The sixth annual Connect 2006 organised jointly by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Government of Tamil Nadu in Chennai will see the presence of industry's big guns. The three-day event is expected have the participation of Anil Ambani, Dhirubhai Ambani Group, Shiv Nadar, HCL Group, S Ramadorai, TCS Limited and Pramod Haque, Norwest Ventures Partners who would deliberate on Vision 2011 for Tamil Nadu and the road map for the information, communication and technology (ICT) secots.

The annual conference cum exhibition event will be held at the Chennai Convention Centre between September 8 and 10, 2006 with the theme `creating a knowledge driven ecosystem.

The Tamil Nadu chief minister Dr. M Karunanidhi, the chief patron will inaugurate the event while the union minister for communications and information technology Dayanidhi Maran will deliver the keynote address.

The conference will bring together eminent global speakers from all the key segments that make up the ecosystem — academia, industry, government and professional bodies. The exposition will showcase hardware and software products, technologies and services. The event will also have international participants from The Netherlands, Japan, Korea and Australia.

The sessions include:

• Tamil Nadu emerging as an electronics-manufacturing hub
  
• World-class telecom services: the India story
  
• Creation of knowledge satellite cities and clustering of industry segments for synergistic co-creation of value
  
• Bridging the talent gap in information and technology and the business process outsourcing.
  
• Tamil Nadu emerging as an infotainment zone
  
• Tier 2 cities and beyond…