In the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, the Santa Clara Convention Center is prepared for an overflow crowd. People have come from as close as across town to as far away as Bombay, India. Chatting over scrambled eggs and bacon, clinking coffee spoons, the successful men and women talk about business, family, their flights, and what sessions they plan to attend today.

The crowd has something in common: the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), a group of prestigious schools in seven cities throughout India. IIT alumni are regarded by many as among the most elite engineers in the world. Many of them are gathered in Santa Clara for the 2007 IIT Global Alumni Conference, the fifth annual three-day event that boasts speakers ranging from Nobel Laureates to presidential candidates to Fortune 100 CEOs. The program promises a diverse slate of topics, ranging from women in information technology to nanotechnology to collaboration between leading U.S. universities and IIT.

There’s a lot of buzz at breakfast about the upcoming speakers. First comes General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, who delivers the welcome keynote. Next up are Carnegie Mellon University President Jared L. Cohon and Stanford University President John Hennessey. They discuss how globalization and technology have changed the education and research landscape. After breakout sessions, lunch, and a few coffee and networking breaks, attendees wrap up the day with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s closing remarks.

More than 4,000 IIT alumni, family, and friends attended the conference. —Elizabeth May