This past Sunday I went to the ICT Meetup at Prime College. The theme of the ICT Meetup was Academia-Industry Collaboration and there were 14 participating organizations. I was representing Parakhi and looked forward to speaking on Elements of entrepreneurship: from idea to execution.

I walked in as the opening remarks had just started. It was good to hear some inspiring and motivating words from Biplav Man Shrestha, Guest Speaker Manahor Bhattrai and Principal Naresh P. Shrestha. There were a few remarks that resonated with me from hearing the speakers: Biplav touched on value creation and used Facebook as an example; Manohar talked about staying updated in the technical field but added to not be 100% technical.

After the opening remarks, we headed upstairs in the waiting room. I was glad to have met the Principal who was gracious to share his excitement for the meetup and of the speakers' presence. I interacted with few of the other speakers and headed towards the 1st session: E-governance by Manahor Bhattrai. Manahor Bhattrai talked about the importance of government, value of e-governance and shared his prior experience working with Nepal's government. I was keen to hear about the challenges of e-governance's application in Nepal and glad to learn and hear his thoughts on the subject. Then it came time for my presentation and I talked about the three important elements of entrepreneurship: idea, vision and execution. Following my presentation was Vidhan Rana from Biruwa Ventures. Vidhan described the opportunities and challenges for IT entrepreneurs in Nepal and had good content in his slides.

After the first few sessions ended, we had lunch and I was able to meet and chat with people who were doing some exciting work in Nepal. I met Sakar Pudasaini who's working on the site Galli Galli, an innovative project to make Kathmandu and its neighboring cities more tangible and navigable. I also chatted with Jamon Mok and Akash Gurung who are very involved in the social entrepreneurship space at Gazaab and are organizing a business plan competition from July 2nd-July 6th.

I dropped by the Mobile Networking session which was filled with students and also mingled with students. I was personally glad to observe the enthusiasm of the attending students and especially the passion of the members of the organizing team. Overall it was a well put together event by Prime IT Club and Prime College and the Meetup served as an important and indispensible bridge between academia and profession. I did share with the organizing team on how the event could improve or be even better next time.

http://www.parakhi.com/blogs/2012/06/21/academia-meets-industry-at-ict-meetup