Prodshala — The Unconference for Product Thinkers in Goa, 15th and 16th Sept

Announcing Product Pathshala #ProdShala, 15–16th Sept, Goa

We are rescheduling the event and will keep you posted on the new dates soon.

I’m sure you remember the popular song Masti Ki Pathshala from Rang De Basanti. We are planning to pull together something similar for the Product Thinker community.

Last month, in a collaborative post, we spoke about the missing Product DNA in India. We got an excellent response. Many product guys resonated with the problem and also felt that we should be doing something to solve it — the problem of building and fostering a product thinking culture in India. Since then, we have reached out to folks, collated a lot of good ideas and had many discussions. We saw a clear need for creating a platform where product thinkers can assemble. Today we are proud to announce this platform — #ProdShala.

Thanks to Tathagat Varma(TV) for coming up with the name.

What is ProdShala?

Prodshala is not your typical grandfather’s conference! We have designed it as a fast-paced action-oriented event where wounded warriors tell their story unadulterated. You will meet other tribespeople and gain valuable knowledge, acquire insights and build a network to help deliver your kickass product! Think of it as an Ivy League MBA on steroids.

Prodshala is an opportunity to bring product folks (Product Thinkers, entrepreneurs, experts) under one roof to learn from peers, make new friends and also build a vibrant community so that we can build world class products from India. Prodshala will be a 2 day unconference with few talks, unconference sessions, few workshops, networking games, pecha kucha and some product demos. It is designed as a single-track event with lots of time for networking and we will force you to make new friends and share your learnings :)

Ohh and did we mention Goa? Yes — we wanted to break the old mold of doing things in closed door, LCD projector driven conference rooms. And we wanted to do this in a zero legacy place. Not Bangalore, not Mumbai, Not Delhi or Kolkata — let’s go to Goa and unlearn at the ProdShala.

Prodshala is an invite-only unconference with 75 product thinkers coming together.

How do you get in ?

Just apply and get short-listed. We are targeting Founders with the product mindset, Product Architects, Product Managers in growth stage companies, UX Designers, Engineering leads and folks who have a keen interest in building awesome products. If you know someone who would be interested in something like this, recommend them or get them to apply here.

Like many initiatives at iSPIRT, this one is also volunteer driven and here are the people who are making it happen so far as part of the core team. Their contribution ranges from putting the theme together to getting the website up and finalising the program.

1. Aditi Avashti from Embibe.
2. Anant Kochhar from Yippster.
3. Chintan Mehta from Bigbasket.
4. Himanshu Khanna from Sparkln
5. Pravin Jadhav former FreeCharge.
6. Seema Joshi from Serv’d.
7. Tashina Singh from Yippster
8. Tarun Babbar from SnapDeal.
9. Tathagat Varma from Thought Leadership.
10. Titash Neogi from Kontikilabs

We will need many hands to put together something awesome. We have just begun to think about the fundamental problems that are afflicting our country from becoming a vibrant, successful product nation. ProdShala is the first important step we are taking in the direction to leave a long-term, positive impact on our country’s product ecosystem. If you are passionate about doing something and want to contribute, please reach out to me at avinash(at)ispirt.in.

There are several ways in which you can help us from planning the event, coordinating various activities, content writing and designing, hosting our guests, and facilitating on-ground activities during the event. One of us will be happy to speak to you and figure out what will interest you the most. Be assured that as a volunteer, you will get tons of opportunities to individually lead projects, network with peers and leaders from the industry, and make friends with our awesome volunteers and core-members.

We are all passionate about building the product thinkers community and this is just a beginning. We want you to be part of this community. If you are like us….want to have masti ki paatshaala….don’t miss this one.

Do apply before 20th August and we have a surprise for you.