The First APPNA
leadership Conference was held on April 3rd,2010 at Hilton New York. It was
a great success. There were more than one hundred attendees. 78 ambitious
youth registered and many unregistered youth and adults joined later.
Mr Khawaja Munir started the Conference at 10.30 am, followed by a
welcome by Dr Sarwat Azma Iqbal. She mentioned about her dream to see our youth at top of all careers and institutions in US. Dr. Zeelaf Munir the APPNA
President inspired the youth and encouraged them to choose a career of their
passion.
The Keynote Speaker was State Delegate Mr Saqib Ali
(Maryland), a practicing software engineer. He talked about how he got to
his current position, highlighting that he used the advantage of having a
desi-dinner-networking platform for his campaign. Miss Naveen Malik, an
Obama campaigner and administration appointee, moderated the Q&A
session.
Panel 1
Ulya Khan from Thompson Reuters. Senior President
Dr Hina Chaudhry, a cardiologist, scientist, entrepreneur and guest
commentator on CNN
Kika Loomis, corporate sustainability adviser,
Non profit founder
Zainab Wasti Johnson & Johnson associate product
director
Asad Husai Morgan, Stanley investment banker.
Shahid Khan chair of OPEN New York and senior partner at IBB consulting
group (leading media industry Expert) spoke about mastering networking.
The session was moderated by Sophia Umar and the Panelists gave
advise on how to excel within large corporations and companies. They also
talked about their experiences and guided the youth about how they can
incorporate social values (such as corporate social responsibility and
environmental sustainability) into core business values of a large
corporation. Needless to say, the Q&A session was very interesting.
Panel 2
Gaining success in
a down economy. Speakers included:
Saleem Ahmed, portfolio manager and
managing director at a global hedge fund in NYC.
Sadiq Malik,
Investment management who served on the government Auto task force
Nabeel Kaukab, vice president of health care Investment banking.
Thomas Wiesel, Partners.
Panel 3
The
building of a clothing line was moderated by Awais Shaikh. The panelists
were:
Nyla Hashmi and Fatima Monkush, fashion designers and
founders of Eva Khurshid. They talked about their passion and
perseverance leaded to success in most competitive business.
Panel 4
Building career in journalism government and international development
and was moderated by Miral Sattar
Bilal Qureshi NPR
Rikha Rani, Clinton foundation
Nushin Alloo, foreign service
Sofia Umar, YOUR DIL. Board member
Musa Saeed, award winning independent filmmaker
They discussed about the best ways to break
into highly competitive positions in journalism and the government.
their personal stories of success were very inspiring and a great help
to youth very inspiring.
Panel 5
Salman Azam, founder and
partner of the Lakshmi Law Group
Wajjid Sidiqqui, partner of Hogan
& Horizon
They told their own stories of climbing the ladder of success. It was moderated by Afnan Tariq and an active discussion on the benefits
of joining large firms. They also discussed how to survive in the
competitive environments and avail the opportunities that exist within
them.
At the conclusion of panel discussion Dr Naheed Chaudhry
extended her thanks to all of the panelist and youth attendees, and
encouraged them to continue the network. Special thanks to
Miss Rahilla Zafar one of our dedicated youth who has worked very hard to
coordinate and moderate the speakers and panelists. Miss Rahilla Zafar
excellent job! Thanks to our honorable speakers for their time,
willingness, passion, and the great messages that they delivered.
Thanks to Dr Zeelaf Munir for her initiative and hard work . Thanks
to Khawaja Munir for his dedication and hard work. And loads of thanks for
our attendees, youth, and volunteers who made this conference a memorable event.
After the panel discussion there was open forum
was held for youth, their feedback was as follows
1. They enjoyed it so much they all stayed till the end
of the day
2. All of them wanted this network to continue.
3.
Almost all of them wanted a meeting in summer
4. They would like to have
small group discussion with experts with more interaction rather than
listening to speakers
5. Suggestion were to make sub-grouping for each
career.
6. Sub grouping is only possible if we have more people in each
subgroup.
6. Most of them wanted extra meetings of this kind at
different times than APPNA meetings and also at different places or at
educational institutions.
7. A website and Google or yahoo group will be
beneficial to contact advisers, mentors, peers and youth as ongoing
process and continuity of help and discussions.
8. Youth will like
to have contact information for speakers, panelists. and volunteers.
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