-Swaminathan Balasubramanian
Chennai based start-ups will now get the mentoring from the CIOs of the leading companies in Chennai. The Chennai chapter of CIO Klub has plans to mentor the startups in Chennai.
The most coveted seventh anniversary even of CIO Klub concluded in Chennai recently. The event provided a platform for IT heads to discuss the latest technological disruptions that are going in the technology industry. Various sponsors had solution display kiosks and delivered the technical presentation with business networking.
The annual day was kicked off with a traditional classic dance and it was followed by technical
presentations.
There were technical Presentations from Nutanix, IBM, Hitachi, Paladion Networks, Veeam, Softline, Sify and Jabra.
Umesh Mehta, National President, Cio Klub addressed the gathering and shared the vision of CIO Klub and plans to expand the chapters in the year ahead. Vijay Anand, Secretary, CIO Klub (Chennai) thanked the gathering. Timothy Jaisingh and Sivasubramanian, Council members hosted the event.
Over 120 CIO’s from Chennai chapter and other regions participated in the annual day that ended with
some fun and frolic activities. In a quick chat, Sendil Kumar and Vijay Anand share the key insights from the event and plans ahead for the Chennai chapter. Edited excerpts
What are the key highlights of Chennai Chapter in the seven years?
1. Addition of members from 10 to 125 numbers.
2. Monthly Technology events being conducted on a regular basis.
3.Bringing IT heads of various companies under one-roof
4. The association had been working constantly on the improvement of the CIOs in all aspects
5. We had introduced a slew of member-welfare measures
What was the most unforgettable moment of your chapter?
The family event was conducted in 2018 after a long gap of 3 years. We had a huge participation from the members and sponsors. Over 75 members with their family participated in the two-day event.
Other than routine functioning of an association, what special efforts had been made?
We had made initiatives for member-welfare like insurance coverage, internship programs for children of members, knowledge sessions in areas apart from IT like finance and leadership to name a few.
There is one feedback from many sponsors who really want to tie up with your chapter. However, they feel the sponsorship options are not affordable. Are there any plans for creating affordable sponsorship options?
This is a niche crowd with top IT decision makers across industry verticals. Obviously, it does have premium value to that. However, we had always accommodated special requests from sponsors and we were flexible with the negotiations from their side on the cost. In CIO Klub, the sponsors have three avenues. 1.National-level engagement where the sponsorship is on a Pan-India chapter event sponsor 2.Sponsoring an event of a local chapter 3.annual/family event sponsor.
Despite there is a huge industry potential, the start-up scene is less in Chennai compared to Bangalore. Does Chennai chapter have any plans to work closer with start-up and mentor them or have knowledge sharing sessions?
Yes. I agree with that. In our recent event, we had the principal secretary of commerce and MSME secretary Dr.Rajendra Prasad IAS where he spoke on the various benefits offered in the startup scene. we are also planning to have mentoring sessions for new startups where a CIO can share their inputs on a one-one basis.