Bengaluru TechSummit 2017, showcased the country’s progress in the technology and biotech sectors. The theme of the event “Ideate, Innovate, Invent” was experienced by visitors and delegates through all the sessions, conferences, seminars, special programmes and the exhibition.

Hosted by the Department of IT & BT, Government of Karnataka, the three-day mega event is a creative mix of two flagship events- the 20th edition of Bengaluru ITE.biz and the 17th edition of Bengaluru India Bio under one platform.

The summit was attended by 3173 delegates, 267 speakers, more than 11000 visitors, and 250 exhibitors on leading edge technologies that are changing the world and saw signing of ten MoUs that would have a significant impact on technology sector in the State.

The three-day event was inaugurated on November 16, 2017, by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Karnataka, Shri Siddaramaiah, in the presence of Ms Anne Berner, Hon’ble Minister for Transport and Communications, Finland, who was the Guest of Honor.

In a progressive move to strengthen tech inclusion in rural areas, the State Government launched a unique project providing free wi-fi to 500 grama panchayats in the State. The project, which will roll out the benefit to all 2650 grama panchayats in future, is an indication of the Government’s commitment to an outcome driven development of the State.  

The event saw the Government signing ten MoUs indicating the growing importance of the event. MoUs were signed with Virgin Hyperloop One, CoE for Data Science and AI, Intel, French MoU, 3M, NUMA, BT Policy, AR/VR India Report and Elevate Start up Directory. Thrust areas of partnership were hyperloop, intel and traffic management.  

The event also hosted conferences and seminars were thought- leaders discussed issues on path-breaking topics like Internet of Things, GIS, Cybersecurity, Cloud and Big Data, AVGC, security 360 and AR/VR.

The summit focussed on the biotech sector and its state-of-the-art technologies that are changing the world: personalized medicine, rare diseases and orphan drugs, bio therapeutics, agro biotech and new technology. 

 Creating a start-up culture:

Karnataka is setting up centres of excellence in IoT, robotics, cybersecurity, data analytics and aerospace. “The State is poised to create 20,000 start-ups by 2020 and will mobilise Rs 2000-crore fund for start-ups and foster industry partnerships,” according to Industries Minister, R V Deshpande

On the concluding day of the summit, there were roundtable discussions between select start-ups, the Government, VC firms and accelerators to identify and fulfil the needs of the start-ups. The session focused on solving problems specific to individual start-ups by extending the necessary support of the Government, VC, accelerators and incubators as per the requirement.

The session established fruitful partnerships among all stakeholders of the start-up community and helped curate start-ups and explore the synergies that exist in the sector.

Various sectors like IT/ITeS/IoT/AVGC/Biotech/MedTech/Agritech/Clean tech/Aerospace and Aviation participated. This opened new doors for Idea2POC and Elevate 100 winners. 

Women Power at TechSummit:

Bengaluru TechSummit had a separate event for women entrepreneurs on 16 November, 2017, titled “She Drives Technology" that highlighted women and their achievements in leading innovation in the IT and BT sectors and also how women returning to work can be a game changer for the sectors.  

For the first time in the country, there was a B2B summit for animation, visual effects gaming and comics sector, hosted at the summit. Called the ‘Bengaluru AVGC Summit’ the event was a partnership between the Government of Karnataka and ABAI, the trade association for animation, visual effects, gaming and comics sector.

Creativity to the fore:

Mr Priyank Kharge, IT, BT and Tourism Minister for the State, was emphatic that the goal is to make the State the creative capital of India and this could be possible through summits like this where small developers were given free entry so they could interact with global majors like Turner/Cartoon Network, BBC, Disney, Hotstar and many others who were present at the event.

The summit explored the future of path-breaking tech developments like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The expert panel comprising renowned names from the industry explored the definitions of augmented reality and virtual reality and presented cases for both technologies.

On 17 and 18, November, 2017, the summit hosted the "Bengaluru Maker Faire", an event for all those who believe in the “do-it-yourself” spirit for sharing their accomplishments and showcasing their work with an appreciative audience.  The event saw some of the leading technologists, hobbyists, tinkerers, artisans, and entrepreneurs interacting with one another to celebrate, inspire and get inspired.

Speaking at the event, Mr Priyank Kharge said that the Government wants to “create a stimulating atmosphere and this kind of events would change the way the youth would impact a global change.”

One of the highlights of the TechSummit was the Rural IT Quiz, which is a pioneering effort by the Department of IT, BT and S&T, Government of Karnataka in partnership with Tata Consultancy Services since the year 2000. The programme has enhanced IT awareness amongst students at the grassroots level, and helped them keep abreast of the latest developments in the State.

The summit rewarded those who have made a significant contribution in the sectors with the presentation of the STPI IT Export Awards and Bio Excellence Awards.