Sunday, March 29, 2009

The first ever Cyber Media Conclave

Pune, March 29, 2009: The Cyber Media Conclave, which was held at ‘Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication’ in Pune was the first of it’s kind in India and was organized by a 5 member team from SIMC’s Post Graduate programme. The conclave focused on Cyber Media and its use as a tool for networking, knowledge sharing, marketing as well as a tool for social cause.
The conclave was inaugurated by Prof. Ujjwal Kumar Chaudhury, the Director of SIMC and the session was inaugurated by Mr. Kiruba Shankar, Founder and CEO, The Knowledge Foundation from Chennai. This interactive session with the audience was followed by Mr. Shivam Vij, an indi-blog award winner and a Tehelka journalist who spoke about the relationship between mainstream media and social media with respect to the cyber media. Mr. Shiv Bhaskar, CEO, The viewspaper stressed on the media being the ultimate fourth estate while Ms. Jasmeen, the founder of the blanknoise project which is all about street sexual harassment felt that the cyber media is one of the best tools for social change and has helped the blank noise project grow and reach out to women and men from all over the country.
The second session began with Mr. Rajesh Lalwani, Founder & Director at Scenario Consulting Private Limited, pitchh.com and blogworks, emphasized on the internet as a tool for marketing. This was followed by Mr. Atul Chitnis, Senior Vice- President of Geodesic Solutions who spoke about the business of open source system which according to him is the key source of the cyber media’s existence.
The scope of online video & the power of the business of video was covered by Mr. Namit Bimbhat, CEO, Switch technologies. He also said that online video is a tool to interact with customers. The Vice- President – Products of Bharatmatrimony.com, Mr. J Mahadevan stressed on the importance of brand building of an innovative cyber product. The cyber medium was one of the reasons for the success of the ‘Bell Bajao’ campaign. The whole process and the strategy used on the cyber medium was explained by Ms. Rashmi, the marketing manager of the campaign which is an initiative of Breakthrough.
The first cyber media conclave came to an end with a workshop for the SIMC students, by Mr. Rajesh Lalwani and Mr. Kiruba Shankar.