The Detroit chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs is growing beyond its Asian Indian roots with a new meaning for its acronym -- and with a bigger and better TieCon Midwest planned for this October.
In an interview with the IT Report, TiE-Detroit president Tel K. Ganesan said the organization is now marketing TiE as "Talent, Innovation, Entrepreneurship."
And all of those attributes will be on display at the second annual TiECon Midwest 2009 conference, set for Friday and Saturday, Oct. 23 and 24 at the Ritz Carlton Dearborn.
"We believe TiECon wil be the stimulus package for Michigan this year," Ganesan said.
Ganesan said he got some advice to skip a second straight TiECon given economic conditions, but that he believes it's "more important than ever this year" to have a session inspiring entrepreneurship.
The event will feature selection of the TiE 50 hottest startup companies in the classifications of software, wireless, clean tech, life sciences and media. There will also be a startup boot camp, a business plan competition and a women entrepreneurs forum.
Besides keynotes, there will also be session tracks in clean tech, health care, IT and emerging markets.
Registration is available at www.detroit.tie.org and the event is also actively seeking sponsors.
Ganesan said last year's TiECon attracted a crowd of 500, and the group is hoping to double that this year.
From its roots in a single chapter of Indian expatriate entrepreneurs in California's Silicon Valley in 1992, TiE has grown to the world's largest entrepreneurship-backing nonprofit, with 53 chapters in 12 countries.
Ganesan lives the entrepreneurial dream, serving as CEO of three companies -- RSB Systems, 3D Solutions and Vision Tech Solutions (www.visiontss.com).
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