Theme: Alt + F4

What do we do when we face an obstacle that weighs us down ?

We either choose to stop and take a step back or to move on to other tasks. (From an individual struggling through everyday life, to organisations racing for success) everybody has become overwhelmed by life. Knowing where to draw the line in this regard is an essential skill to possess in today’s eventful and ever evolving world. It is thus important to know when to take a break, to look at the problem from a different viewpoint, to gain insights and revive ourselves.

This was the basis behind choosing the theme, "Alt+F4...". Alt+F4 is a commonly used shortcut across a variety of computers to shut down or to close an active process, freeing up potential space to start another process or to restart the process afresh. We believe that everyone should have the ability to click Alt+F4 in their lives, to get a moment to relax and reassess their choices and to think from a fresher perspective.

With "Alt+F4…", we want to break stereotypes, to understand people with a new perspective, to avoid making the same mistakes and to look for alternative solutions. Disconnect, and then reconnect to find a story worth writing, worth sharing.

Virtual
Mahindra École Centrale, Survey No.:62/1A
Jeedimetla, Bahadurpally
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, 500043
India

Dr. Gayathri Vasudevan

Co-founder & Chairperon, LabourNet

Gayathri Vasudevan is a Doctorate in Development Studies with more than 22 years of experience in both national and international organizations. She has been extensively involved in policy issues and community mobilizations relating to livelihoods. She is the co-founder of LabourNet, a social enterprise with a clear focus on enabling livelihoods and improving real income wages of the informal sector by improving worker skill and productivity. She has also worked with various Multi-Laterals and Bi-Laterals – UNICEF, UNDP, UNESCO, NORAD, to name a few. She has more than 30 publications in the areas of labour, employment and gender issues to her credit.

Dr. Monojit Choudhury

Principal Researcher, Microsoft India

Monojit Choudhury, with over 160 publications, has been a principal researcher at Microsoft Research Labs for more than a decade. He has worked in multiple different research fields such as Linguistics, Cognition, and Computation. He is one of the primary researchers at Project Mélange, where they understand the use of and build tools around code-mixing – a term used to describe the use of more than one language in a single conversation that is observed in multilingual societies like India.

Mr. Mathieu Jouve-Villard

Managing Partner, Wedge Consulting

Mathieu Jouve-Villard is the India head of the French banking group Credit Mutuel and managing partner at Wedge Consulting. He has over 20 years of experience in consulting for talks and negotiations between Indian and foreign companies and has experience in negotiation, project development and implementation. He is the author of the book, "Pratique de la Négociation en Inde", or “The Practice of Negotiation in India”, in which he deconstructs the process of negotiations in India and contrasts it to negotiations held in other European countries.

Ms. Nancy Charaya

Co-founder & Advisor, Anthill Creations

Nancy Charaya is the Co-Founder and Advisor of Anthill Creations, a non-profit organization that creates playscapes for children by using recyclable materials. She holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. After she faced a brief stint in her management career, she decided to pursue her dream of creating an outdoor space for children in a technology-driven world. Anthill Creations aims to bring back play for all age groups by building sustainable playscapes using contextual designs and localized resources. It has impacted more than 20,000 children across 20 cities in India and Nepal. Nancy believes that all children should be given an equal opportunity to play regardless of their economic background, caste, gender or age. In addition to that, she is a fellow of NSRCEL and has also been a TEDx speaker.

Ms. Tanusha Bajaj

Social Media Influencer, Content Creator & Fashion Bloggger

Tanusha Bajaj is one of Hyderabad's most popular social media influencers. She is a fashion icon, stylist, model and content creator. She has been in the blogging space since her high school and has had tremendous success with over 24k followers on Instagram. She works for prominent businesses such as the label bazaar and extraamedia and promotes fashion trends and lifestyle. Her work and life story revolves around art and creation and she is a perfect example of "do what you love."