iWorld
Social Media Week releases list of eminent speakers for its 2014 edition
MUMBAI: Approaching its third edition in India and second edition in Mumbai, Social Media Week (SMW) has announced key speakers, who are set to captivate the audience this September, in Mumbai. The line-up of speakers includes social media influencers, bloggers, politicians, authors and international experts, each of whom will share their views on the domain, through presentations panel discussions, debates, workshops, and more. Some of the experts expected at the event, include:
- Rishi Jaitly: Head, Twitter India
- Vikram Menon: President & Country Head, OgilvyOne Worldwide, India
- Anaggh Desai: Co- founder, 1+99 Experience Consulting
- Mohandas Pai: Chairman, Manipal Group
- Raheel Khursheed: Head of News, Politics & Govt @TwitterIndia
- Kunal Jeswani: Chief Digital Officer, Ogilvy & Mather India
- Navdeep Suri: India’s current Ambassador to the Arab Republic of Egypt
- Sean Gardner: Forbes #1 Social Media Influencer, Author, Co-founder of the Huffington Post “Twitter Powerhouses Series”
- Jeff Bullas: A Social Media Marketing Blogger, Strategist & Speaker, voted #14 Of Forbes Top 50 Social Media Power Influencer
- Arvind Gupta: Hibernation Innovation Evangelist & The National Head of BJP’s IT Cell
- Deepali Naair: CMO, Mahindra Holidays & Resorts India Limited
- Prem Panicker: Managing Editor, Yahoo
- Vasantha Kumar: Director Marketing & Communication India & South Asia, IBM
- Viral Oza: MD,Nokia India Pvt. Ltd.
- Richard Lui: Asian-American journalist and news anchor for MSNBC and NBC News
- Sanjay Tripathy: Sr.EVP Marketing, Digital & E-commerce – HDFC Life
Based on this year’s theme for SMW, ‘Social media for Social Change’, the renowned speakers will share their insights and knowledge through various sessions, including those on managing diplomacy through social media, social media and politics, building a career in social media, and New age fight club – Social Media, Disruption & Viral.
Rohit Varma, Founder & Managing Partner, R SQUARE Consulting Services Pvt Ltd, said, “I’m very excited to see many organization & brands from different industries coming on board to curate sessions and making it the biggest crowd-sourced festival. Look forward to the five days social media festivity. I’m quite sure that there is lot more awaiting the audience.”
“Social media and digital impact are changing the way brands function today. As an organization, we are strong believers of this platform, and have leveraged it successfully for clients across categories. We are proud to be associated with SMW’s third stint in India, and look forward to engaging with marquee speakers at this platform, which connects people across borders and backgrounds; this year’s theme of the impact of social media on social change, will definitely bring to light, some interesting perspectives on how digital India thinks,” said, Nikhil Dey, President (Public Relations) at Genesis Burson-Marsteller.
The growing momentum of the initiative reflects in the number of sponsors, partners and speakers, who have come forward to support the event. Companies such as Microsoft (City Support Sponsor), Germin8, Unmetric, KPMG and Wrangler are sponsoring SMW 2014.
“As GroupM we are delighted to continue our association with SMW. After a successful opening year in Mumbai and Bangalore in 2013, SMW is lining up an exciting fare this year. As social media channels proliferate and become meeting grounds of brands and consumers, SMW provides a great platform for enhancing knowledge and sharing best practices,” CVL Srinivas, CEO GroupM South Asia
In addition, SMW has partnered with leading media and integrated communication agencies, includingSocial@Ogilvy, chlorophyll, UB, TiE Mumbai, The Express Group, The Indian Networker, Construkt festival, mXm India, PageTraffic, AVID Learning, Yellow Seed Content Solutions, Fratelli wines and Steerttalk, to organise the event in India.
iWorld
Schmooze launches AI matchmaker Riya to personalise dating
300,000 users try feature as retention doubles on Gen Z dating app.
MUMBAI: Love might be blind, but now it’s also algorithmically curated and apparently quite chatty. Schmooze has introduced an AI-powered personal matchmaker named Riya, marking its latest push to move beyond swipe-led dating into deeper, personality-driven matchmaking. Unlike traditional matching systems, Riya interacts directly with users through conversations asking about everything from lifestyle and humour to relationship goals and family values. The idea is simple but ambitious: understand users beyond surface-level preferences and recommend matches that actually fit.
The feature builds on a pattern Schmooze had already observed. Its earlier AI tool, People Finder, allowed users to describe their ideal partner in detail and users did exactly that. Requests ranged from “an extrovert who works in tech and likes to cook” to hyper-specific traits, signalling a clear shift towards intent-driven dating.
That insight exposed a gap. While dating apps typically rely on probability-based algorithms, many users already know what they want they just lack a system that can interpret it meaningfully.
Riya attempts to fill that gap using a conversational approach. Instead of rigid inputs, it gathers signals organically sometimes through casual questions about weekend plans or social habits while mapping deeper compatibility markers in the background.
To support this, Schmooze has built its own end-to-end voice AI stack and large language model, rather than relying on third-party systems. The move is aimed at keeping costs in check while handling scale, and ensuring tighter control over user data and privacy.
The early numbers suggest traction. More than 300,000 users have already interacted with Riya, with those users showing 2× higher retention compared to others on the platform. While the system is designed for short interactions, some users are spending up to 40–50 minutes in conversation occasionally even asking for date ideas, prompting the company to add personalised recommendations.
The launch is the latest step in Schmooze’s broader attempt to rethink dating for Gen Z. Founded by Vidya Madhavan and Abhinav Anurag, the platform initially stood out by using memes as a proxy for personality tracking over 3.5 billion meme swipes across its base of more than 5 million users.
In a market dominated by global players like Tinder, Bumble and Hinge, Schmooze’s approach signals a shift from visual-first discovery to interaction-led compatibility. And with AI now stepping in as a digital wingman, the dating game may be moving from swipe right to speak right.
