10 must attend sessions at NASSCOM 2016

For more than two decades, leaders and global influencers at NASSCOM India Leadership Forum have come together to brainstorm on how to ride the latest technology wave. Its 2016 edition which is about to begin in two days from now has an exhaustive agenda. But which are the sessions you cannot afford to miss out on?

This year’s NASSCOM India Leadership Forum is based on the theme ‘The Smart Enterprise – Transformative to Disruptive’, and has so many interesting parallel sessions lined up that you might need a clone to attend them all. While the event has more than 80 sessions, we bring to you the ten sessions you must attend. Here’s our pick, in no particular order.

1.        Bimodal IT and Sourcing: The Way Forward to Avoid Pitfalls

The first session of the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2016 will have Claudio Da Rold, VP & Chief of Research – IT Services & Sourcing of Gartner, speak about what drives competition across enterprises and how bimodal adaptive sourcing can support digital success.

Also read: 4 ways bimodal IT accelerates innovation

2.        Payments, Mobile and the Future of Money

One of the key examples of emerging technologies causing disruption across all sectors is mobile currency. Join Jim McKelvey, Co-founder of Square and Rana Kapoor, Chairman of Yes Bank who will discuss the future of money and how technology disruptions are changing the financial sector.

3.        Industry 4.0: The Next Industrial Revolution

Daniel Pacthod, Director of McKinsey & Co and Krishnakumar Natarajan, Vice Chairman of Mindtree Ltd will conduct a session on the future of the industrial world revolutionized by technology. Join to find out what large, new business models, opportunities and ecosystems will develop as a result of Industry 4.0.

4.        The Business of Cyber Security

With the proliferation of IT into almost every human and machine activity and the rise of the Internet of Things, cyber threats are bound to increase. Listen to experts Sahir Hidayatullah, CEO of Smokescreen Technologies, Gary Loveland, Global Cyber Security CoE Lead of PWC and Paresh Sukthankar, COO of HDFC Bank Ltd discuss cybersecurity in a conversation chaired by Rajendra Pawar, Chairman of NIIT.

Also see: What did we learn about cybersecurity in 2015?

5.        From Disruption to Transformation: Breaching the Tipping Point

In a conversation Arvind Thakur, CEO & Joint MD, of NIIT Technologies, Phil Colman, CIO of BAT plc, Christa Koenen, CEO of DB Systel and Ian Buchanan, Group CIO of Barclays will discuss how large enterprises are enabling disruption and transformation, and how they deal with legacy technologies while enhancing focus on digital.

6.        Hyperadoption and the Future of Customer Relationships

James McQuivey, VP & Principal Analyst of Forrester, will explain why consumers across the globe are engaging in hyperadoption and show examples and offer steps to benefit from the same economics.

7.        When things start to think!

All analysts have already declared IoT to be the technology of the future. You must listen to Stan Schneider, CEO of RTI, Edmond Mesrobian, CTO of TESCO and Dr Gordon Sanhera, CEO of Oxford Nanopore Technologies in a conversation chaired by Manish Chaudhary, Managing Director of Pitney Bowes India, as they talk about what to expect out of IoT and big data.

Read more: Every CEO should be willing to invest in IoT: Ganesh Ramamoorthy, Gartner

8.        Branch Today, Gone Tomorrow!

Brett King, the bestselling author of Augmented: Life in the Smart Lane, will make us question the future of banking in a world where the fastest growing interactions with banks are through Internet, mobile phones and social media.

9.        India’s Urbanisation Challenges: The 100 Smart Cities Initiative and how this is rolling out

Venkaiah Naidu, Union Minister for Urban Development and BVR Mohan Reddy, Chairman of NASSCOM, will speak about the progress of the smart cities initiative, the unique state-centre partnership model and the changing urban landscape of India.

Also read: How Should a Smart City be Designed?

10.     Getting the Next Billion Users Online

During one of the event’s last sessions, don’t forget to listen to Rajan Anandan, Vice President & MD South East Asia and India of Google, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO & Founder, PayTM and Neeraj Agarwal, BCG, who will discuss the challenges and opportunities that technology companies and governments are grappling with while getting the entire global population online.

You can also go through the detailed NASSCOM India Leadership Forum 2016 agenda and zero in on more sessions that are of interest to you.