Eabs Students At The World Entrepreneurship Forum

Both Sidharth Dash and Aditya Shankar had unforgettable experiences in Lyon and were fortunate enough to rub shoulders with the whos-who from the world of entrepreneurs. Being treated as delegates was an absolute honor which was made complete with a red carpet welcome and complementary Caviar, Champagne and Pte de Fois Gras, said Aditya and Sidharth.

During their stay, the two got to see how beautiful Lyon is. The city is full of beautifully sculpted churches, chapels, cathedrals, villas, manors and palaces. Narrow streets of cobble-stone are banked by delightfully decorated restaurants, bars, shops, museums, and theatrical workshops, said Aditya. Lyon is the birthplace of the Cinematograph, as the illustrious Lumiere brothers hailed from here. For a die-hard movie buff like me, visiting some of their works was an amazing experience, he added.
As they began to participate in various activities, both realized that the Indian edition of JWEF, held from September 2 to 4, 2010 was among the best organized forums with the topics discussed and recommendations brought out being relevant and realistic.
On the third day of their stay, the event was declared open by the President of WEF and EM Lyon Prof. Patrick Molle and WEFs founding partner and KPMG Frances Chairman Jean-Luc Decornoy, who focused on prevalent global issues and how these could be solved using entrepreneurial techniques. Moreover, a panel of entrepreneurs shared their experiences on being successful and also discussed how they were going the whole hog to incubate and encourage entrepreneurship in their respective ventures.
The other members of the opening panel included S.M.J Mwambenja, MD & CEO of Exim Bank of Tanzania, Dr. Barak Ben-Avinoam, CEO of Iris Ventures of Israel, Lisa Fecteau of Groupment of Canada and brothers Fernando and Carlos Moncayo Castillo founders of Startups Ventures of Ecuador.

Dr. Barack spoke on how entrepreneurial Israel is and how government policies and financial tools are leveraged there to encourage entrepreneurship. Mwambenja spoke about difficulties faced by entrepreneurs in Tanzania
Jose Mulero, who among other entities owns the Olympique Lyon Football Club, and Syed Babar Ali, ex-Finance Minister of Pakistan and founder of Lahore University of Management Sciences were also present.
Later in the days, cocktail parties were held, which gave the two a perfect platform for networking and both made complete use of this while exchanging business ideas. This was a great learning experience as they interacted with some very sharp brains.
The action was mostly held in the opulent Metropole. It was here that Prof. Molle spoke about the vision of the WEF and its mission of Shaping the World of 2050.
This was followed by a rousing panel discussion which consisted of the following members who addressed some critical issues:

1) Sir Fazle H. Abed (Bangladesh): Founder of BRAC, the largest NGO in the world and winner
of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award, addressed the issue of Entrepreneurship at the
Bottom of the Pyramid.
2) Elmar Mock (Switzerland): Creator of SWATCH and founder of Creaholic, focused on
Innovation and Development of High-Growth organization
3)Prof. Zoltan Acs (USA): Director of Center for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, targeted the topic Fabric of Entrepreneurial Cities as his pet issue.
4) Prof. Alain Fayolle (France): Professor of Entrepreneurship at EMLyon Business School, spoke
about Entrepreneurship Education.

Aditya got his 15 minutes of fame as he was given the honor of presenting in front of more than one thousand and five hundred people who hailed from more than 60 countries; with many extremely successful entrepreneurs amongst the crowd.
He talked about how he wanted to create a company that would deal in off-setting harmful effects of nuclear waste and make nuclear energy a clean energy. We could use nuclear energy to drive automobiles, run agricultural tools and provide electricity to a completely nuclear powered city, he said. This was approved by the audience with a rousing applause. Dr. Nikhil Agarwal, Director of EABS and founding member of WEF, who was also present there, was delighted with this response.
Though Sidharth did not address the crowd, his dream of starting a tourism company in his home state Orissa, in-order to help in its development, received kudos.
What followed later was a humbling experience when people actually came to them and gave their cards, asking both where they came from and what EABS was all about.

EABS was omnipresent and everyone had Pune on their minds after the presentations. The two were present in Lyon from November 1 to 6.