Belagavi Tech Meet-up, an informal meeting of IT entrepreneurs and professionals hailing from Belagavi on Saturday, seems to have rekindled hopes of developing the city into an IT hub.
As many as 327 entrepreneurs, tech investors, start-up founders and other interested people joined the meet held at Shagun Gardens on Khanapur Road. Registrations crossed 600, organisers said.
“It seems we have succeeded in attracting a sizeable crowd from across the country. This will ultimately lead to efforts towards exploring the potential to develop tier two cities into IT hubs,’’ said R.K. Patil of Vayavya Labs. It is a city-based IT company.
“The first step was to introduce ourselves to each other. That is very important as several companies are working in different domains and some of them may need the services of others,’’ Uday Kinjwadkar Abwale, one of the organisers, said.
The event enabled not only exchange of ideas and resources but also human capital, he said.
Mr. Abwale, who runs Allaboutbelgaum, a city-centric current affairs portal, pointed out that professionals residing in the United Kingdom, Odisha, Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Hubballi and Kolhapur and who have their roots in Belagavi, attended the meet.
“After collating data of the participants and registered professionals, we have estimated that over 1,200 professionals are directly employed in technology companies in Belagavi and surrounding areas. The total revenue of IT companies located in the Belagavi region crosses ₹350 crore,’’ Hitesh Dharmadasani, another organiser, said.
“After the event, we are confident that such sessions will boost the local business and help us hire better talent. Local talent will also find better platforms,” said Amey Kadle of Ajinkya Technologies, a member of the organising committee.
Mohsin Dalayat, who runs a data analytics company, said that the such events will provide a platform for young entrepreneurs to find solutions to long-pending problems of infrastructure and human resource availability. He said that involvement of educational institutions in such meetings will benefit the group’s efforts.
