Pakistan at the moment needs real walk persons instead of real talk ones. Don’t get carried away when gurus advise you that you don’t have a business model or a proper plan, and that there are giants against whom you can’t survive. Just believe in yourself and your idea or product. If its really good, you can eventually make 100 business models out of it. Give it your 110% and Insha’Allah you’ll succeed. If you fail, try again. One day you will.

Don’t wait. Somebody else might have the same idea. Go and grab the opportunity NOW. Even if you’ll let it go due to failure someday, at least you won’t regret that you never tried.

TEDxLahore Team will upload all the talks on 31st August 2010. Those who couldn’t attend the event should definitely take out some time to listen the “Ideas Worth Sharing.”

The first question that came to our mind was “What is the immediate need of the victims that we have to address?”  The obvious answer was food and water. There is water everywhere but none safe to drink. Outbreaks of cholera are common in large floods and arranging safe drinking water to many millions of people is of extreme importance. Hence we decided to look out for water solutions as it is not possible to deliver mineral water everywhere.

Last year I saw the following  talk amongst the TEDGlobal 2009 videos where Engineer Michael Pritchard introduced his revolutionary product “Life Saver Bottle”.

I was still wondering that how can we use the same idea here that we received an email from Mr. Azhar Mateen who told us about a similar system that they have developed in Pakistan. Instead of bottle, it is more of a manual filtration plant. The plant is capable to treat the flood water directly and its capacity is more than 1000 liters per hour. Since electricity is not available in the affected areas, the system is capable to run without electricity. He further told us that they are donating 10 plants  for free and can provide us similar system on no profit no loss basis for only PKR 250,000 whereas such a system would cost much more if we’ll try to import it. The company behind the project is Tauseef Water owned by Mr.Tauseef Anjum of Tauseef Enterprises Ltd.

The following video is the live demo of the working system.

[powerpress url]

Moreover, a friend emailed me the following poster which showed steps of making a good sand water filter. Additional details about this can be downloaded from here.

I somewhat felt really happy that people are coming up with amazing ideas to help out their fellow countrymen. Burt Rutan once said that “Innovation occurs in periods of adversity”. I would request all readers to step up and come out with such innovative solutions & initiatives that can be used to help our brothers and sisters. Since we have to rebuild these areas, smart relief efforts and superior infrastructural & residential planning is the need of the hour.

In the waters of the devastation hitting Pakistan lies a chance to reinvent our condition by washing away the regrets of the last 63 years and laying the foundations of a new temple. But only if we have the courage and vision to think on these lines.

It was late 2005 when I started promoting entrepreneurship, social media and startups amongst the techies in Lahore. I came up with a name called “Technology Entrepreneurs Den (TED)” for our meetups but little did I know that there was already a global phenomenon known as TED. I got to know about it when few people asked me if I am coming up with a local TED event. I had to drop down the name but at least it introduced me to the wonderful TED Platform and since then I have listened around 80-90 phenomenal TED Talks.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TEDx program and the annual TED Prize.

The TED Conference, held annually in Long Beach, is still the heart of TED. More than a thousand people now attend — indeed, the event sells out a year in advance — and the content has expanded to include science, business, the arts and the global issues facing our world. Over four days, 50 speakers each take an 18-minute slot, and there are many shorter pieces of content, including music, performance and comedy. There are no breakout groups. Everyone shares the same experience. It shouldn’t work, but it does. It works because all of knowledge is connected. Every so often it makes sense to emerge from the trenches we dig for a living, and ascend to a 30,000-foot view, where we see, to our astonishment, an intricately interconnected whole.

Last year in July, when Asim Fayaz told me that a license has been acquired, I was overjoyed that finally we would have a platform to share ideas and reach out to masses. Asim did invite me to earlier events at LUMS and Kinnaird which were held on July 25 2009 and February 23 2010 respectively but few professional commitments didn’t let me join both the events. On May 22, 2010, I got an email from Asim for the third event. I decided the very day that this time over I’ll definitely register for TEDxLahore and make it to the event.

