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Dash says the conference is about high-tech entrepreneurship and customer-driven innovations

SLIGHTLY more than a year ago, Dash met Barack Obama when the American president hosted his presidential summit in Washington, DC. The conference was held to encourage and promote entrepreneurship, which happened to fit into Dash's own pursuit.

His journey to the United States had taken him far and wide. He met individuals, corporations and foundations that seemed committed towards the same goal -- giving birth to more entrepreneurs.

Encouraged by what he saw, and spurred by the individuals who believe in wealth creation through entrepreneurship and innovation, Dash started to plan his own programme.

He imagined that with the help of friends and like-minded associates, he, too, could push more Malaysians towards similar goals.

It was with this in mind that Dash, with an American associate, crafted StartupMalaysia.org with the aim of encouraging locals to embark on their own journeys of discovery and business ventures.

StartupMalaysia.org has quietly worked to stage its prestigious inaugural programme -- a two-day gathering next month tagged as Silicon Valley Comes to Malaysia.

This is not an ordinary gathering, mind you. I asked Dash why was this gathering special.

I got my answer when I saw the list of speakers: Jawed Karim (co-founder of YouTube), Konstantin Guericke (co-founder of Linkedin), Shawn Fanning (co-founder of Napster), Steve Koskie (co-founder of Dipdive.com) and Christina A. Brodbeck (co-founder and chief executive officer of TheIceBreak.com, who is also a member of the founding team of YouTube).

These names may not ring a bell among some people here, but they are icons in their own right and have inspired innovation of varying degrees.

They are joined by Jonas Kjellberg, the vice-president of Sales at Skype, and Rebecca Hwang, co-founder and CEO of YouNoodle.com.

Mind you, Koskie led the viral video campaign together with several Hollywood celebrities that contributed to Obama's victory in the elections. The video won Koskie an Emmy award.

Dash said the conference was held with the strong support and involvement of Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC).

Actually, the programme is also the climax of several years of initiatives motivated by the Global Entrepreneurship Week, whose patron is Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.

Dash said: "It's all about high-tech entrepreneurship and customer-driven innovations.

"Participants will be helped to look at problems as opportunities, understand customers and their needs, develop and test new business models, make rapid prototypes and use visual communication to make a great business pitch."

In the last few years, Dash has invested time and money to get this programme off the ground.

Thanking the government for agreeing to host the programme, Dash said the start-up experience, which was found to be very effective in inspiring young innovators, was developed with the help of leading entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley, the Mecca for high growth innovation.

The writer is also a blogger at pahitmanis2.blogspot.com. He can be reached at ahmadt51@gmail.com

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