Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka will deliver the first keynote address at the first edition of Cebit India to be held in Bangalore in November. Other big names speaking at the event include Mark P McDonald, MD and digital business strategy lead in Accenture, Helmut Schutt, CIO of Daimler trucks, buses and vans, Kumud Srinivasan, president of Intel India, and Norbert Schroeder, technical development head at Volkswagen India.
“We wanted somebody to represent new perspectives in the IT business, the whole notion of India becoming a solution nation, combining IT products and IT services. And we wanted it to be an Indian in a global role. Sikka fitted the bill perfectly,” said Mehul-Lanvers Shah, MD of Hannover Milano Fairs India, the Indian subsidiary of Deutsche Messe, which owns the globally renowned Cebit exhibition-cum-conference brand.
Cebit expects some other marquee names to accept its invitation. Invites have been sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata sons, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Dell founder Michael Dell, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Tesla Motor CEO Elon Musk, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth, and Pranav Mistry, founder of wearable device startup SixthSense.
Arvind Gupta, head of BJP’s IT division, will moderate a panel discussion. Gupta is an Eisenhower Fellow, a title that identifies, empowers and links outstanding leaders from around the world, helping them to achieve consequential outcomes across sectors and borders.
The five-day Cebit event in India’s IT capital will start with a business-to-business event, called Cebit India, for three days from November 12 to 14, and a business-to-consumer event, called Plugged In, starting on the third day and going on till November 16. The theme for Cebit India will be `New Perspectives in IT Business’ and will showcase business opportunities and latest technologies. Daimler, the makers of Mercedes Benz, will organize a live event that may be related to connected cars. There will also be a major showcase of startups.
Efforts are on to combine the Cebit event with BangaloreIT.biz, the Karnataka government’s annual IT exhibition-cum-conference that is normally held in November. The Karnataka government was keen on the event being co-branded, but Cebit says it’s not something they do globally. It is now expected that the two events will be co-located (same venue and same time), with each reinforcing the other through some common messaging and sub-branding. “We hope to finalize this in the next two weeks,” Shah said.
