CoreNet Global Emphasizes on Tech-Based Strategies to Meet Dynamic Corporate Real Estate Demands

CoreNet Global, the world’s largest professional association for the Corporate Real Estate (CRE) industry, concluded its 6th annual India conference today. Themed ‘Corporate Real Estate: Strategic Planning in A Dynamic World’, the conference discussed the factors that are currently shaping the CRE industry in 2019.

The conference brought together over 300 top industry professionals and business leaders to discuss industry trends. CoreNet Global – India chapter Co-Chairs Satish Rajendran (COO at Knight Frank (India) Pvt Ltd) & Arunabh Mukherjee- (Facilities Head, Synopsis India) presided over the overall conference as industry leaders discussed the various factors that have emerged as catalysts in the contemporary world for the growth of the CRE ecosystem and the factors to consider as the purview of the industry expands.

Discussions at the event were first contextualized by the changing geopolitical scenario, referencing contemporary events and the effect they have had on the way companies look at corporate real estate in the world today. One of the major takeaways from these discussions was the advantageous position that India now finds itself in as a result of global events, primarily on the front of the utilization of technology for greater CRE growth. This was further supported by the insights shared by various panelists who reiterated the potential the country held for growth, given the gradual but progressive adoption of strategies that were geared towards cross-industry knowledge sharing.

Participants at the event dealt with two distinct areas where CRE trends could be observed: the development of inclusive, technology-driven workplaces and the dynamic demands placed on workplaces as a result of talent evolution. Panelists cited their industry experience to elucidate the evolution of the workplace from its traditional avatar to one that is constantly changing basis the demands raised by succeeding generations of the talent pool. The pace of these changes calls upon greater collaboration between various stakeholders both within and outside the CRE ecosystem to devise incisive solutions to existing problems. They also call upon firms to invest in measures that utilize predictive analytics to circumvent impending problems and help add to the existing set of strategies for the greater good of the industry as a whole.   

“The expansion of the corporate real estate industry has seen factors beyond infrastructure become crucial elements to consider. The CRE ecosystem today has shifted towards the adoption of an employee-centric perspective, both while creating office policies and while choosing office spaces. The scenario in India has changed drastically in the recent past and companies must look to integrate the advantages that technology provides to deal with both present and future concerns”, said Sathish Rajendran, COO at Knight Frank (India) Pvt Ltd and Co-Chair of the India chapter of CoreNet Global

“Digital transformation has brought in many changes across industries and the CRE space has not been exempt from this disruption. The ability to adapt to a dynamic corporate real estate environment has led to India being considered as a potential global business and financial hub. CRE professionals are at the core of achieving this potential and it is imperative that this space be integrated with and supported by Infrastructure functions to power a more human experience at the workplace. In time, the adoption of strategies are sure to make a telling impact on how we look at corporate real estate today”, stated Arunabh Mukherjee, Facilities Head at Synopsys (India) and Co-Chair of the India chapter of CoreNet Global.

Microsoft Underscores its Commitment to the Indian Startup Ecosystem

India is advancing steadily towards digital transformation. Businesses in India today are rapidly transforming to adopt digital solutions creating a huge market opportunity for startups. The startup ecosystem plays a critical role, bringing in innovation and disruption in much-needed areas, creating jobs, and offering technical solutions, thereby improving the lives of people. Microsoft is uniquely positioned to support Indian startups to achieve scale and evolve from market ready to enterprise ready. With a cutting-edge technology platform, a well-established partner organization, expansion of M12 to India and a focus on Microsoft for Startups, Microsoft is well poised to help startups embrace the next phase of growth.

Talking about Microsoft’s offerings for the startup ecosystem, Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India said, “Microsoft has been playing a vital role in shaping and nurturing the startup community in India and across the world. With our intelligent tech expertise, deep focus on trust and unique global go to market partnering, we empower unicorns and startups to scale sustainably at a global level. We remain excited about India’s entrepreneurial startup potential and will continue to accelerate it as a growth engine for the economy.”

The introduction of M12, Microsoft’s venture fund, in India is creating new value for startups, VCs and the company itself to maintain the pace and direction of innovation. M12 is looking at investing in innovators who have aligned their focus on cutting-edge technologies that better enable digital transformation. Comprised of experienced VCs and Microsoft veterans who have access to, and knowledge of Microsoft’s strategic assets, add value beyond the capital invested. In fact, the Portfolio Development team at M12 is specifically built to help support and scale companies by leveraging the expansive resources of Microsoft.

