Cyber Musings

National Cyber Media Conclave

PUNE, MAR 28, 2009: The first ever , National Cyber Media Conclave (NCMC) ’09, a media seminar that covered various perspectives of the media relating to the cyber medium was organized by the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication in Pune. . The seminar aimed at learning about the new media in greater detail. The seminar covered all types of new media like digital, computerized, or networked information and communication technologies. The event comprised of two interactive sessions with topics ‘Potency of cyber media for information exchange, social change and networking’ and ‘Emergence of the web as a medium for branding and marketing’. Eminent speakers from cyber world came together to address 400 audience in NCMC.
The programme was inaugurated by the Director Prof. Ujjwal Kumar Chowdhury with the click of the mouse , instead of the usual lighting of the diyas, with an aim to stand out just as the way the new media campaigns stand out from the clutter of traditional media . This was followed by an introductory speech on the digital medium. The Conclave hosted two panels of speakers on the potency of cyber media for knowledge sharing, social change and networking; and the emergence of the web as a medium for branding and marketing.
The first speaker at the event was Mr. Kiruba Shankar, Co founder of The knowledge foundation and CEO of Business blogging Pvt. Ltd. He spoke on maximising the social media connect in India.. He followed by Mr. Shivam Vij, nationally renowned blogger, who took the audience through the ground-breaking way in which internet has changed the way businesses are carried on around the world today and the power of its deliverability. There was immense interaction between the speakers and the audience. The third speaker was Mr. Shiv Bhaskar, CEO, The Viewspaper who talked about the Internet news media- the ultimate fourth estate and then came Ms. Jasmeen, founder, Blanknoise who illustrated interesting case studies on Internet as a tool for social change.

Relating a personal incident, Kiruba spoke about the times when his wife was admitted to a hospital and he needed contact details of a neuro surgeon. A cry for help on twitter and he got around 60 responses within a span of two hours.
Jasmeen Bhatija founder of Blanknoise, a social campaign against street sexual harassment. She talked on the topic ‘internet as a tool of social change’ and the concept of ‘blogathon’ as a tool to fight against the same. Renowned blogger and owner of the popular website National Highway, Mr. Shivam Vij spoke next. He talked about social media and quality. He emphasised that new media should complement old media and a replacement is not possible. Cyber media as the ultimate fourth estate was the topic presented by Shiv Bhaskar, CEO of The Viewspaper. He mentioned that introduction of new media as a social media offers new hope and the content is created by professionals as well as public.

In the second session where the panel discussed ‘Emergence of the web as a medium for branding and marketing’ and Rajesh Lalwani, Founder and director of Scenario Consulting talked on Internet as a tool for marketing. He said that marketing, especially in cyberspace, changed from random clusters to tribes by choice. The founder of Bell Bajao campaign, Ms. Rashmi spoke about internet as a tool of publicity and mobilization. Different print ads and TV commercials of ‘Bell Bajao’ campaign were screened and according to Rashmi cyber media is teaching the youth in their own language. CEO of Switch technologies, Namit Bhatia talked about internet news media. He put forward that the online video market is evolving and talked about opportunities for video enhancement in the virtual space. Mr. J Mahadevan, VP- Products of bharatmatrimony.com interacted with audience on the topic ‘brand building of an innovative cyber product’ and evolution of that brand. The concept of open source software and how they influence current living and working conditions was explained by Atul Chitnis. He demonstrated different gadgets to emphasise the importance of open source software and explained how the absence of open source could affect the purchasing behaviour of customers. He told that the world is changing and more and more gadgets and devices use open source to beat the competition.