The NextWeb conference is scheduled for the 1st of June in Amsterdam. This is Europe’s premier conference about the internet/web space. Last year’s conference was a thumping success and its participants included some of the rockstars of Silicon Valley’s Web2.0 circuit. Preparations are on for this year’s event, with the promise of making it better and bigger.

I am writing about this event on Webyantra, because the focus of this year’s conference is going to be on web startups from India, China and Europe. I am in touch with the event’s organisers and they are looking for a strong contingent from the Indian consumer internet industry to participate. They want a speaker from India to present a keynote address as well. This is a good opportunity for Indian web companies (specially Web2.0 ones) to showcase their product or service. Sponsorship opportunities are available as well.

And if you never understood what the heck is meant by an ‘elevator pitch’, check out this cool video of real elevator pitches (i.e. inside an elevator), made by web entrepreneurs to the partners from a European VC firm, Atlas Ventures during the 2006 event. Dont miss this video !!!

Needless to say, only the best companies/products are likey to be selected. But this is a great opportunity for Indian startups to make a splash before a world audience. So if you are an Indian web startup, wanting to break into the global Web2.0 stage, give this event a serious thought.

Head here if you want to explore sponsoring the event, or here if you wish to showcase your company.

Tired of listening to news read by television newsreaders speaking in crisp English accents? Sick of checking out the headlines in your RSS readers, because it’s seems so politically correct and hardly believable? You have an option with IndiCast, which is India’s first weekly news capsule delivered as a multi-person conversational podcast. IndiCast prides itself on covering topics from an average person’s point of view, without any sugar coating. The news or latest happenings are delivered in a life-like conversation and it scores over traditional news reporting from the standpoint of credibility

IndiCast is a Mumbai based podcasting site and it is run by two friends, Aditya & Abhishek. Aditya (who incidentally is the brother of Patrix, who writes for DesiPundit) returned from the US after his higher studies and Abhishek is an MBA, who earlier worked at Godrej. They earlier dabbled in a blogging site before realizing that the audio format excited them more than the textual one. And they stress on the fact that they are no experts on news realted media.

IndiCast is actually great fun. It is news/views/opinions but narrated (or spoken) in a manner that is entertaining and binds the listeners. You can instantly identify with it as it is like the conversation that floats around college canteens or hostels; or alike the numerous arguments/debates you’ve had with your friends around coffee tables. And that is what listeners seem to relate to. IndiCast has a fairly loyal fan-following by now and you need to just listen to it once to realize why. The site has delivered app 100000 downloads last year and the number is fast rising. Each episode involves multi-person conversations about 3-4 topics that have recently made the headlines. The podcasts are available on popular podcasting networks like Odeo, Yahoo, Podnova, iTunes etc. The site is currently monetized through Google ads but that’s only for a start. Once they reach a critical mass of downloads, they plan to roll out an audio/video ad based revenue model. I’d be interested to see what that model is and how it actually works out. Future plans include dividing podcasts into different themes – business, finance, technology, lifestyle etc. And they plan to roll out videocasts as well.

In my earlier post on PodTech, I had speculated that its going to be a while before Indian podcasting sites surface. Its good to see IndiCast proving me wrong. I myself do occasional podcasts on PodTech and I feel that there are three specific advantages that mediums like podcasting (or videoblogging) have – they are perceived as being more credible, the content is portable on hand held devices and the fact that it is available on-demand. IndiCast has two other advantages- they are fun/entertaining, apart from being the first mover in this field. Overall they are very well positioned to do some kind of a ‘RocketBoom’ for India.