Please bear with yet another mail, in my new role as Sponsorship, Media &
PR. In future would recommend visiting our blog for live update (
http://scifore.blogspot.com)*

Latest status update on guests, speakers / panelists*

1. Mehmood Khan, Global Head of Innovation Process for Unilever -
Confirmed for 24th
2. Jessica Wallack, Strategic Advisor & Research Affiliate, *Celit -
Confirmed for 22nd
*
3. Liz Ryan, Columnist at BusinessWeek, Career Coach, AskLizRyan -
tentative confirmation
4. APJ Kalam secy has still not confirmed his availability
5. Mark Benioff of Salesforce.com ... will approach this weekend after
revised Press Release / Package etc ... am in touch informally
6. Ambani, Mittal, Tata and likes have not been approached yet since
they are local and focus has been on international attendees till now
7. Sunil Wadhwani of iGate, Joshua of Google etc approached
8. Ron Somers will be approached for a small informal team rom US to
visit Bihar during the event
9. Names, Ideas, Leads will be appreciated ..


*Sponsorship*

1. No money has hit bank account yet and so far personal contributions
from Ramraj and few others have underwritten the costs
2. Manjeet Kriplani of Business Week has offered to send a check in
personal capacity since Business Week might not be in a position to be a
part for this event we will politely deny since we would rather have as one
of our panelist)
3. Saroj boss, Naveen, Vivek, Ramraj and lotz of others are in touch
with various companies
4. We will approach GE, Genpact, TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro,
Google, Apple, Cisco, Mittal etc soon and many more
5. Team in Patna led by Chandan jee and Lakshmi of LN Mishra will
spread out to reach local sponsors soon
6. Google, Ciscos, GE, Genpact, Alchem, Panacea, Bristol Meyers, DRL,
TCS look like most likely candidates for lead sponsorship
7. Names, Ideas, Leads will be appreciated ..
8.

*Media & PR*

1. On Monday or Tuesday, after Mayank/Chandan and team finalize Press
Release and Convenor Ramraj approves, I will release a press-release
globally via PR Newswire which will get us global coverage ( $500 budget)
2. Bihar Times, PatnaDaily, TOI, Rediff, HT, etc are likely print
media partners in India
3. Nature, National Geographic, Scientific American type magazines etc
will be approached soon
4. NYT, WSJ, US News, Economist, FT etc will also be approached as
soon as press release is issued
5. Blog needs update .. any volunteers (http://scifore.blogspot.com)
6. Names, Ideas, Leads, Contributions will be appreciated ..

* Partnerships for Outreach*

1. Tie, SAJA, IIM Alumni, Dept of Science & Technology, Asia Society,
US-India Business Council, Brasil-India US Councile etc under discussion
2. Dept of Tourism informed and discussions in progress
3. IBEF, CII etc will be approached soon
4. IIT, BIT, IIIT, IIM, XLRI, ISB, Yale, Harvard, Columbia etc alumni
bodies will be approached soon
5. Names, Ideas, Leads will be appreciated ..
6.


*Event Logistics*

1. St. Joseph's Patna will invite panelists for X'Mas Mass at the
cathedral
2. Toursism Trip for guests (international and select local) to
Nalanda, Rajgir, Pawapuri etc will be arranged
3. DST (Ajay Thakur jee) will arrange a dinner for attendees
4. Hotels like Kautilya, Chanakya will be booked ( Sponsorship will
decide the numbers and venues) and Bihar Govt will be given an opportunity
to host the guests or get paid on a cost-basis
5. Chandan is arranging the video, camera, webcast etc etc for the
event
6. Posters, Banners will be pasted all over venue, Patna and rest of
India
7. Patna Airport authorities will be approached to "create" ..
Resurgent Bihar feel (like WEF at Davos)
8. Gandhi Maidan will have some big screens if possible
9. Chandan is working on gifts, t-shirt, books etc for the event
10. Team from US and India might come for Video Footage so that a
documentary can be prepared
11. Met my classmate, Prashant Kumar, Regional Director of
Communication Planning, Universal McCann Asia-Pacific who has some cool
ideas on how to do branding etc and will be roped in as advisory
12. Names, Ideas, Leads, Contributions will be appreciated ..


More later and excuse any spelling/factual mistakes etc as just woke up. Do
write to Ramraj (Convenor), Chandan, Ajit, Vivek, Bibhuti, Samir, Ajay
jee,Atul. Sci Fore Team will take collective decision on all matters but
Ramraj as convenor will exercise his veto power on all or any of above
details. If you don't like anything please speak-up. Don't remain silent.
Silence is or will be interpreted as "Yes" or "I don't care" or "I want to
pretend that am too big or too busy"

Do write to Ramraj (Convenor), me, Chandan, Ajit, Vivek, Bibhuti, Samir,
Ajay jee, Mayank, Saroj, Vishwajit, Sweta, Sanjay or all of us. Team of
student volunteers from Patna will take over much of responsibility from us
after Chath

Kartik: are you listening .. do reach us as need your help asap


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