The NABC 2009 team has retreated from San Jose Convention center, however the smell of kolai-er daal, the glitter of benarasi sarees and the smiles of Sunil and Samaresh linger on. We hope that NABC 2009 Silicon Valley lived up to your expectations; on behalf of the NABC 2009 organization committee, we would like to say – Thank you very much for your support and help in making NABC 2009 such a superb success!

As you read this, hopefully recovering well from the blastoff with Shaan, back to living your lives and adding new friends on Facebook and LinkedIn, we have been catching our breath to look back.

A troubled economic climate and uncertainty that it brought along were going to be a challenge, we knew that from the get go. What we didn't anticipate was the enormity of the situation and its impact, both in the financial inability of our very willing sponsors or the human aspect on some of our volunteers. Losing a loved mentor a week before the event was devastating. And yet, we knew we had to rally around the idea that was almost on auto-pilot. Be in the infectious interest from the next generation, the generous support of our sponsors and exhibitors, the inspirational leadership of Dr. Kali P. Chaudhuri or a desire deep within us to turn Aloke-da's vision into reality - the show had to go on.

Nothing is perfect, and we personally request for your understanding and forgiveness for any expectations our team was not able to meet. We had set off on this path promising to connect everyone who cared to show up - through shared experiences, feelings and a future that held promise for more. We would like to believe that we were mostly successful in fulfilling this promise, but we leave it up to you to decide. We hope our paths cross again in the future; if not, this interaction was well worth it.

Be well and stay in touch.

Surajit Sengupta President NABC 2009