The best thing was that Asim had a humungous plan for this one unlike previous events. Last month, I got to know that 3 other friends would be amongst the top management as well. Tajdar O. Chaudry is there for PR, Conventional Media Relations and spamming our twitter feeds. If you see good publicity on TV and Radio Channels this time around, he’s the man behind all this.  Bilal Rashid performs the wonderful duty of adding “X” to the event and is standing besides the TEDxLahore Team with his brilliant photography and talent management skills.

Khurram Siddiqi, who’s a relatively new to my friends list, did a marvelous job in selecting the speakers for the event. He finally managed to convince few females to speak at the event. Moreover, I was introduced to Nuzhat Saadia Siddiqui by them whom I have never met earlier but I guess I would definitely try to meet her on the event day if she’s free from the volunteer tasks to know more about the Mobile and Door Jamming programs that Khurram has worked on in order to avoid any disturbance during the event.  The ever humble Jazib Zahir, the COO of TinTash has never failed to impress me. If it’s an entrepreneurial effort of any sort, he’s there for you without any attitude.

The TEDxLahore received around 900 applications till 22nd July against 270 seats and the successful applicants have been informed. I would like to congratulate Asim for assembling a dream team and then putting up a marvelous effort into the event with all the volunteers. This team of professional and student volunteers surely deserve kudos. Those who want to know more about the event should watch and listen the following links and I would appreciate if no one from accepted audience drops out. The event would include some good short films and musical performances apart from the inspirational & motivational talks. If you are not coming, please inform the TEDxLahore Team. There are definitely hundreds of people waiting for this opportunity to come to them.

Those in Islamabad can join the Islamabad Viewing Party at  Civil Junction (Near Jinnah Supper Market, F-7/3) whereas Karachiites can watch the live feed at The Second Floor (T2F) in DHA, Karachi. Live stream of the event will be hosted at the Pakistani Embassy in the Netherlands as well. The event would be held on July 31, 2010 from 2:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (PST) at Ali Institute of Education, Lahore.

A report on TEDxLahore by Rabia Mahmood of Express 24/7

TEDxLahore Team on Express 24/7’s “The Morning Show” with Waqas Rafique

Coffee Republic with Aysha Raja – TEDxLahore Team’s interview on City FM 89

Winners - mBillionth Awards 2010

It was Jehan and Rabia Garib’s twitter feed that led me to register my product for the mBillionth Award 2010. When I registered, I knew that we’ll be rejected in even short listing as we couldn’t find an appropriate category to nominate our product. Moreover our application was unlaunched and running in private alpha amongst our own company employees. We thought that by the time jury will judge our entry, we will launch the public alpha. But if you are in a telecom business where operators have an upper hand, launching your service independently becomes a herculean task. I don’t know which place did we end up in Grand Jury held in Colombo last month but I am happy that we were at least shortlisted for jury.

The m-Billionth Award South Asia 2010 was the first of its kind in the region recognizing and felicitating mobile innovations, applications and content services delivery. It was arranged to honour excellence in mobile communications across South Asia spread over 10 core categories. The m-Billionth Award is designed as an annual South Asia’s leading mobile content’s award platform towards larger regional Mobile Congress in media and policy advocacy. The platform was created with the help of DIT and Digital Empowerment Foundation who have come together to create a regional platform and had support of partners like mint newspaper, VAS companies like IMImobile, OnMobile, One97 and the umbrella organization such as IAMAI (Internet & Mobile Association of India). Pakistan Software House Association (P@SHA) was the Country Partner, Bytesforall , the Strategic Partner and CIO Pakistan, the Media Partner from our side.

