I've just concluded an amazing business trip to New Dehli, Bangalore, and Mumbai. Though my expectations for the trip were high--India is an exciting place to do business--I was completely unprepared for the reception I received.
Beginning with New Dehli, working with india's 2020 Media we presented a series of 8-hour workshops on social media. In New Dehli there were in excess of 100 participants, filling the ballroom of the Hyatt. In Bangalore and Mumbai, the overflow audience actually resulted in turning away those desiring to purchase tickets once the venues had sold out. Filling a venue is always the goal: seeing actual demand beyond that capacity really drove home how energized the India market is in terms of its readiness and interest in social media based marketing.
In working with participants across a range of industries--the hands-on nature of the workshops provided people with the opportunity to join me on the stage and present various components of the plans they were building--I was struck by this new leadership class. What I felt I was observing was quite profound: You could literally see the next class of business leaders and professionals sensing the importance of the Social Web--the place where conversations that impact their businesses will occur--and committing themselves to doing something constructive now rather than waiting. This is a contrast to the US, where many businesses and agencies are still hesitating in their recognition of consumers' impact via social media.
The net result is likely to be a rapid movement into social media across businesses in India, to the benefit of those business. Given the process acceleration that often accompanies technology induced advancement this will occur faster than it has in other locations. For example, as the 3G spectrum auctions begin this fall, the outcome is likely to be a very rapid expansion of social networking and related content services that proliferate on the mobile platform, introducing a wider audience to social media more quickly than would happen if say, broadband to the home or widespread purchase of laptop-based computing platforms were required.
In summary, I am excited about what I experienced and look forward to continuing to work with the people I met on this trip. It was an incredible awareness opportunity for me, and I am appreciative of the efforts of everyone who attended, and to the people of 2020 Media who worked so hard to make these sessions successful.

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