Why every technology conference must come to Pune! [The Pune Effect]

It probably started in Sept, 2008, when PHPCamp got 1200+ online registrations, and 700+ people actually turned up, making it the largest unconference in India.
The following year, we organized an “Internship Mela” for students looking for internships amongst Pune’s startups, and we had to turn away 100s of students from the gates after we somehow managed to accommodate 800+.
Over the years, this trend has continued…
When DocType HTML5 came to Pune, the organizers had to shut down registrations after getting more than 600 registrations.
When we organized PyCon Pune, the International Python Conference, we were expecting it to be much smaller than the first two PyCon’s that were held in Bangalore, since the Python community in Bangalore is much stronger. However, once again, we had to close registrations after the number of paid registrations hit 650, since the venue wouldn’t take any more.
Raymond Hettinger tweeted that this was probably the biggest PyCon outside the US.

The same was the case with startup events like Pune edition of Proto.in in 2009, which witnessed its maximum attendance compared to all other 5 cities it was organized earlier!
Once is happenstance. Twice is co-incidence. More than that, and it needs to be given a name and a webpage of its own. Amit Kumar Singh called it “The Pune Effect” in a tweet in response to PyCon Pune becoming the biggest PyCon outside the US.
So, this post is dedicated to “The Pune Effect”, and the amazing tech community in Pune.
And it comes with a challenge.

A question to all organizers of tech events in India – Why are you not in Pune? I’m looking at you, NASSCOM Product Conclave, and DrupalCamp, and Amazon AWSCamp. If you’re an organizing a tech event in India, remember that if you skip Pune, you are missing out on your largest event.

And this is also a challenge to all the techies in Pune. We have to work to maintain this reputation. Follow the PuneTech Calendar where all the tech events happening in Pune are listed (you can subscribe to get all PuneTech events sent to you via email or via RSS), and the make it a point to attend. This will definitely help your career – you become more knowledgeable, and more importantly, you get to know lots of interesting and knowledgeable people. Not only should you attend tech events, but also drag some of your shy friends with you.

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Top 5 reasons to become a Social Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs are many, but social entrepreneurs are quite rare. Who wants to take the risk of investing monies that are not only expected to yield profits, but also advance a social cause? Entrepreneurs have enough tensions of their own. Why care about seeing how your business is synergized with the needs of your community? Here’s why.

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5 Golden Rules for Your Business Email !

"One shit deal…" This phrase got one of the largest investment companies in the world in a messy soup during the Global Financial Crisis. One of their employees wrote this to another in an email, which was used against them in the court of law. Well, that’s that…
Read on to know how you can avoid such blunders and a few rules that you should follow for your business email.

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Top 5 mistakes to avoid while writing your resume!

Your resume, is you on a paper. Do you realize that?
It is basically your whole professional life summarized in a page or two. So it is vital that you write the most appropriate and effective resume. Here are the top 5 mistakes that most of us making while writing the oh-so-important resume.

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Top Innovative Companies List [World & India]

Fast Company recently compiled a list of most innovative companies in the World and it is no surprise that Apple, makers of iPad & iPhone, top the list. World does not anticipate any other product launch as much as it does about Apple. Top most reason for that is – Innovation in Business.
Twitter is named as the second most innovative company in the world – Although, I personally believe that Google and Facebook are more innovative than Twitter, Fast Company has ranked them second on the basis five years of explosive growth that have redefined communication.
Facebook comes in at 3rd position – With 600

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Top 5 hot careers of 2011-12 !

The First decade of new millennium was dominated by one career stream and everyone was after that – The Software / IT jobs. But with time, other streams have cropped up and now are getting favour of many.
Ignoring the last few months, all sectors of the economy and industries have boomed.
Here are the 5 hot careers of 2011.

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5 things about the Indian education system that we hope changes

Every established system in the country always attracts severe criticism. The Indian Education system especially has been the target of many allegations from students, parents and teachers. Students think they are overburdened, teachers think they are not paid enough and parents want their children to get 99.99 percentage. Where does the buck stop?
Yes, in recent times there have been some steps taken on education reforms, but it needs lot more than that

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