WiCamp and We

Friday the 13th is considered inauspicious by most, and that’s possibly why Wipro conducted its flagship event WiCamp to turn the tide around in Chennai. WiCamp (pronounced as we-camp) is an attempt by Wipro to host an informal platform where practitioners from IT and non-IT firms can share their perspectives on innovation and creativity.

These un-conference styled meetings facilitate sharing of practices and perspectives around various dimensions of innovation and creativity. Participants (aka campers) come from various runs of life, including start-ups, educational institutions, large firms, research institutes and government bodies, among others.

After conducting successful WiCamps across Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, the bandwagon moved to Chennai, where 150 campers joined in from across 35 firms sharing their experiments and experiences on the subject.

Some of these campers joined WiCamp from firms like Satyam, Accenture, Cognizant, IIT-Madras, NASSCOM, iMorph Innovation Centre, NIIT Technologies, Ergo, Vembu Technologies and Great Lakes Institute of Management, apart from a lot of freelancers and independent consultants.

The discussions spanned areas like ideas sources, ways of validating ideas, establishing a culture, nurturing talent, measuring the returns, and sustaining the creative spirit. Heart-to-heart dialogues were inspired than making presentations, and all this was kept very informal in ensuring that energy levels were high at the camp.

Abound a dozen campers shared their thoughts on the subject and inspired a lot of debate around their topics, which resulted in some serendipitous ideas and unanswered questions. All in all, the event was well-received by the audience, and they were visibly excited towards the whole concept and refreshing sessions.

Wipro’s WiCamp promises to be a quarterly event in Chennai, seeking more enthusiasm to flow in from all parts of the city and more value to be created through these informal interactions. I encourage you to check the proceedings at http://barcamp.org/WiCamp.

Article contributed by Pavan Soni, Innovation Evangelist, Wipro Technologies

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