Further to this, Microsoft for Startups is helping startups become enterprise ready. Microsoft for Startups opens doors for startups across the globe by leveraging Microsoft’s cloud marketplace, enterprise sales team, and rapidly growing partner ecosystem to reach customers globally. Under this initiative, the Microsoft ScaleUp program supports Seed or Series A funded B2B (and select B2C) tech-enabled startups to scale and be competitive. Through this program, startups can co-sell with Microsoft sales teams, get access to top tech VCs in the global arena and mentorship from industry veterans. In less than 18 months, Microsoft for Startups has closed more than 120 co-sell deals with more than $126 million in active pipeline for startups.

Microsoft’s partner organization plays a critical role in making startups enterprise ready and has evolved its approach from ‘partnering to partnership’, where partners build solutions on top of Microsoft’s technology platform, adding value for customers, and creating new revenue opportunities. Microsoft is focused as much on selling third party solutions as their own, and this co-sell motion has helped generate $8 billion in revenue for partners within 18 months.

Working in tandem, these three different Microsoft entities with well-defined objectives, are collaborating closely to help startups achieve significant success in the market. The importance of Microsoft’s role as the technology partner is to support and enable startups – Prepare, Market and Sell. ‘Prepare’ for any market condition to align with customer needs, ‘market’ themselves to drive awareness of their solutions and ‘sell’ their solutions to end-users in association with the Microsoft sales team.

Shanthi Sagar Grand Opens Doors to Serve Customers at Malleshwram

New Shanthi Sagar, Bengaluru’s iconic restaurant chain with a heritage of 20 years has now re-launched their Malleshwaram outlet as ‘ Shanthi Sagar Grand’.  The renovated restaurant was inaugurated by Dr.Ashwathnarayan CN, The MLA of Malleshwaram constituency, in the presence of other dignitaries and guests.  The age old brand has revamped its Malleshwaram outlet and increased its gamut of offerings to cater to a wider spectrum of audience.

“New Shanthi Sagar is a very well-known name for healthy, nutritious and traditional food in Bangalore. The restaurant in Malleshwaram has been catering to the needs of residents of this area for many decades now. I am happy to inaugurate the renovated outlet of ‘Shanthi Sagar Grand’, I hope they carry forward the longstanding legacy with a pinch of twist. I wish the team good luck’ said, Dr.Ashwathnarayan CN addressing the gathering present at the launch

 “With the inauguration of ‘Shanthi Sagar Grand’ we step foot into a new chapter in the history of ‘New Shanthi Sagar’. At our Malleshwaram outlet, we will take your dining experience one notch higher. While we retain the taste and standard we have always been providing, with the new setup we are also looking at introducing some fusion food, combo’s and a unique mock tail bar. We have revamped the interiors and the seating arrangement to make it more comfortable and appealing to the younger audiences. We look forward to the continued support and cooperation from our customers” said Indudhara Thyagaraj, Partner of ‘Shanthi Sagar Grand’

‘Shanthi Sagar Grand’ is a pure vegetarian restaurant which specializes in authentic south Indian cuisine. The restaurant also serves other popular cuisines including North Indian, Bombay Street food and Chinese. The newly inaugurated outlet at Malleshwaram is spread across three floors and has both AC/ Non AC sections where customers can enjoy some mouthwatering food.  The new facility also houses an air conditioned party hall that can accommodate 250 people. The restaurant will soon launch a mocktail bar which will serve some signature mocktails along with other crowd pleasers and fresh juices.

Other dignitaries at the event included A Manjunath, Corporator of Malleshwaram; Mallikarjun Chukki, Asst Commissioner of Police, North Sub Division, Traffic, Malleshwaram; K R Prasad, Circle inspector, Law & Order, Malleshwaram; Dr. Guruprasad Udupi, ‘Dialife’, Vidyaranyapura

Please visit ‘Shanthi Sagar Grand’ at #324, JP Point, Sampige Road, Next to Sai Baba Mandir, Malleshwaram, Bengaluru – 560 003

Cinépolis Honoured As 'Top 50 Innovators' Of The Year By Big Cio Show & Awards

Cinépolis, India's 1st international and the world's 2nd largest movie theatre circuit by attendance has been awarded as one of the 'Top 50 Innovators' of the year, by Big CIO Show & Awards. The 8th edition of the first-of-its-kind, Trescon CIO is widely labelled as India's most elite gathering of CIO's that recognize the technological innovations which make way for a better tomorrow. Given that Cinépolis is a technologically driven cinema circuit, this award stands as a milestone recognition to its popular association of pioneering revolutionary technologies.Big CIO Show & Awards invited CIOs from across industries to share disruptive technologies introduced by them, which have led to a significant upgrade or transformation in the enterprise, both regional and international. Tapping into the challenging technological climate in the cinema exhibition business, Cinépolis India's IT & Projection Head - Bipin Chaudhary's 'Courier and NOC' project captured him the position of 'Top 50 Innovators' of the year. The disruptive project 'Courier and NOC' is an online digital content transfer solution, developed and implemented by Cinepolis in-house. This introduction has helped the brand with substantial pilferage and revenue leakage stoppage, significant rise in B2B consumer satisfaction and massive upgrade on operational efficiency.

