Grey Gambit at prestigious awards
By Resmi Jaimon

Grey Gambit is India's first online social network for technology leaders and has more than 1600 members as of May, 2012. Approx 70% of these members belong to the CIO and president levels. Pioneered by Tulip Telecom in 2009, Grey Gambit has been selected as one of the finalists of the prestigious Asia Communications Awards 2012.  Techgoss speaks to its co-founder Gaurava Yadav.

Apart from being a Co-Founder of Grey Gambit, Gaurava Yadav is also the Lead- Digital / Social Media Marketing at Tulip Telecom Ltd

Techgoss (TG): Grey Gambit is a very good idea.  How did you'll think up this idea and start in India?
Gaurava Yadav (GY):  Idea of starting Grey Gambit dates back to January, 2009. Given the world of New/Social media was circling around all of us at that time and having personally observed the space for quite some time, I could not think of or had come across any one comprehensive example of Community Management at an organizational level carried out by company(s) for its stakeholders’ engagement program through the use of New/Social Media. And, with New/Social Media all this and more looked far easier to achieve, given the scope and span it enabled to achieve. With this as a background we started experimenting with various means of Social media tools/platforms for building a sustainable, scalable Community, which was not an extension of other platforms viz LinkedIn or Facebook, this experimentation of trying to find the most suitable tool/platform for our community gave birth to Grey Gambit.

But, this was only the start of an idea, as Grey Gambit over the period of 3+ years has emerged as one of the single largest online Community for technology practitioners with loads of fun/games/quizzes etc.

TG: Tell us what exactly is Grey Gambit. What role does Tulip play in Grey Gambit?
GY: Grey Gambit is an exclusive social network for technology practitioners. Currently, home to over 1600+ members, the networks has carved out a niche for itself as it stands out for being a platform with real social touch. We, at Grey Gambit believe that before being technocrats every member to the network is a ‘human being’ who enjoys games/quizzes/fun activities as much as any one of us. And, work and fun can go hand to hand beautifully. As, the members on network have transcended seamlessly between answering a tough technology query to a not so easy Sports quiz answer.

Grey Gambit was developed as an in-house community management program for Tulip Telecom Ltd.

TG: When did you start Grey Gambit? How has it grown over the years?
GY: Grey Gambit was born on 20th August 2009.

Grey Gambit  Timeline:

Year 2009- Grey Gambit makes Debut
August 2009- Grey Gambit Quiz: An exclusive Quiz for Technology leaders is launched
Dec 2009- Leaders Board is launched- Gets participation from India’s top CIO’s
Mar 2010- Network touches 500 CIO member mark
August 2010- Network records highest Avg time on Network ever, clocks 11.01 min per user.
Dec 2010- ‘Learn from Leaders’ exclusive CIO workshops across PAN Indian is launched. Successfully, completes workshops in Delhi and Kolkata
March 2011 – Network breaches 1000 members mark
August 2011- Network partners with 9.9 for Next 100 as an exclusive Quiz Partner
Dec 2011- Network crosses 1400 members mark
Mar 2012- Network crosses over 1500 member mark
May 2012- Grey Gambit nominated as the finalist under the ‘Social Media Initiative’ at Asia Communications Award 2012

TG: How can one be a part of Grey Gambit?
GY: Grey Gambit is a closed user group community positioned at ‘Tech Practitioners’ spread across the globe. So for example…if you are practicing, studying and preaching technology you are eligible to be a part of Grey Gambit.

TG: What hardware and software do you use?
GY: Grey Gambit is built on an Open Source Community management platform named NING. The platform uses no other hardware or software for any other purposes. 

TG: Are you working on your site becoming something like Quora.com in USA where the best minds in America sometimes log in to answer questions raised on Quora?
GY: Grey Gambit isn’t really a site; it’s a social network for a specific group of people, catering specific requirements. Having been a member to quora.com myself, I’ll say we have many things in common but Quora is positioned as a query solver. However, Grey Gambit is more about social engagement activities for a tech practitioner. Who is otherwise involved in a geeky, day to day job. 

TG: Roughly what percentages of your members work for or have worked for Indian IT / BPO / KPO / Telecom?
GY: Around 80% members are from IT companies and remaining 20% split between BPO/KPO and telecom.

TG: What is this Asia communications award all about?  Do you know who were the other contestants Grey Gambit beat to become a finalist?
GY: The Asia Communication Awards recognize the achievements of Asian telecoms companies and the individuals responsible for the innovations, achievements and great new services that are helping to build tomorrows industry. 

The Awards are open to all telecommunication businesses; whether they are providers, traditional carriers, service providers, multimedia content providers, vendors, or another organization providing a communication service.

Other finalists include:
Social Media Initiative
Avea - Konusturan Sayfa Campaign
Smart Communications - SmartCares
U2opia Mobile - Facebook by Fonetwish

The Grand Finale will take place at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore on 19th June 2012.

TG: What plans do you have for Grey Gambit in the coming years?
GY: Grey Gambit aims to become India’s largest community for Technology practitioners.

Immediate Plans:
1. Growing network through inorganic tie-ups
2. Seamless integration of Online to Offline activities
3. Developing Collaboration tools for members