NASSCOM Future Forge is one of the prestigious product event where leaders, pioneers, startup founders, investors interlock for two days to share wisdom, actionable insights and more. As a nation, India transitioned from a services to products and now wants to leap frog into deep tech.

This was my 7^th attempt at NASSCOM event since 2013

• 2013 – was an attendee, got the inspirations to start a company
• 2014 – Was a founder of ActOnMagic + a jury member to shortlist startups
• 2015 – Had a booth at the event showcasing ActOnMagic and ActOnCloud
• 2016 –  Received NASSCOM Emerge50 award at the prestigious event
• 2019 – As a speaker at the event presenting Cloud Management Platform from NTT, as a Google Partner
• 2023 – As a volunteer/jury, helped in the Green Computing Panel (cc: @shreya ) and 
• 2024 – As an attendee, got the inspiration to start again, soon.

Every year, the event got better and better. Huge thanks to one of my mentor – Ravi Gururaj – who was chairman of product council between 2014-2016 time frame to give me an opportunity to get exposure.

NASSCOM NPC event gave me everything, Connection to CIOs, investors, Partnerships, hundreds of connections, who are now CEOs and great leaders in their own domains.  There were hundreds of people who visited our booth then, so many insightful discussions, Got google connects, lots of free cloud credits, goodies, exposure, what not!

This year, Bengaluru had RED alert for Rain. Schools were shut. Well, it eased the traffic condition. As I have a habit of reaching venue well before time, I reached the venue at 7.55am and I was the first one to register! One of good friend, Shreya from NASSCOM asked me, Did you come early to escape rain? With Smile, I told her that I like to come early.  Same thing happened next day, my friend was about to ask the same question, then she smiled 

I could witness amazing panels and GenAI, Robotic, Health AI companies who are really into taking India to greater heights.  There is one more clear trend I observed.. This year, the number of students who attended were more! The curiosity and energy that they brought to the event was powerful.

I attended a session on IPs, Patents by Metaage founder Trikisson. Loved his explanation and analogy with Iccha Kriya Jnana and Shakti and importance of protecting IP, plus and minuses. 

This was the first time that NASSCOM conducted the event in Taj Westend and there were few logistics challenges due to rain.  In order to make such events successful, lots of minds and effort need to come together, and grace from the God as well.

Well, I must say that “I have built the habit of attending conferences and learning every year”.

In the part 2, let me share about my direct experience with 50+ conversations across people from diverse background. Stay tuned.