Bipin Chaudhary- Head IT & Projection, Cinépolis India said, 'Representing Cinepolis's technological excellence at the BIG CIO Show & Awards has been an absolute pleasure. We are pleased to present the revolutionary 'Courier and NOC 'project that has been developed in-house and has given phenomenal results. The implementation of this solution has resulted in as much as 40% saving on bandwidth and an improved uptime of as much as 99.99%, registering it as a significant technology introduction. We will continue to innovate to set new benchmarks in the cinema exhibition industry' Cinépolis is poised to introduce innovations and offer unparalleled cinematic experience as it continues to create great moments for moviegoers. Cinépolis cinemas are armed with the latest technology and digital projection systems such as RealD 3D and 4DX, set to offer consumers the best in-cinema experience.

Disney’s Princesses Take Over Day 2 of Bengaluru GAFX-2019

The second day of Bengaluru GAFX 2019 kickstarted with stimulating sessions on filmmaking and gaming at the Lalit Ashok. 

Avneet Kaur, Simulation Supervisor at Walt Disney Studios, took Disney fans into the world of asset creation of characters in her segment 'Bringing the Princesses to Life in Disney's Ralph Breaks The Internet'.

Avneet explained that for their 57th animated feature, ‘Ralph breaks the Internet,’ Disney brought a world never-thought of—the Internet. With the creation of a new world, Disney also revamped their 14 princesses.

She said, “The most exciting thing for us at Walt Disney Animation Studios was to recreate our older princesses, created in 2D to read the detail of the newer princesses— Moana and Elsa. We had 80+ animators, with hand-drawn mentor sketches and recreated pencil tests to ensure utmost precision with the characters.”

She also touched upon the details to script. “The script for the 14 princess frames was custom-made and the screenplay were inspired from their one-liners in their original films. Apart from basic research for the movie, the 14 princesses were given special attention to. We worked on extensive case studies and 2D animation references to get the modelling, look, rigging and simulation right.”

The audience got the opportunity to witness the magic behind the scenes as Avneet presented a number of video footage on layout tests, dress and hair tests, pencil sketch tests that were worked into the movie. 

The session drew-in the largest crowd that actively took part in the interaction that followed the session. 

Various other sessions

Developing Indian IP: Route Map

Speakers: Catherine Branscome of Branscome International and Angela Salt, CEO of Salt Content Limited

At the session, ‘Developing Indian IP: Route Map,’ Catherine Branscome, Executive Producer of Branscome International and Angela Salt, CEO of Salt Content Limited, with their experience on developing content for children and adults and films, set on to create a route map for Indian intellectual properties.

The duo discussed the process of creating content that could be helpful for the interested audience. The process, according to Salt and Branscome, involves developing the idea to researching about the idea, understanding the audience, specific age and demographic as well as the ‘sweet spot.’ It is also important to create a mood board and decide the format of the show and genre, they said. They introduced the audience to the business aspect of the process, that involves finance, market, formats and selling point among others. The duo also spoke at length about the conventional details that cannot be overlooked. They highlighted the importance of having pitch materials such as one sheet and pitch bible. The session was followed by Q&A with the audience.

Are you Game for Fame - Tips and Tricks on How to Avoid Shame & Blame in the World of Games
Speaker: Cindy Armstrong of Activision

Changes, opportunities and challenges in the gaming sector were addressed by Cindy Armstrong of Activision in ‘Are you Game for Fame.’

“Millennials are favouring independent creators over big companies. With this, we see a lot of innovation and small groups creating interesting things,” said Cindy. Based on her understanding of the segment she stated that tech, art, and animations have replaced engineering as the toughest positions to fill today.

Providing gaming enthusiasts and IP creators access into the industry, Armstrong said that it is imperative to think outside the box, to explore beyond derivative ideas, and think outside one’s comfort zone.

