12
UK
www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 30th March 2013
Asian Voice hosts successful annual Youth
On 23 March 2013, Asian Voice witnessed another successful
year of the annual Youth Conference. The weather was a challenge, as it snowed heavily in the morning, with numerous
train cancellations and emergency engineering works- the city
came to a halt. But over 70 determined Asian youngsters
between age group 15 and 25, braved the odds and made their
way to the Brunei Gallery, SOAS to attend one of the best conferences ever organised. The day started with registration with
Tanveer Mann and Kruti Patel, followed by a brief welcome
by Rupanjana Dutta, Associate Editor, Asian Voice, and a
warm up session hosted by Aekta Mahajan, Vice Chair, City
Hindus Network and Harsha Patel, Founder & Managing
Director, Doing Social.
The first half of the event comprised of a panel discussion followed by a question and answer
session. The panel had distinguished members including
Alok Sharma, MP, Navin
Kundra, singer-song writer,
Shekhar Bhatia, journalist,
Monica Juneja, Senior Manager,
Accenture, Geeta Sidhu Robb,
Founder Nosh Detox, and Andy
Claesens, RAF. They discussed
the importance of giving back to
the community and how that
makes one richer and wiser.
CB Patel, Publisher/Editor
of Asian Voice and Gujarat
Samachar gave a brief speech
about importance of community
services and thanked all the volunteers for making the event so
lively.
A competition was launched
after CB's speech, where the
youngsters were asked to develop an online portal idea which
will help make the British Asian
youth community more cohesive
and integrated. The participants
were asked to imagine themselves as a consultant and pretend that they were hired to provide a strategy to the company,
offering suggestion on – what
would they name the portal,
what would the content be to
Warm up session with the young participants while they networked
make it interactive, interesting
and useful, how would they promote and market it to the target
group and how would they raise
income for the portal. While the
judges looked into the answers,
and choose the winners, the
youngsters were welcomed to a
spread of sandwich, crisps, cake
and fruit lunch while they networked amongst each other.
After lunch they had a team
building workshop/exercise by
RAF, followed by a talk on
'Understanding the power and
pathways to 'Social Output' by
Abhaey Singh, and a workshop
on 'Understanding your communication style' by Sonia Khera,
and workshops on applications,
interviews and CVs by Harsha
Patel, Nishi Shah, Monica
Juneja and Shiv Morjaria.
Before the day concluded,
the four winners of the competition were announced (see box)
and participation certificates
were distributed to all present
along with goody bags, comprising of some very useful items.
Aekta Mahajan introducing the speakers
Working on the feedback form
Winners
First Prize: Krupali Bhagani, 24
She won a 2 day/1 night trip to
Barcelona (flights and hotels only) for
2 people. A special thanks to sponsor
Brightsun Travels.
Second Prize: Saagar
Dave, 16
He won a tea for two at the House of
Lords. A special thanks to Lord Dolar
Popat for sponsoring it.
Third Prize: Kishan H
Patel, 18
He won a 3 course dinner for two at
the
Zaman
Restaurant,
The
Sportsman Casino. A special thanks to
Zaman for sponsoring it.
Fourth Prize: Ekta Bhayani, 18
She won a 3 course dinner for two at
the Arch Restaurant, Holiday Inn,
Wembley. A special thanks to
Holiday Inn, Wembley for sponsoring
it.
Organisation/institution sending the highest number of attendees: Sai School of
Harrow
Asian Voice would like to express a special gratitude to City Hindus Network and City Sikhs
Network for spreading the word and making this
event such a great success.
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
Photo courtesy: Rovin George
Navin Kundra speaking about his experience and humming a tune
Alok Sharma, MP speaking about his experience and community work