While ecommerce startups and experts were discussing the importance of social media for ecommerce ventures we saw a validation for social media unfold during the event. Our event hashtag trended nationally in India as the top hashtag for some time. We also trended in many cities with people in different cities taking part in the event virtually. We did our bit in sharing updates and images from the event on our twitter handle : @yourstorydotin . Through this post we bring some highlights of Esparks 2011 in random order: @ManojM_ : After attending #esparks, I now have the urge to attend more and...

The keynote address titled ‘Leveraging technology partnerships for market growth,’ was given by Vikram Bhatia, Head, Windows Azure Cloud Platform, Microsoft India, focusing on how to leverage a technology partnership to grow your business, at E-Sparks 2011. Initially, this is the decade of the cloud as we look back at the evolution of IT and we were introduced to companies who use the Windows Azure cloud platform for their businesses. Vikram showcased cbazaar.in, a profitable ‘own brand’ company, siteanalytix (who offer tools to businesses to optimize their reach to customers, directdialogs.com...

The panel discussion at E-Sparks 2011, moderated by panel host, Akash Goel (Sequoia Capital India), was an interactive experience for members of the audience who were able to engage with panelists who had a wide range of insights to offer. The panelists included Sachin Singhal, Head paytm, One97 Communications, Jeetendra Joshi, VP Marketing, Martjack, Manish Maheshwari, GM & Global business head, txtWeb, Vijay Subramanian, co-founder & CIO, InfiBeam, Rajesh Nahar, CEO & Co-founder Cbazaar.in, as well as speakers Shailendra Singh, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital India and Vikram Bhatia,...

Kicking off E-Sparks 2011, at Bangalore, was Shailendra Singh, MD Sequoia Capital, with his inaugural address titled ‘Investments in E-commerce.’ Before talking about Indian E-commerce, Shailendra explained the state of E-commerce in China and proceeded to explain some of the lessons that Indian E-commerce companies can learn from those who have set up successful E-commerce ventures in China, notably Taobao. There are ‘far fewer linkages to the US,’ he mentioned asserting that we can learn from ventures in China since investors are common across India and China. Also, he mentioned that...