21st Century World could be a cellular age going by the phenomenal increase in cell phones worldwide. The cellular age is fast accelerating with cell phones magnifying our larger identity in both individual and collective domains and in various social, cultural, economic contexts. This tremendous growth of mobile penetrations is a scene to be witnessed worldwide especially in developing countries with larger population concentration. Thus, the power of cellular technology is evident. And South Asia is and cannot be left behind. Therefore, the objective of the awards was to

• Recognise mobile innovations and creativity.
• Provide a platform for the innovations into benchmarking in the mobile industry.
• Provide a wider forum for strategic networking, alliances and partnership building.
• Provide a South Asia Congress to exchange ideas, practices and policy strengths & mobile advocacy.
• Facilitate in building a South Asia network towards campaign and advocacy in mobile for mass empowerment and inclusive growth.

The response to the mBillionth Award nomination process was phenomenal: more than 250 entries were received and after screening 165 nominations were successfully accepted: India – 121, Sri Lanka – 28, Bangladesh – 07, Pakistan – 05, Nepal – 03, and Maldives – 1. The 14 member Jury came up with 24 winners & 12 special mentions from 5 South Asian Countries.

Osama Manzar, the man behind the awards said “No business vertical or community will remain untouched by this pervasive mobile device: entrepreneurs from all sectors, community leaders from all regions and government officials from all departments are curious to know how they can leverage the mobility platform to cause transformational impact on areas of their impact and influence.”

There was an impressive line-up of eminent dignitaries, best practitioners, innovators and policy makers for various plenary sessions scheduled at the full day mBillionth Congress, Exposition and Award Gala held at Hotel InterContinental Eros in New Delhi yesterday to promote cross-border exchange of ideas, policy strengths and mobile advocacy.

EntrepreneursPK Team is extremely delighted to inform you that though there were only 5 nominations from Pakistan amongst 250 total entries, yet we won 2 awards at the mBillionth Awards 2010. The Citizen Journalism Startup, SeenReport won in the m-News & Journalism category whereas Jaroka Tele-Healthcare won in the m-Health category. We take this opportunity to congratulate SeenReport and Jaroka Teams, and are hopeful that next year we would have many more winners to make us proud. Also our gratitude goes to the Digital Empowerment Foundation for taking the lead in creating this recognition and networking platform for mobile content developers.

The list of winners of mBillionth Awards 2010 is as follows.

m-GOVERNANCE

1. Many to One SMS, INDIA www.katnidistrict.org

2. GPS/GSM Based Train Tracking System, SRI LANKA

3. Paperless Admission System of Shahjalal University of Science & Technology (SUST), BANGLADESH http://sust.edu/admission

