TIECON 2010 – An Entrepreneur’s Account
TIECON 2010 took place this Saturday in Lahore. Since I could not attend it, I asked Farhan of Max99 to do a recap for us. Who better to judge an entrepreneurial event than an Entrepreneur himself. Here is his account. Thanks Farhan for sparing time and sharing your experience with us.
Finally, on 30th October we got to witness the much awaited and talked about Entrepreneurial Conference-TIECon 2010. We were really looking forward to inspirations from success stories of seasoned entrepreneurs. It was a wonderful mix of business tycoons, social entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. They shared their nuggets of wisdom and provided an awesome learning opportunity.
The event unfolded with inaugural address of Monis Rehman in which he highlighted the fact that Pakistan is exploding with opportunities. It was followed by introduction of TIE by Khalid. J. Chowdhry. After that, Chief Minister Shahbaz Shareef shed light on the macroeconomic situation of the country and talked about the hope for change.
Razak Dawood then emphasized the importance of thinking global and building a lasting legacy.
Saleem Ghauri shared his story and stated that entrepreneurs are improvisers and they create opportunity out of nowhere.
Rizwanullah Khan of PBIT stated that ease of establishing business in Pakistan is way better than the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). So we must avail it!
Then the event shifted towards social entrepreneurship – the wonderful philanthropic phase of business. Akhuwat Microfinance was very impressive in a way that it was opening doors for people who do not have finances to take initiatives. Besides, Pharamagen , Care Foundation, TCF and Housing Plans of Ansar Management were also very appreciable.
Nasreen Kasuri ,the founder and Chairperson of Beacon House School System, told her story of how she defied the odds and made it really big and global. But Mr. Imran Khan really stole the show and limelight by his charismatic presence and inspiring social ventures. He emphasized the importance of being idealistic, dreaming big and reinforced that nothing is impossible. He then shared how Namal University is bringing a very positive change in society.
Dr. Ishrat Hussain of IBA reiterated that we must change the common mentality of following status quo and must explore other dimensions as well. Then another very interesting phase of the conference came, we saw VCs for real 
, they shared what they look for in ventures.
To sum up the experience, we got amazing networking opportunity; exchange of ideas and business cards was a common sight. For some people it made them think out-of-the-box, for some it simulated new ideas, for some it reinforced their beliefs and confidence. The best part of the event was inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs. In short, TIECon 2010 was really a marvelous event.
11:29 am
It looks very useful, I must have attended it.
10:53 pm
Thanks i like your blog very much , i come back most days to find new posts like this.