Pakistan Software Houses Association (P@sha) is bringing an IT career expo Lahore after arranging such events at Karachi and Rawalpindi successfully this year.

The scheduled event details are as follows:

Date: Sunday, August 24, 2008

Time: 9am to 6pm

Venue: Avari, Lahore

For further information and queries, please visit Jehan Ara’s web-place or the event’s page on Facebook.

Organizers are bringing a bunch lot of Information Technology companies based in and around Lahore including NetSol Technologies, InfoTech, VahZay and internationally renowned firms like Intel and IBM this time.

Following the career expo will be held the volume next of previous year’s super charged Startup Insiders 11; a session to inspire, encourage and support entrepreneurship among passionate individuals with sharp and innovative brains.

So, just be there!! ;)

Experiences, insights, thoughts and ideas were shared in abundance at the 6th Startup Insiders session held on February 24 at the LUMS campus.

With quite an active, participating and respectably patient audience, though limited to almost 50 individuals, the session took off in high spirits and was able to maintain it throughout.

Main topic of discussion was ‘the ways of finding, identifying and targeting the right customer’ as an entrepreneur specifically in the Information Technology industry which was very intelligently moderated by Jehan Ara [President, P@SHA] and Jawwad Farid [CEO, Alchemy Technologies].

Everyone benefited from listening to and questioning some of Pakistan’s most promising IT entrepreneurs including Zafar Khan [Sofizar]; Faisal Qureshi [Kolachi Advanced Technologies]; Fahd Bangash [Amaana]; Zia Imran [Vahzay]; Umar Saif [BumpIn; Chopaal] and Jawwad himself. Almost all of these people started off with just a few individuals and have tasted success of varying degrees.

The most refreshing aspect of the session was the desire as expressed by all panelists to help and guide people who really want to break barriers and are striving to make a mark for themselves and their country. It was very heartening to see these people actually willing to share and spread their success among promising stars of the future.

The announcement below is taken straight from Green & White and Jehan Ara’s blogs:

Startup Insiders is coming to Lahore again on the 24th of February. This time the event is supported by LUMS and will be held at the LUMS Campus itself.

An incredible panel is aggregating together again, and this time fans of Jawwad wont be disappointed:

* Faisal Qureshi, CEO, Kolachi Advanced Technolgies
* Zia Imran, CEO, VahZay Pvt Limited
* Jawwad Farid, CEO, Alchemy Technologies
* Salim Ghauri, President & CEO, Netsol Technologies
* Osama Hashmi, CEO, CDF Software
* Jehan Ara, President, P@SHA
* Fahd Bangash, CEO, Amaana
* Zafar Khan, CEO, Sofizar
* Dr. Umar Saif, Founder, Bumpin.com, chOpaal and Associate Professor, LUMS

The theme for this session is:

Who is my customer? How do I find him or her? How and what do I sell?

The session details are:

Date: February 24, 2008
Time: 3pm to 6pm
Venue: Lahore University of Management Sciences,
Room A11 & A10, Ground Floor, Main Academic Block

As always, this is open for all aspiring or seasoned entrepreneurs. For more details and guidelines, visit Green & White, In the Line of Wire and Desi Back to Desh.

A note to organizers and attendees: As much as I would love to attend these sessions, I have unavoidable reasons that make it impossible for me to be there - my only beef with the last SI session in Lahore are all those pictures-less post-event posts! I hope we’ll get to see tons of pictures this time around! :)

Seems like Lahore’s celebrating Entrepreneur-Mela this week. First, V informed about the Startup Insider’s event at Vahzay today. and just now I stumbled upon the YLES’08 taking place at LUMS.

LUMS Entrepreneurial Society (LES) is all set to host a bigger, more vibrant and pulsating conference, the YOUNG LEADERS AND ENTREPRENEURS SUMMIT ‘08, at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Lahore, Pakistan from 31st January-5th February, 2008.
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The brilliant people at Green & White and P@SHA in collaboration with tech leaders of our IT industry have started the Pakistani version of the renowned BarCamp - and after the resounding success of the first edition in Karachi and another scheduled on Thursday for Islamabad - the geeks and nerds would land in Lahore and assemble at Vahzay’s premises on 1st of February, 2008.

Date: 1st February, 2008
Time: 1800 hrs - 2100 hrs
Venue: VahZay Pvt Ltd. 19-A1, E-II, Gulberg-III, Lahore
Directions: From the Liberty roundabout on Main Blvd. Gulberg, go towards Qaddafi stadium. When you get to the roundabout just before the stadium gate, make a left. The Hockey stadium should now be on your right.
Go about 200 meters and make a left in the first street you see on your left. There is a Punjab Book Board office at the corner with a big sign up-front, hard to miss.
Go 100 meters and the first gate on the left is VahZay. There is plenty of parking along the wall that runs in this street from the turn all the way to VahZay gate.

Have a look at this map.

Entrepreneurs who will be there include:

Imran Zia, CEO, VahZay
Kewan Khawaja, co-CEO, Techlogix
Monis Rahman, CEO, Naseeb Networks
Osama Hashmi, CEO, CDF Software
Sajjad Kirmani, VP, Netsol Technologies
Fahd Bangash, CEO, Amaana
Hasan Rizvi, CEO, Five Rivers Technologies
Shehzad Ahmed, CEO, Descon

Who should attend? Quoting Osama Hashmi of G&W:

Bring everyone around you who has the spark to change the world but doesn’t think there is enough support from the industry to get going. These people are here to help.

Bring your demos if you’re looking for funding, bring your ideas if you’re looking to start on the demo.

Bring your cameras and camcorders.

Finally, bring an open mind so we can all have a lot of fun, sip some deep deep coffee and talk startup.

This is your chance to draw inspiration from the people who’ve ‘been there, done that’. The event is FREE and OPEN TO ALL - it’s an event not to be missed. So, come one, come all!

More details can be found at:
Green & White
P@SHA News
In the Line of Wire

Many things have been happening in a row since last month, a great budget plan, worst heat wave, then monsoon and then cyclone causing this flood in Balochistan and Sindh mainly. You can read here how disastrous this all is and how many lives have been affected, I am more concerned about health-related issues that can surface after this water will get stagnant.

I hope government will gather not only funds but also will get lots of civilian support in terms of manpower to help the affectees in Balochistan and Sindh.
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