Bangalore: HeadStart and Compute 2008 which began in Bangalore today showcased innovative and unique ideas spun off into ventures by some technocrats turned entrepreneurs. "The quest for entrepreneurship and the eagerness to make a difference is creating a new vibrancy in the IT ecosystem in India," explained Devesh Garg, Managing Director of Bessemer Venture Partners. Garg was one of the four panelists who discussed on the various specialized web and mobile solutions in the consumer services which the entrepreneurs showcased. Other panelists included Venki Nishtala, CTO, Rediff, Sateesh Andra, Venture Investor, DFJ, Hrush Bhatt, Head of Product Engineering, Cleartrip.

Headstart & Compute 2008, a forum that has brought together entrepreneurs, researchers and VCs in the IT realm started with the Keynote address by C. Mohan, Chief Scientist, IBM, India. It was followed by presentations by entrepreneurs who demonstrated their products and ventures. Among the entrepreneurs were 90d internet company Co-Founder Khushnood Naqvi, who elaborated on his new venture called 90 DI Travel, travel search engine for travelers in India which aggregates information from all the airlines in India and the Indian Railways. With a vision to 'Talk Enable' Alabot Chief Technology Officer Gaurav Prasad explained a new product based on artificial intelligence and natural language processing algorithm. This product from Alabot can Talk Enable any application and progressively enhance the reach and usability of search, enterprise applications and user interface platforms.

Growing a specialized Web-based GIS, GIS/Mapping, spatial data integration and geodatabase company Proficio is Murali Murthy, Vice President, Technical, Proficio. Murthy dwelled into the complexities of building a routing algorithm and data classification in developing the product. Sneak Cast, Co-Founder Utkarsh elaborated on the company's core video search engine technology and how users can leverage the technology to view various videos of their choice.

Besides various product demos and panel discussions, several workshops and tutorials were conducted in the event.

Bangalore chapter of Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), a membership organization for computing professionals, is organizing the three-day event in collaboration with KickStart, an association of entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts in Bangalore.