Mithun Shetty - CEO of Trescon, in conversation with CNN Indonesia, shares his thoughts on the scope of AI adoption in India, new possibilities, and much more!

Catch the snippet of the interview here:

 

1. What is the main focus of this year's events in comparison to last year?

In terms of the topics of discussion at our events, Trescon’s focus for 2021 is majorly exploring the applications of some of the emerging and future technologies such as AI, ML, Blockchain, Cyber Security, Cloud, Data and Analytics, CX enhancing technologies, and so on.

While we continue our “virtual events” journey through 2021, we are seeing a surge in demand for Customized Bespoke Events. These are highly focused, short-duration events for a very small and targeted audience. Some of the top global enterprise-tech solution providers prefer this approach and keep coming back to us for these type of events.

The value of the global events industry was projected to reach 2.3 Billion Dollars by 2026 which no longer holds true in my opinion.

2020 saw the beginning of a new era for the events industry. An era dominated by technology at its best, influenced by the direct response from the industry to the unprecedented situation posed by the pandemic. We will remember 2020 for a long time. We were suddenly looking at an unknown future ahead of us.

As a 4-year-old startup, Trescon had achieved a lot within a short time and had seen many ups and downs, but we knew this time, we’d be vulnerable if we didn’t act fast and take the right decisions.

But today, I am proud to say that we were able to come back stronger by foraying into virtual events and hosted more than 30 virtual events within the first six months after the pandemic hit us.

I would like to mention our virtual events platform provider Vmeets who played a key role in helping us shape our virtual events and provide the best virtual experience for our attendees, speakers, and exhibitors.

2. How many participants will attend this year and what are the most prominent discussion topics?

We are looking at anywhere between 400 to 1000 participants at each of our events on an average. Most of our events are not open for the general public and are mostly for a focused group of audiences who are pre-qualified to be decision-makers or influencers in their organizations.

The recently concluded Jakarta edition of our flagship event World AI Show. which was also the 23rd global edition, saw around 450+ attendees. It was attended by senior representatives from Kemkominfo, BPPT, PERSI and from different industry verticals across Indonesia such as ICT, Healthcare, Education, Manufacturing, Defense, and more.

Discussion topics included:

• The use of emerging technologies like AI, ML, Cloud, etc in helping governments to deal with the pandemic
• Indonesia's National AI Strategy that focuses on implementing AI in the country's health services, food security, education, etc.
• The future potentials of AI in a post-COVID-19 era

And many more.

3. What are your challenges for this year’s event?

We hosted the first edition of World AI Show in Jakarta last year, which was originally scheduled to be a physical event but moved to virtual, due to the pandemic.

So, this time around the market was familiar for us and we had planned for all the possibilities, and the virtual experience has become a new normal for the event attendees.

Also, this year, we have seen more interest from the attendees to include topics such as “the application of emerging technologies in tackling the pandemic and how AI can emerge as a game-changer for the healthcare industry.”

4. What are your expectations for AI development in the medical field to combat this pandemic?

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning applications are impacting our daily lives in many ways. We have immensely benefited from the use of AI in healthcare, especially during the pandemic. uses the technology of powerful algorithms which then processes the data, thus identifying patterns to predict.

Here is an interesting example: The Government of India has developed an application called Co-WIN which is a Cloud-based solution for arranging usage, monitoring, and assessment of the COVID-19 vaccine in India.

The catch here is undertaking of administering a two-dose vaccine to over 1.3 billion people in the country can be a logistical nightmare.

To address this, experts believe, a blend of AI, ML, and IoT-based solutions might just become the disruptor that can solve this nightmare.

This is just one example of how AI can disrupt the healthcare industry.

According to a recent report, approximately 86% of healthcare providers, life science companies, and technology vendors depend on artificial intelligence technologies.

So, it is quite evident that applications of AI in the healthcare sector are likely to propel the growth of the market.

To further the growth of AI in healthcare in other countries across the world, I am happy to announce that Trescon will be hosting specialized editions of World AI Show focused on Healthcare in MENA and APAC regions in the coming months.

We look forward to an exciting year ahead.