All said by people above, nevertheless it had some stuff which benefitted us in one way or the other.

I am an aspiring entrepreneur, what i really felt needed being there, was:

-> We have had quite a bit of our tech edu teachers already in our studies, we need to hear more of people who dared to leave out their jobs and went on to do what they are doing at this point, ‘Entrprenurship’. The ‘Decisions’ they had to make with all the ‘Whys’.

-> These Big Individuals (representatives of corporate giant or funding bodies) inherently very non entrepreneurs should only be sitting out and listening, And may be at the end of program may get to talk to or engage with the original people. May be not exactly this but just orienatation of the program is to be changed.

The other thing not related to event just wanted to mention out here is no pakistan tech market blog/site that gives fact abt the market(just scattered unverified info on diff blogs), which might help people make better decisions for their ventures like ‘How many of paki 70 million mobiles users are unique and how many of the cell phoones being used are smart phone or java enabled or GPRs enabled and stuff like that’.

You guys at the end also talked abt that your questions can be answered on our online Blogs nd Stuff. Plz state few details on that as well.

Thanks again SI nd GreenWhite, It was a reasonable effort, Though some of us eXpected a little more.

As a first time attendee a few observations:

For ppl who preach “great ideas”, I would hope Insiders did a little bit of thinking themselves before they let-out their event to the sponsors.

To be a successful Entrepreneurs (the very topic Insiders was supposed to help with) you need:
1) To be clear in your communication – Are you kidding me, the moderators seemed to be talking all at the same time, dissing each other, arguing with each other! Hello! Im the audience how about motivating me to ask questions or forget motivating, how about providing the opportunity!
2) To understand the need – not the insiders perception of my need, not the sponsors idea of its customers need, but my need!
3) lay out your expectations on the table – seems insiders got the sponsors dough but forgot to share expectations. It was a cute little show of two little boys fighting over their neighbors apple! Something that isn’t theirs to begin with. Ahem Ahem…. I said ‘my need’!
4) Have a well thought out plan – hey at least the food was good and I did love Peters accent.
5) Sell your product well – Sell (done), Product (Hann??)

Regards

Outsider

(Well, I was one of those who attended the first one, so, nyakh nyakh!)

BTW, I am really sorry to hear it went so bad. I hear this from ‘a lot’ of people! Even though the panel was awesome, I wonder why it couldn’t capture the imagination of those attending.

@ Munira: Chalo jee?! App bhi pohanchi howee theen ? Looks Like I am the only one who missed out.

Suggestions:
1. Everyone had ulterior motives, I felt that in the first session. Everyone naturally will have them. I think it’s the big name companies that need to communicate bigger problems to a thousand smaller solvers so that they know that if they solve even a tiny piece of that puzzle on their own, there is a good chance of ‘success.’ The margin of failure for a big name company is much lesser, as compared to a few startup individuals, since they have funds and experience.

2. Take their imagination there! People like me are plain dumb when creating, visualizing or imagining products, services and potential. Given to our reclusive, introverted and highly cautious cultural upbringing, companies and people who have been there and done that should guide people’s thinking in ‘thinking entrepreneurship.’ The first session had a good bit of it with the Telefun, Facebook Apps and Laddo sabun examples. But those were only examples that exemplified ‘money making.’ I know this is not a ‘workshop’, but at this point local entrepreneurs are only thinking of making a YouTube or a Facebook.

3. Don’t concentrate on a school class like Q/A session discussing advertisements, marketing and branding when we have people who don’t even know what they have studies in the bachelors. It’s alright to follow a theme but sticking strictly to it would naturally disenfranchise people who know nothing about that field.

4. I missed the beginning of the first session, and I don’t know if it happened this time round, but what I would like to suggest is to have a introduction session of people are wanting to become entrepreneurs. A small intro about themselves, their fields, their aspirations would set the tone of what and how to proceed. Why talk marketing jargons to a bunch of technical people who won’t understand and assimilate the information?

All in all, the efforts are commendable. There are always a few road bumps along the way, but now you know how to avoid them. Hope the suggestions help.

AH.

I may be going off track here to include, that selling to your first corporate client (if u are in the b2b space) is a real challenge, and that having bigwigs there answer this was an important step?

but getting started is a major theme and you are right that it should be stuck to, however, the organizers thought that the sessions were to be built on top of each other (the previous si3) but should realize now (as munir) commented, that a little feedback on what has already been achieved should also be included.

1. There was no introduction which left the 1st-comers a bit lost. It’d help if the objective of the sessions is defined clearly at the beginning, also asking participants (new or aspiring entrepreneurs) about their expectations from the session.

2. The discourse remained mostly between the panelists and esteemed guests, leaving little time for the real audience to speak up. They should be engaged more actively by bringing up topics/questions they can relate to.

3. The discussion got detracked hugely from the main theme of the event. There should be insistence on maintaining the focus.

4. There should be feedback forms that can be distributed to the participants; these will help tremendously in improving future sessions.

5. And lastly but most importantly, everyone should leave their egos at home The purpose of such sessions is to discuss and share ideas and learn from each other. We can’t do that if we have a closed mind.

Even a garage start-up guy can’t understand the lingo of a corporate one.

You have to understand, SI is addressing abit different problem.

It’s about how to “get started” when u don’t have big finances to support you.

what it became, however, was how telecom operators perceive everything in the world.

With the dr sahib from ICT RnD throwing everything at telenor (and later to mobilink), and the major discussion revolving around how they think.. i guess it became kind of boring.

One thing which was answered was the kind of openings in the telecom market (for those who wanted to pick up on it). With peter’s quick 3 points about what they wanted, and the answer to what they’re looking for in a proposal, i guess one major question for entrepruners was answered. “How do you sell to your first customer?”. When you are developing for the telecom market, i believe these giants are your first customers.

final words.. could’ve been better.. but wasn’t totally useless (if your future plans tend to include the telecom market).