Pan IIT Conference, Chicago, October 2009

Pan IIT 2009 was held in Chicago during October 2009. There were 1,500 to 2,000 people in attendance, most of them IIT graduates, some faculty members from the IITs including the directors and a few spouses and children. The conference was held in a nice convention center in Schaumberg in the suburbs of Chicago. The program was very impressive with speakers like Bill Clinton, Aneesh Chopra, Carl Schramm, James Lewin, Nathan Myrvhold and others. There were also some interesting panel discussions. The evening entertainment was also good with the most notable show being that by Kailash Kher’s band, Kailasa.

All the speakers were quite impressive and lived up to their expectations. Some of the panels on globalization and healthcare were also quite good. Of course, there were others that were not all that impressive. The award ceremony for Rajeev Motwani was very touching. It is a shame that the world lost him at such an early age to a freak accident.

For me, the highlight, as usual, was meeting some of my best friends from IIT/K after many many years. [This includes the world famous Manindra Agrawal (who, with a couple of students, proved that for any number, whether the number is prime can be determined in polynomial time).] It is great to see that they have all done well in life as one would have expected. We re-lived our IIT/K days by hanging out in a hotel room telling jokes and reminiscing the good old days.

Other highlights included Bill Clinton (well, as I had never seen a US President before in person, and he is a damn good speaker), Aneesh Chopra (his meteoric rise to this position in the Obama administration is quite impressive given that he hails from a small village in India and grew up like any other village guy), Carl Schramm and Kailash Kher. I was also impressed with the panel discussion moderated by Mohanbir Sawhney.

An important point is the fact that the registration fee was just $200 (for early birds) which is an amazingly low price considering that I have been to conferences and workshops where I have paid $1,500 or more and come away fairly empty with nothing gained other than some networking opportunities.

There were some low-lights as well:

• I went to register on Day 1, only to find that they don’t have a badge for me even though I was probably one of the first few people to register and my name was on their participant list

• People at the registration booth were asking for IDs and business cards and still giving the wrong badges to people

• I was told that they would set up a printer and print out badges that were missing – after two hours they still could not set up a printer and basically abandoned the idea; one was forced to ask: how many organizers does it take to set up a printer? And shouldn’t they have had one there to begin with?

• On Day 1, while registering, no one was told that we were supposed to pick up a ticket with a table number in order to enter the hall for Clinton’s speech. On Day 2, I picked up a ticket for Table 181, which I guessed would be in the last row. When I went in the hall, there was no table numbered 181. The good part was that we were told to sit anywhere, and I was lucky to find a table in the front.

• Only the first session of each day probably started on time, for the rest of the day you had to guess the schedule.

• People mobbed Aneesh Chopra after his talk, and while I can understand people wanting to make quick conversation with him and handing him a business card, two of the folks handed me their cameras and asked me to take a picture of them with Aneesh. Why me? All I could do was be patient hoping that I could at least hand him a business card! Anyway, I did take the pictures and probably shouldn’t complain. Some folks get excited about having pictures taken with important people.

• The food was the worst part – on Day 1, there was no breakfast and lunch was served at 10:30, and most of the meals were bad, especially dinner on Day 2. Potato curry consisting of large cubes of mostly uncooked potato was the worst item of all. Naan (bread) was served at the very beginning with nothing else but pickle, and many people just ate that as the rest of the food came after quite a while. By the time the rest of the food came, people had already finished the Naan. I believe that charging people an extra $50 for registration might help to ensure better quality overall.

However, between the highlights and low-lights which are always there in any such event, I came away with a lot. Just being around such a talented bunch of people lifts your spirits, gives you new ideas and energizes you. These people (IIT graduates) are all over the place, doing really great things. I feel honored to have had the chance to study and spend a few years of my life with this bunch. I’ll be sure to attend as many of these conferences as I can.