December 14, Saturday 2013, was a day of breakthroughs. The J.B. Auditorium of AMA was brimming with entrepreneurs, academicians, students, R & D practitioners, professionals and technology enthusiasts.
Dr. Jacques Bughin answering questions from the audience at whatnext 2013
The day started with Dr. Jacques Bughin introducing the 12 disruptive technologies that will change the world by 2025. Excitement and curiosity filled the air immediately. Dr. Bughin patiently attended to all the questions from the audience and left them with some of his own.
The twitter scene was abuzz cheering the path technology could take to change our future as we know it.
Dr. Harry Yuklea is seen interacting with the students during tea break.
The liveliest session was undoubtedly the one by Dr. Harry Yuklea. His, was a mix of a lot of wit, with humor and charm, the perfect blend. The audience was soon captivated by his insightful cues on lessons that India could learn from Israel.
The workshop sessions were an absolute hit among the audience and mentors alike. The audience were divided into five groups based on disruptive technologies. Each group had its own mentor. What followed was a thorough brainstorming session that dissected the lengths and breadths of what these technologies could possibly offer in terms of solutions. Students and entrepreneurs alike discussed and came up with everyday problems like lack of network connectivity, how to devise a search engine to locate misplaced stuff at home/office and so on.
One of the workgroups in an intense discussion on spotting entrepreneurial opportunities.
These problems were expanded to devise a strategy to use one of disruptive technologies to solve them. While students discussed on the operational practicality of these solutions, marketers and entrepreneurs discussed on their commercial appeal and viability. There were several ideas hatched by participants, nurtured by their respective mentors and hopefully will be only drawn forward from here.
We’d like to thank all our mentors, participants, team members and our student volunteers for their relentless support and contributions toward making whatnext 2013, such a big success. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Thank You. Really!
But this is not the end of the road. We are going to take this journey further with a series of activities ranging from forming discussion groups to deep dive sessions to brainstorming breakouts. We will keep you updated !