The journey · 2013 to 2026
Thirteen years of showing up.
Rise Together builds on a community that met every month at Technopark from June 2013 to June 2025, and on the people, institutions and trust that formed around it.
- Consistency
- Every month, June 2013 to June 2025
- Public archive
- Nearly 200 archived sessions
- Reach
- 200+ sessions, 224 speakers and 20,000+ attendees (organisers’ count)
Milestones
From a coffee session to a collaborative compact.
- 20135 June 2013
FAYA:80 begins
A free monthly technology session starts at Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, on the first Wednesday of every month. It begins under the name Coffee@DBG and becomes FAYA:80, read “FAYA port 80”.
The first archived session was on Apache Solr. The idea was simple: technology professionals in Kerala should never lag behind on what is next, and what was missing was not talent but confidence, connection and permission.
Source: FAYA:80 archive
A FAYA:80 monthly session at the Floor of Madness, FAYA, Technopark. Photo: FAYA:80 archive. - 20175 July 2017
Disrupt Kerala
The 50th edition becomes a day-long gathering at Travancore Hall, Park Centre, Technopark, in association with NASSCOM, with global speakers and workshops. Kochi and Kozhikode chapters of FAYA:80 are launched the same day.
Source: Disrupt Kerala 2017
Video: Disrupt Kerala 2017 Highlights. FAYA on YouTube; plays here when you press play. - 202322 February 2023
Evolve India
The 100th edition, “Preparing for the Unpredictable (AI)”, at Travancore Hall, Park Centre. The conversation turns to how people, institutions and organisations need to evolve. HR Evolve, the first domain-focused chapter, starts here.
Source: Evolve India 2023
Video: Evolve India 2023: Preparing for the Unpredictable (AI). FAYA on YouTube; plays here when you press play. - 20245 June 2024
Transcend India
The 11th anniversary and 116th edition: an AI conclave at Travancore Hall in collaboration with Google for Developers, with Kerala Startup Mission and GTech, on positioning India to ride the AI wave.
Source: Transcend India 2024
Video: Transcend India 2024: Gearing up for the Inevitable. FAYA on YouTube; plays here when you press play. - 202528 June 2025
Beyond FAYA:80
The final edition at Park Centre closes twelve years of sessions held every single month since June 2013. Rather than ending, the community deliberately decentralises into domain chapters, and The Purple Movement is set in motion on the same stage.
Beyond Borders. Beyond Syllabus. Beyond Gatekeepers. The finale framed the move from one room in Technopark to many rooms across cities and campuses.
Source: Beyond FAYA:80 · Kerala Technology, July 2025
Video: Beyond FAYA:80: Connecting the Dots, the final edition. FAYA on YouTube; plays here when you press play. - 202618 November 2026
Rise Together
Thirteen years of relationships, knowledge and capabilities turn into something new: collaborative pilots. Government, industry, academia, startups, communities and young people meet at Park Centre, Technopark, not as speakers and audience but as potential collaborators.
What carried over
The habits Rise Together inherits.
The sessions ended by choice in 2025 so that one room could become many. What did not end is the way of working, and it shapes how 18 November is designed: working conversations rather than ceremonial speeches, students at the table rather than in the audience, and named owners for what comes next.
Rhythm over spectacle
Every first Wednesday, for twelve years, including through the lockdowns. Kerala never lacked bold launches; it lacked continuity.
Belonging over broadcasting
The best parts happened around the sessions: the conversations that spilled into the evening and the collaborations that came out of them.
Cross-pollination
Engineers heard marketing heads; founders heard product leads; students heard CTOs. Unlikely rooms produced unlikely collaborations.
The protected naive question
A student’s first question got the same room as a veteran’s war story. Peer-learning communities grew in exactly that soil.
Real-world anchoring
Talks were given by people living the technology, from cloud to blockchain to AI, not summarising it.
Related initiatives
The same culture, in new forms.
Peer learning, domain communities and open education programmes grew out of the same years. Some of them may carry Rise Together pilots forward.
Convener of Rise Together 2026
The Purple Movement
A community of purposeful people: Beyond Borders, Beyond Gatekeepers, Beyond Syllabus. Red for the energy of youth, blue for the wisdom of practitioners; together, purple.
The foundation, 2013 to 2025
FAYA:80
Kerala’s longest-running technology meetup, hosted by FAYA at Technopark every month from June 2013 to its final edition in June 2025. Sessions, speakers and recordings are archived on the site.
Connected initiative
Capability Commons · Beyond Syllabus
Bridge The Gap 4.0, an initiative of The Purple Movement: a six-month stakeholder journey on the future of education, with a public archive of conversations and prototypes.
Peer-learning community
μLearn
A peer-led learning community built on proof of work, where verified contributions earn recognition and every cohort mentors the next. A working example of how opportunity can reach young people.
In the public record
Selected coverage
- Kerala Technology1 July 2025Independent column
- TechCircle9 January 2026Interview
- ET Telecom (PTI)16 April 2024Wire report