Our conference was built along the theme - 'Pushing a Pull Door.' It makes immediate impressions. It makes you think of trying something unusual. Of something which could well be possible but will appear absurd to the world. Of not caring about failure. We have doors all around. Most of them ask us to pull them in only a particular direction. So to not look stupid and check if it can be pushed instead, we pull it nevertheless. But, maybe, in some cases, it can be pushed. But how can we find out without trying something we are not supposed to? Doors are opportunities. Sometimes, we struggle to make the most of them. We are stuck. And the way ahead could well be trying something entirely unconventional, and apparently irrational. And to do this, one needs ideas that raise eyebrows. Ideas that have enough inertia to fall through. They may fail, but if successful, they change the way we perceive our 'doors'.

BITS Goa Auditorium
BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus
Goa, Goa, 403726
India

Grace

Grace is a Goan choir consisting of talented and gifted musicians with a blend of perfect harmony and unique instruments (Keyboard /Guitar /Flute & Melodica)

Abhay Kumar

Abhay Kumar is an independent movie maker who made the critically acclaimed short film "...Just That Sort of a Day", which featured at a number of international film festivals, including Tribeca and Resenberg, while also winning at Busan and New York Indian Film Festival. His most recent film. "Placebo", is being touted to change the way documentaries are made.

Arun Prakash

Adm. Arun Prakash has served as Chief of Naval Staff of the Indian Navy. The prestigious Vir Chakra was awarded to him for his gallantry in air action over West Pakistan and J&K, during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War. He is known for being one of Indian Navy’s most decorated officers and an articulate leader.

Atul Singh

Atul Singh is an Indian-born former lawyer, current affairs lecturer, and the founder and editor-in-chief of Fair Observer, a global media platform that focuses on analysis and a "plurality of perspectives" from around the world. Having a solid academic background with degrees from the Oxford University and Wharton School of Management, Atul was listed among the 11 Indians who have made their mark on the global corporate world by DNA India. He is a seasoned speaker on the global economy, foreign policy and international affairs. His talk will be about how he sees economics to being more of an art than a science.

Bharat Bhushan

Bharat Bhushan is someone who combines his passion for mountaineering along with photography, and the result is breath-taking panoramas, the sort we have on our PCs.

Clea Chandmal

Clea Chandmal has cleverly combined her scientific qualification as a Masters in Plant Breeding and a Masters in Plant Molecular Physiology for her PhD at University of Cambridge and her permaculture training in Australia to adopt a way of living that doesn't burden the earth. Armed with an inexplicable love for nature and a passion for living in harmony with her surroundings, permiculturist from Goa, Clea Chandmal is on a mission to help people peacefully co-exist with Mother Nature.

Mani Vajipeyajula

Mani Vajipeyajula is the founder and C.E.O. of Banyan Nation, an organization that aims to transform the solid waste management landscape in India through technological innovations, better practices and grassroots activism. He has dual M.B.A.s from Columbia Business School and UC Berkley. Mani quit his lucrative job in the Silicon Valley to achieve his purpose of solving waste management crisis in India.

Monica Dogra

Monica Dogra is an American singer and actress of Indian origin. She is one half of the Mumbai based electro rock duo Shaa'ir and Func. She made her acting debut in the Bollywood film Dhobi Ghat and is the host of The Dewarists, a musical collaborative show.

Priyesh Trivedi

Priyesh Trivedi is a 23-year old visual artish from Mumbai, who has been making waves with his immensely popular Adarsh Balak series of sketches, which strike a chord with a generation of young adults like himself who have grown up with the neatly turned out schoolboy decorating their books and take pleasure in seeing them turn against the lessons he once taught, all in good humour.

Rahul Sen

Rahul Sen is an international brand advisor with 20+ years of experience in the USA, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East and South Asia with industry experience in FMCG, Financial Services, Telecom, Transport, Tourism, B2B, Pharmaceuticals, Non Profit, Entertainment, Hospitality, Fashion, Media, Corporate Services, Luxury brands, Real estate development, Retail & Restaurants.

Rohit Gupta

Rohit Gupta is a science historian. Popularly known as the Compasswallah, his themes of interest include but are not limited to historical episodes and analyses of astronomy, survey, geodesy, cartography, geomagnetism, geometry, scientific instruments, analog computers, optics, navigation and nomograms. He hopes to exhume the analog geometry of ancient discoveries for a confrontation with the digital age.

Subodh Kerkar

Subodh Kerkar is an Installation artist who gave up his medical profession to pursue his passion - visual art. For the past 20 years, he has experimented with different media and is the only artist in the country doing monumental works in nature.