4. M-Distribution, INDIA www.megovernance.com

m-INCLUSION

1. Dialog Tradenet, SRI LANKA http://www.tradenet.dialog.lk

2. Dakia, INDIA http://one97world.com/

3. Voice of Youth, NEPAL http://www.ccfocusone.com

4. Panini Keypad, INDIA www.paninikeypad.com

5. Nepal Wireless, NEPAL http://www.nepalwireless.net

m-NEWS & JOURNALISM

1. Reuters Market Light, INDIA http://thomsonreuters.com/

2. Gaon Ki Awaaz, INDIA http://gaonkiawaaz.wordpress.com/

3. See ’n’ Report, PAKISTAN http://seenreport.com/

4. CGNet Swara, INDIA http://audiowiki.no-ip.org/admin/playback.php

m-EDUCATION & LEARNING

1. English Seekho, INDIA http://englishseekho.in

2. Drona, INDIA www.deltecs.com

3. Ability, INDIA www.willager.com/ability

m-ENTERTAINMENT

1. 3G Play, SRI LANKA http://wavenet.lk/

2. M-Search, INDIA http://onmobile.com/

3. Colombo Ride 2.0, SRI LANKA http://games.lk

4. Mobile Antakshari, INDIA http://www.slideshare.net/rajam/mobile-antakshari

m-TRAVEL & TOURISM

1. SMS 139 Railway Enquiry, INDIA www.spicedigital.in

2. AWATAR Mobile Booking, INDIA http://www.kstrc.in

3. Suruk, INDIA http://www.suruk.com

4. MobileWishPocket Travel Assistant, INDIA http://mobilewish.com/pta

m-BUSINESS & COMMERCE

1. EKO, INDIA www.eko.co.in

2. WorldGSM INDIA www.vnl.in

3. Mobiquity mMoney, INDIA http://comviva.com/

4. Business Express, BANGLADESH http://batworld.com/

5. Voice ERP, INDIA http://uniphore.com/

m-HEALTH

1. Eliminating queues in OPDs in hospitals – An m-Health initiative by JPN ATC, INDIA

2. Jaroka Tele-Healthcare, PAKISTAN www.jaroka.seecs.edu.pk

3. Students Health Information Tracking System (SWHITS) for Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (APSWREIS), INDIA http://swhits.cgg.gov.in

4. Aarogyam, INDIA http://jpnagar.nic.in/aarogyam/default.htm

m-ENVIRONMENT

1. m-Governance for Forest & Wildlife Management, INDIA

m-CULTURE & HERITAGE

No Winners

Special Awards:

Most Innovative Nomination

Ability, INDIA

Chairman’s Award for Emerging Mobile Initiative

Dhiraagu – Mobile Zakat, MALDIVES

Recently, one of my friends told me about the Power of Ideas organized every year in India. The promotional video (below) just blew me away and refreshed memories of initial struggling time I had while starting my first venture.

The Power of Ideas is the intellectual property of The Economic Times, India’s leading financial daily. In a unique three-way public-private-academic partnership, The Economic Times has joined hands with the Department of Science and Technology (Government of India) and the Indian Institute of Ahmedabad’s CIIE (Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship) to create a formidable force that can champion the cause of entrepreneurial culture in India. It leverages on the Government’s remit to encourage innovation and IIM-A’s demonstrated experience in mentoring and incubating start-ups.

The Power of Ideas encourages anyone and everyone with an idea to realize his entrepreneurial dream. Ideas will be polished and nurtured with personalized guidance from mentors and then incubated at IIM Ahmedabad, before being presented to the largest gathering of investors, besides some receiving an assured seed funding, courtesy the Department of Science of Technology, Government of India.

If you fall into the category below, you are eligible to participate.

•    Must be an Indian Citizen of 18 years or over currently residing in India.
•    Dreamers: Anyone who has ever cherished the idea of starting out on his own.
•    Entrepreneurs: Anyone who has just begun work on an idea even while he may be pursuing another day-time occupation.
•    Start-ups: Business enterprises headquartered in India; a standalone, not a subsidiary or division of a larger company.
•    Students: Pursuing their graduation or post graduation course in any stream
•    Corporate executives with a viable idea and keen to put their market experience to test

Though P@SHA, TiE Lahore, IEEE Lahore GOLD, Saif Center, Mr. Zia Imran, Dr. Zahir, Mr. Naeem Zafar and other many Pakistani Entrepreneurs have been encouraging, mentoring & supporting the young generation in Pakistan for quite some time, its the need of the hour that such initiatives are supported at Government and Academia Level. It’s good to see business institutes organizing Entrepreneurial Summits & Business Idea Competitions here in Pakistan but incubation is an altogether different process, giving more time for discussion in a different environment. In short, we need more of DOING at the moment rather than just presentation of an idea which most of the audience even forgets by the end of such events. Yes, you got me right. We need setups like Y Combinator here.

Telenor Pakistan has already taken a step in the right direction but we need more powerful stakeholders to join hands for a bigger movement. Also I would request management & business institutes in Pakistan to open up Incubation and Entrepreneurship Centers, introduce related degree programs and provide the opportunity to young minds for proper mentoring. This would in long term benefit our country’s economy.