

Standby for more details or visit http://www.locate.org.in/

Business Blogging team, headed by Shrinidhi Hande and assisted by Chanakya Grover and Sujoy Bhattacharjee lived blogged IAMAI’s Free for SMEs Conference, held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 6th of July.

Below are some key points that emerged out of the conference. For detailed session wise talks and updates, please refer http://ievents.iamai.in/blog/

Govt of India has lots of schemes for SMEs. Mr Dinesh Rai, Secretary, Ministry of MSMEs, Govt of India briefed about few of them. Govt subsidises spend on skill development, (Upto 30% for plants and machinery, Rs 30-60 per person per hour for skill development (depending on rural/urban) is paid by Govt. Those who wish to get trained will get vouchers with which they can redeem in partner institutions and get trained, Upto 60 lakhs is provided for institutions to set up incubation centres and so on). Rajiv Gandhi Udyami Mitr Yojna will help emerging entrepreneurs. Full details are available at msme.gov.in

SMEs appear to be highly confused or misled on the ICT (Internet Communication Technology) front. Most of the enterprises do not have an online presence, which is very critical these days. There’re 35 million SMEs in India, but only 0.5 million registered domains. Gautham Gandhi of Google India was hot favorite among the audience post session, as everyone wanted to know how to select a SEO vendor and how much to pay. Gautham did his best to clarify that any claim made by SEO vendors that they’re associated/affiliated/partners with Google are outright false and such companies will not be able to produce any documentation to the effect. Also its best for business owners to spend some time and effort to understand the basics of SEO, Social Media and other aspects, so that they would know what they’re dealing with when the work is outsourced to other companies.

Similarly Social Media is something companies definitely adopt to, but expecting overnight return from Social Media spend would result in failure. At this stage social media can be used to create better brand awareness, better brand recall and loyalty. Once these 3 are achieved, sales will naturally improve. But expecting sales to increase just after creating a fan page in facebook can be catastrophic.

Business Blogging is the official Social Media partners for IAMAI.

RangDe is hosting a Live-in Concert in association with Vasu Dixit’s band, Swarathma, today in Chennai. [Watch Vasu Dixit Videos]

Yesterday I happened to attend their press conference, along with few other bloggers, in the presence of Ms Waheeda Rehman, a reputed actress of yesteryears, who is supporting the cause of RangDe.

Here’re some interesting points noted during the press conference:

Rs 100 from each ticket (of the concert, priced Rs 300 and 500) will be diverted as social investment in the name of ticket purchaser. This way, as you enjoy the concert, you’ll also be helping out micro borrowers in remote places of India. Investment in RangDe can start with as low as Rs 100. RangDe doesn’t lend money directly to individuals, but they form a community of borrowers and lend them as a group and mentor them. This way, because of the collective responsibility of the group, the recovery rate is as high as 98.5%

* Demand for micro credit in India was Rs 200,000 crore in 2006, but the availability was just 10% of that, at 20k crores. Today in 2010, we’ve not been able to meet the demand beyond 15%.

* Less than 6% of bank branches are located in rural India. This is a prime reason why majority do not have access to finance (Stated by Soumitra Ghosh of CSO partners, an ICICI venture that supports organizations like RangDe)

* RangDe went live on Jan 26, 2008 and so far has helped over 2800 micro entrepreneurs, with the help of over 1400 social investors.

* RangDe is planning to expand into vocational training, thus extending its reach further.

Couple of photos taken during the press conf: Above: Left: the RangDe Team, with founder CEO Ram NK in the Centre, Right: Press meet with Ram, Ms Waheeda Rehman and Soumitra Ghosh.

Below: Ms Waheeda Rehman

RangDe is very careful in selecting its field partners, who get 5% of the interest and do most of the work-lending money to communities, mentoring them, ensuring recovery and so on. Answering my question Ram detailed various parameters (experience, accounts, team etc) they look into before signing up a partner.