Recap: PanIIT 'IIT2020: Global Summit-Future Is Now'
December 2020
The PanIIT 'IIT2020: Global Summit-Future Is Now' was held on December 4-5, 2020. The event was a huge success that brought together 400 speakers and 17,000 attendees. IIT-Kharagpur played a large role in the planning and execution of the event. IITKGP Foundation US President, Ron Gupta (’70) served as the program chair, coordinating the speakers and agenda for the conference. Shiladitya Basu ('99) acted as the sponsorship chair, leading the charge for sponsors to support the conference and Lakshman Rao ('99) oversaw all of the virtual booths for the sponsors, institutions, and ADDA lounges. KGP was represented by the following speakers: Peeyush Ranjan (’95)-Google, Pradeep Khosla (’80)-UC San Diego, Bipul Sinha (’96)-Rubrik, Prith Banerjee (’81)-Ansys, Purnendu Chatterjee (’71)-CREST, Arjun Malhotra (’70)-HCL, Chandralekha Singh (’86)-University of Pittsburgh, and Subhasis Chaudhuri (’85)-IIT-Bombay. Additionally, there were a few speakers with ties to IIT-KGP: Geeta Mehta-Asia Initiatives (wife of Krishen Mehta (’69)), Jeremy Levy-University of Pittsburgh (husband of Chandralekha Singh (’86)), and Devin Banerjee-LinkedIn (son of Debasish Banerji (’67)).
IIT-Kharagpur welcomed visitors at their virtual booth to learn more about KGP and get nostalgic through the photos and videos. Also, within the booth was an ‘ADDA’ session between the alumni, Director V.K. Tewari, and Dean of Alumni Affairs Subrata Chattopadhyay. Director Tewari gave an update on IIT-KGP and left time for discussion/Q&A with the participants and Dean Chattopadhyay shared a PPT presentation for the Office of Alumni Affairs, including a sneak peek at future initiatives. Erin L. Moran, Executive Director of the IITKGP Foundation US, managed the ADDA meeting.
On Saturday, Director Tewari participated in the ‘IIT Directors Forum’. This session brought together Director Tewari along with eight other IIT Directors to discuss several topics related to education and the IIT system.
Making an event of this size and scope virtual can be a challenge, but Ron and the PanIIT USA team pulled it together seamlessly! Thank you for hosting this successful and inspiring event!