To capture the mood and delegate’s experience at the event, we’d the opportunity to interview a variety of audience throughout 3 days. Here is the experience shared directly by the participants at the PanIIT conference:

Sanjay Jadhav (IIT Mumbai, 1989 B. Tech)

1. Networking at PanIIT 2008 was great – we got valuable encouragement and guidance from other IIT Alumni.
2. We got lots of contacts for further Business Development
3. The way event was managed was exceptional

Answering to ‘what could have been done to make the event even better’, they said:

1. Many of the VCs who were earlier planned to be part of business plan competition were not present
2. Couldn’t attend some of the interesting sessions due to parallel sessions

Kirti Sahni (Project Associate at IBEF – Exhibitor at IITech Expo)
“Given the diversity & quality of the audience (including co-exhibitors), the networking opportunities are great at PanIIT 2008”, said Kirti at the IBEF booth. She was also happy for the fact that IBEF was part of the IIT Alumni Impact study. As responded by other delegates, Kirti also commended the efforts of the PanIIT 2008 organizing body for successfully executing such a big event.

Anurag Rastogi (IIT Delhi, BTech 1999)
Anurag had all the praise for:

1. Quality of speakers and the sessions. He particularly liked the session of Prof Prahalad with Tata CEO’s and highly admired their views
2. Networking (with cocktails) session on the 2^nd day.

He wished if there were more people from North (particularly IIT Delhi).

Sriram Panchanathan (Manager, Digital Operations @ Amazon – another exhibitor at IITech Expo)
When asked, “what did you like about the PanIIT 2008?”, Sriram listed:

1. Visibility/branding opportunity – for Amazon as a Technology company
2. Logistics – highly successful management of the event
3. Quality of the audience

Sriram couldn’t point out even a single negative factor for the event

Thomas Verghese (IIT Delhi, B Tech 1997)
Thomas’s experience at PanIIT 2008 was not an exception – he thoroughly enjoyed reliving the IIT experience at PanIIT 2008. He said that it was wonderful meeting old mates at PanIIT. He also liked the networking (with cocktailsJ) and appreciated the event’s organizers efforts in superbly reorganizing the networking session at a new venue, after it was cancelled on the 1^st day.

One thing he didn’t like was the fact that he needed travel long distances in moving from one venue to another for attending various sessions.

The success of the PanIIT 2008 was evident from the fact the President of India (from her office in Delhi) sent a congratulatory note to the organizers expressing her happiness on the contribution of PanIIT in the nation building exercise.