THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: SaaS provider Zoho Corporation’s Founder and CEO Sridhar Vembu, historian and writer William Dalrymple, ISRO chairman S Somanath and KSIDC MD S Harikishore will be among the personalities taking part of the three-day startup festival – Huddle Global 2024 – set to begin at the state capital on Thursday.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the sixth edition of ‘Huddle Global 2024’ organised by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) at Kovalam. “Touching upon a spectrum of topics ranging from introduction new technologies to attracting funds and mentorship for the ecosystem, cutting-edge solutions from Deeptech and R&D startups will be the spotlight of the expo at the event,” said KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika.
The three-day event at Hotel Leela Raviz, Kovalam will be packed with deliberations, presentations and conversations. Three roundtables focusing on agriculture, space-defence and industry sectors will be held on the sidelines at the event.
Prior to the inaugural session, the CM will interact with founders of startups and investors attending the event. Discussions will be held on setting up a Defence Innovation Zone in the capital city under the aegis of KSUM on the sidelines of the conclave. The strategic report on the Emerging Technology Hub that focuses on five sectors such as food and agriculture, space, digital media & entertainment, healthcare and life sciences and renewable energy will be unveiled at the event.
Around 300 women entrepreneurs, industry leaders, sectoral experts, innovators, mentors, fund providers and public speakers, from around the world will attend the event. The Deeptech Zone at the event will host knowledge sessions, Deeptech Startup Expo, and Deeptech Student Innovations initiative.
A session on ‘Economic Diversification through Port-Driven Industrial Clusters: The Vizhinjam Potential’ will also be held with the panelists being Divya S Iyer, MD, Vizhinjam International Seaport; Pradeep Jayaraman, CEO, Adani Vizhinjam Port and Anil Raj, Managing Director, Systrome Technologies. The opening day will also feature talks on ‘Green Hydrogen - Fuelling the Future with clean energy in an AI Era’.
Minister for Law P Rajeeve will lead the roundtable on industry and speak about the services for industry and corporate who want to set up business in Kerala.