On what lies ahead for the gaming sector, Cindy said, “the future is filled with both opportunities and challenges. Opportunities such as geolocating combined with AR, Disturbed development and combining AR/VR with gaming applications to help build learning and education apps help expand our field. However technophiles with short attention spans pose as a challenge to the industry.”

What Inspires Us

Speaker: Suresh Eriyat of Eeksaurus

Suresh Eriyat, Indian animator, director and founder of animation studio Eeksaurus, addressed the students and professionals from animation industry on what inspires his studio as well as the animators at the session ‘What Inspires Us.’ Inspiration are taken from films and from the reality,

Our inspirations come from reality, he said. Narrating a number of situations and incidents including his own personal experiences, Eriyat explained it is important for the animators to be observing everything around us. This is also the inspiration behind the films made by his studios, Eriyat said.

World Leading Animation & Games Content - Showcase

Speaker: Owen Hurley, VP - Creative at Technicolor Animation and Games, LA

In his showcase on ‘World leading animation and games content’, Owen Hurley, the VP- Creative at Technicolor, introduced to the crowd the projects that are completed and in-the-making at Technicolor Animation and Games.

During his talk, he spoke about his close connect with India, especially Bangalore. Hurley, who has been working with Indian animators and technicians on various projects, felt that there is a need to reiterate that India is going to be a key player in Technicolour story and the industry. “We started with a workforce of 400 here in India, today we are close to one an a half thousand people working together. It sort of makes me feel like I live in a virtual world because of this rapid growth,” he said.

He also brought to the forefront, initiatives that Technicolor is heading in India. Campus connect with student and faculty visits, lectures and workshops, training, inputs on curriculum along with a 3-month finishing school for select students.

The evening sessions took off with ‘The Making of KGF- Chapter 1: Presentation and Panel; along with Q&A’. Udayaravi Hegde, Managing Director and Praveen Damodaran, VFX Supervisor of Unifi Media (that worked on the movie) spoke to VFX, film-making and art-design enthusiasts. They interested the crowd with different set designs and elements created as part of KGF Chapter 1.

The day also witnessed sessions on ‘Film Making Changed Forever - Genesis - Virtual Production’ by Matthew Plec of Technicolor's MPC Film. ‘Putting the 'Action' in Live-Action’ by Prasad Sutar of NY VFXWaala, ‘The Making of Sir Ridley Scott's Seven Worlds’ by Santosh Gunasheelan, 3D Supervisor at MPC Advertising, New York. ‘Showcasing India - The Journey,’ which was moderated by Anil Wanvari and Munjal Shroff of Graphiti Multimedia and had renowned stalwarts of the industry Indranarayanan from Toonz Animation, Ronak Sanghadia of redchillies.vfx, Milind Shinde from 88 Pictures and Manoj Mishra from DQ, ‘Ubisoft - Global Games IP, India’ by Sashi Menon, Production Director of Ubisoft and ‘Siggraph 2018 Showcase,’ which was presented by Siva Kumar Kasetty.

The day ended with the screening of Krish Trish and Baltiboy, made by A Film by Graphiti Multimedia.

Bengaluru GAFX will conclude on Sunday, 23 June 2019.

Indian Overseas Bank Celebrates International Yoga Day

Indian Overseas Bank one of the leading public sector banks in the country celebrated International Yoga Day across its branches. On this occasion our zonal office in Bangalore also celebrated the event.

R Subramaniakumar, MD & CEO, Indian Overseas Bank said, “Yoga is an age-old practice that boosts the physical, mental, and spiritual health. It is a holistic approach to good health and well-being. People should realize that nothing could replace good health in this stressful life. Bank employees don’t have much time to spend on gym or attend fitness classes, so I urge everyone to practice yoga at least for a minimum of 15 minutes in a day to lead a disease free life.”

Yoga Enthusiasts Attended Free Yoga Sessions at the cult.fit and mind.fit on International Yoga Day

cure.fit, India’s leading integrated healthcare platform witnessed an impressive response from Yoga enthusiasts on the occasion of International Yoga, celebrated globally today. A large number of yoga enthusiasts thronged the cult.fit and mind.fit centres across cities by participating in the free yoga sessions mentored by cult.fit & mind.fit trainers.

With 180 cult.fit and 35 mind.fit centres present across Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and recently launched in Dubai; cult.fit offered a 50minute session that was curated by their Yoga experts which included a mix of meditation, introduction and basics of Yoga, Suryanamaskaras etc.

At cure.fit, we aim to make group workout fun, daily food healthy & tasty, mental fitness easy with yoga & meditation and medical & lifestyle care hassle –free.