The importance of Interop Mumbai

When the first edition of the television show Indian Idol was nearing its conclusion in early 2005, I remember one of the judges admitting to initial apprehension and expressing relief that the participating singers hadn’t let India down and had ensured that the show was as good as, or even better than, the forerunning British and American versions that it was modeled on.

When I set out a few months ago as Conference Chair to devise the conference program for Interop Mumbai 2009, I had similar apprehensions. Where would we find so many speakers? Would the speakers be good enough? What about the workshops and demos? Would we be able to put together and deliver a conference and exposition of this scale in Mumbai? (a city notorious for its woeful lack of world-class convention infrastructure).